Online Education for Domestic Violence

Overseen By Elisa Romano, PhD, Clinical Psychology

Age: 18+

Sex: Any

Trial Phase: Academic

Sponsor: University of Ottawa

Disqualifiers: Other training on violence

No Placebo Group All trial participants will receive the active study treatment (no placebo)

Approved in 1 Jurisdiction This treatment is already approved in other countries

Compensation: Varies

Number of Visits: Unknown

90 Participants Needed

What You Need to Know Before You Apply

What is the purpose of this trial?

This trial tests an online training program designed to help future clinical psychologists better understand and respond to family violence. The goal is to determine if the training improves participants' knowledge and confidence in handling cases of family violence, such as child abuse or partner violence. Participants will be divided into two groups: one will take the training immediately, while the other will wait. The trial seeks students in Canadian clinical psychology programs who work with patients as part of their studies and have internet access. As an unphased trial, this study offers a unique opportunity to enhance skills and confidence in managing sensitive family violence cases.

Do I need to stop my current medications to join the trial?

The trial protocol does not specify whether you need to stop taking your current medications. It seems unlikely, as the trial focuses on online education for domestic violence and not on medical treatments.

What prior data suggests that the VEGA Family Violence Education Resources are safe for use in training clinical psychology doctoral students?

Research shows that the VEGA Family Violence Education Resources educate health and social service workers about family violence in Canada. This includes understanding different types of violence, reporting procedures, and supporting survivors. The VEGA project relies on solid research, making it a reliable educational tool.

Since this trial focuses on online education rather than a drug or medical treatment, it presents no typical safety concerns or side effects. The main goal is to enhance skills in recognizing and responding to family violence. Participants have found the training informative and helpful in boosting their knowledge and confidence in handling these situations. ^{1 2 3 4 5}

Why are researchers excited about this trial?

Researchers are excited about the VEGA Family Violence Education Resources because it offers a unique, comprehensive online training approach for addressing domestic violence. Unlike traditional methods, which often rely on in-person training or workshops, this resource provides flexible, interactive modules that cover critical topics such as creating safety for survivors and recognizing child maltreatment. Additionally, it incorporates voices of those with lived experiences, offering a more personalized understanding of family violence. This innovative delivery method aims to enhance learning and accessibility for students and professionals, potentially leading to more effective support for survivors.

What evidence suggests that the VEGA Family Violence Education Resources are effective for improving clinical responses to family violence?

Research shows that the VEGA Family Violence Education Resources help psychology professionals better handle family violence situations. Studies have found that these resources boost knowledge and confidence in dealing with such cases. In this trial, participants in the VEGA Family Violence Education Resources arm will access online modules covering important topics like ensuring safety for survivors and effectively responding to violence against children and partners. Participants in earlier trials reported gaining a better understanding and improved skills for addressing family violence, including spotting warning signs and offering support. Early results suggest that these resources can greatly help psychology students prepare for real-life situations involving family violence. ^{1 2 5 6 7}

Who Is on the Research Team?

Elisa Romano, PhD, Clinical Psychology

Principal Investigator

University of Ottawa

Are You a Good Fit for This Trial?

This trial is for English-speaking clinical psychology doctoral students in Canada who are currently engaged in clinical work as part of their program. They must have internet access to participate, as the intervention involves an online educational resource.

Inclusion Criteria

I am a Clinical Psychology graduate student in Canada.

I am currently involved in clinical work as part of my program.

I can speak and read English.

Timeline for a Trial Participant

Screening

Participants are screened for eligibility to participate in the trial

2-4 weeks

Training

Participants complete the VEGA Family Violence Education Resources online training modules

4 weeks

Online modules

Post-training Assessment

Participants' knowledge, attitudes, and clinical behaviors are assessed post-training

1 month

Follow-up

Participants are monitored for changes in clinical behaviors and attitudes towards family violence

1 month

What Are the Treatments Tested in This Trial?

Interventions

• VEGA Family Violence Education Resources

Trial Overview

The study tests the VEGA Family Violence Education Resources' effectiveness on improving knowledge, self-efficacy, and responses to family violence among psychology trainees. Participants will be compared with a wait-list control group to measure changes in attitudes and skills relevant to dealing with survivors.

How Is the Trial Designed?

Group I: VEGA Family Violence Education Resources Experimental Treatment 1 Intervention

Students in this arm will receive access to the online VEGA Family Violence Education Resources and will be asked to complete modules covering information about family violence in Canada, creating safety for survivors in clinical settings, recognizing and responding to child maltreatment and intimate partner violence, three interactive learning scenarios, and voices of those with lived experiences of family violence.

Group II: No Training Active Control 1 Intervention

Students in this arm will not receive access to the training until the end of the pre- and post-training data collection for the Arm 1 group.

VEGA Family Violence Education Resources is already approved in Canada for the following indications:

Approved in Canada as VEGA Family Violence Education Resources for:

• Education for recognizing and responding to family violence, including child maltreatment, intimate partner violence, and children’s exposure to intimate partner violence

Who Is Running the Clinical Trial?

University of Ottawa

Lead Sponsor

Trials

231

Recruited

267,000+

Published Research Related to This Trial

The study developed an automated method to aggregate various sources of drug safety information, achieving high predictive accuracy (≥0.92) in classifying drug-adverse event relationships, which can significantly streamline the process of identifying drugs associated with adverse reactions.

This approach offers a scalable alternative to the traditional manual curation methods, potentially saving time and resources in drug safety research by efficiently creating reference sets of drugs that do or do not cause adverse events.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Accuracy of an automated knowledge base for identifying drug adverse reactions. Voss, EA., Boyce, RD., Ryan, PB., et al.[2019]

The study developed a family education satisfaction survey to assess the quality of patient education across different units and diagnoses, highlighting its importance for quality improvement.

Results from the survey help identify areas of excellence and opportunities for improvement in patient education, ensuring better care and support for families.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Measuring satisfaction with patient education. A hospital-wide program evaluation. Bonheur, BB.[2007]

The safety of marketed drugs is a significant concern, as some commonly prescribed medications can lead to serious or life-threatening side effects in patients.

The ChEMBL resource will provide a curated drug safety data set, including toxicity classifications and black box warnings, which will be freely available and regularly updated to aid in drug safety research and discovery.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Drug Safety Data Curation and Modeling in ChEMBL: Boxed Warnings and Withdrawn Drugs. Hunter, FMI., Bento, AP., Bosc, N., et al.[2023]

Healthcare and social service providers (HSSPs) often lack adequate training to recognize and respond to child maltreatment, which is crucial for preventing such cases.

The VEGA online platform and the RISE project aim to enhance HSSPs' education on this issue, providing essential resources and ongoing evaluation to improve their ability to address child maltreatment effectively, especially during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Child maltreatment online education for healthcare and social service providers: Implications for the COVID-19 context and beyond. Kimber, M., McTavish, JR., Vanstone, M., et al.[2022]

The FAVICUE project aims to assess and improve the education on family violence (FV) in European medical universities, highlighting that many physicians currently lack adequate training to address this critical public health issue.

The study will utilize two online surveys targeting medical students and professionals to gather data on FV training, which will help identify educational gaps and inform future training interventions in line with WHO recommendations.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Family Violence Curricula in Europe (FAVICUE): a cross-sectional descriptive study protocol. Gómez Bravo, R., Lygidakis, C., Feder, G., et al.[2023]

A serious video game curriculum, consisting of 17 modules totaling about five hours of instruction, effectively trains healthcare providers on how to respond to domestic violence, addressing significant knowledge gaps.

Nearly 9,000 participants, primarily nursing students, engaged with the curriculum, indicating its broad reach and potential impact in improving the care of domestic violence victims in clinical settings.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Serious gaming: A tool to educate health care providers about domestic violence. Mason, R., Turner, L.[2020]

A review at the Carl T. Hayden VA Medical Center highlighted the need for better coordination in patient and family education, which is crucial for improving healthcare outcomes.

The development of interdisciplinary processes and documentation forms led to enhanced quality of education and better tracking of educational efforts in patients' medical records.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Interdisciplinary patient and family education. Claflin, N.[2019]

Internet-based education significantly improved patients' knowledge levels more than face-to-face education with a nurse in a study involving 147 ambulatory orthopedic surgery patients.

Both education methods were effective in enhancing knowledge, but there was no difference in the sufficiency of knowledge between the two groups, indicating that online education is a viable alternative in ambulatory care.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Ambulatory orthopaedic surgery patients' knowledge with internet-based education. Heikkinen, K., Leino-Kilpi, H., Salanterä, S.[2017]

The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) reported the highest number of nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF) cases (1395), while the International Centre for Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis Registry (ICNSFR) provided the most complete histopathological data (335 cases).

The legal data set revealed that gadodiamide was the most commonly implicated gadolinium-based contrast agent (GBCA) in NSF cases, with 76.2% of cases linked to it, highlighting the importance of using diverse data sources for comprehensive safety evaluations.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Advancing pharmacovigilance through academic-legal collaboration: the case of gadolinium-based contrast agents and nephrogenic systemic fibrosis-a Research on Adverse Drug Events and Reports (RADAR) report. Edwards, BJ., Laumann, AE., Nardone, B., et al.[2022]

After implementing interventions to improve pharmacovigilance in Sierra Leone, the timeliness of reporting Individual Case Safety Reports (ICSRs) increased significantly from 10% to 47% within 30 days.

The completeness of ICSR data improved from 44% to 80%, while the rate of patients classified as 'recovering' dropped dramatically from 36% to 3%, indicating better monitoring and evaluation of patient outcomes.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Quality of Reporting of Adverse Drug Reactions to Antimicrobials Improved Following Operational Research: A before-and-after Study in Sierra Leone (2017-2023). Conteh, TA., Thomas, F., Abiri, OT., et al.[2023]

The RISE Project aims to enhance education on family violence for health and social service providers through a new intervention called VEGA, which focuses on improving knowledge and skills in recognizing and responding to family violence.

The project will assess the acceptability and feasibility of VEGA, as well as its effectiveness in achieving learning goals, ultimately providing insights into how to implement family violence education in real-world primary care settings.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Researching the Impact of Service provider Education (RISE) Project - a multiphase mixed methods protocol to evaluate implementation acceptability and feasibility. Kimber, M., Vanstone, M., Dimitropoulos, G., et al.[2022]

A 12-month study involving 99 patients showed that preoperative pain management education significantly improved patients' understanding of medication side effects and encouraged the use of nonpharmacologic methods for pain relief, leading to better pain management outcomes.

Patients who received targeted education reported more frequently on the effects of pain on their mood and their use of nonpharmacologic methods, suggesting that tailored preoperative education can enhance postoperative pain management knowledge and potentially prevent negative outcomes.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Preoperative Pain Management Education: An Evidence-Based Practice Project. O'Donnell, KF.[2019]

A multidisciplinary task force developed a patient and family education program tailored for a culturally diverse population, ensuring it meets the standards set by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.

The program emphasizes improving clinician effectiveness as educators, utilizing project management and continuous quality improvement methods for its development, implementation, and evaluation.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Patient/family education program: making the project management process operational. Kassel, DG., Lookinland, S.[2019]

The American Statistical Association's Interactive Safety Graphics Task Force has created a new interactive tool for analyzing drug safety data, specifically focusing on drug-induced liver damage, which enhances the review process.

This innovative tool, based on advancements in visual data processing and programming, serves as a prototype for developing additional interactive safety analysis tools, aiming to improve the evaluation of large safety datasets.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

A New Paradigm for Safety Data Signal Detection and Evaluation Using Open-Source Software Created by an Interdisciplinary Working Group. Buchanan, J., Li, M., Ni, X., et al.[2021]

The Domestic Violence Education Project successfully implemented universal screening for domestic violence among women in care, achieving all its objectives through policy reform, education, and advocacy from 1994 to 1998.

Evaluations showed promising changes in clinical behavior and increased advocacy among participants, indicating that the project could serve as a replicable model for improving healthcare provider attitudes towards domestic violence.

NCBI (Pubmed)

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

The American College of Nurse-Midwives' Domestic Violence Education Project: evaluation and results. Paluzzi, P., Gaffikin, L., Nanda, J.[2019]

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The VEGA Project

The VEGA (Violence, Evidence, Guidance, Action) Project, McMaster University, was the first project funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada (2015-2020) ...