Lunchtime seminar: Susanna Dowrick ‘The emotional labour of addressing domestic abuse in primary care’
Wednesday 1st March, 2017
1pm, Room 2.18, Arts Two.
On March 1, Susanna Dowrick (Queen Mary, University of London) will give a paper titled‘”Making yourself emotionally available is a different type of work”: The emotional labour of addressing domestic abuse in primary care’
Abstract:
Health professionals are increasingly called upon as important actors in improving the response to domestic abuse (García-Moreno et al., 2014, Home Office, 2016). While there is an impetus change practice, relatively little attention has been paid to what providing better care to patients experiencing abuse entails for health professionals.
Using data from 12 interviews with GPs and observations of training sessions, this paper draws on theories of practice to explore what it is that GPs do when they undertake the work of the Identification and Referral to Improve Safety (IRIS) programme (Feder et al., 2011), looking closely at what is involved in identifying, referring and providing ongoing care to patients who have been affected by abuse. I apply Hochschild’s (1983) concept of emotional labour to investigate the emotion-work that GPs do to elicit and respond to disclosures.
This research extends the existing study of emotional labour into the sphere of primary care, and presents theories of practice as an alternative lens to understand the implementation of complex interventions. Taking emotional labour to be a key part of enacting new practices offers additional considerations for those seeking to make addressing domestic abuse a sustainable part of everyday practice for health professionals.
All talks are free, booking not needed. Lunch will be provided. Read about other events we are holding this term.
The talk will take place in room 2.18, Arts Two Building, Mile End Campus, London E1 4NS. For directions to Mile End and a campus map, see bit.ly/QMcampusmap.