Clinical supervision
Clinical supervision provides an opportunity for staff to: reflect on and review their practice; discuss individual cases in depth; change or modify their practice and identify training and continuing development needs.

Domestic violence (DV)
Domestic violence is all acts of physical, sexual, psychological or economic violence that occur within the family or domestic unit or between former or current spouses or partners, whether or not the perpetrator shares or has shared the same residence with the victim. This does not include acts of child abuse (victims under 16 years old).

Expert
A person who works within and is very knowledgeable about or skilful in the field of domestic/intimate partner violence and/or sexual violence.

Evaluation
Set of procedures to measure the quality of structured training initiatives (objectives, contents, methods, results). The purpose of the evaluation is to assess the ability of a training activity to produce changes in knowledge, skills and attitudes. Participants can evaluate training against the course objectives (quality, content, amount or value of training provided) and their confidence in the impact of the training towards their professional development for the future. It is important for the organisations to know the structured feedback from students and when it is possible, to evaluate the transfer of the knowledge to the clinical practice and the potential impact on health services.

Gender-based violence
Gender-based violence against women is violence that is directed against a woman because she is a woman or that affects women disproportionately. See also ‘Violence against women’.

Intimate partner violence (IPV)
Refers to physical, psychological, sexual and economic violence by a partner or ex-partner. We also use the term ‘Domestic violence’ to describe IPV.

Learner
A person who requires or has recently acquired training or skills on supporting victims of domestic or sexual violence. Also see ‘Participant’.

Participant
A person who attends/attended training on domestic or sexual violence e.g. healthcare professionals receiving training – also known as learners or trainees.

Patient
A person receiving, or registered to receive, medical, emotional and psychological treatment, care or attention. Throughout this toolkit the word patient is used to mean a victim, client, survivor or patient.

Physical violence
Encompasses any non-accidental act involving deliberate use of force, such as slapping, beating, thrashing, shoving, causing injuries, fractures or burning that provoke or may provoke bodily lesion, harm or pain.

Psychological violence
Deliberate and longstanding conduct that puts in jeopardy the psychological and emotional integrity and personal dignity of the victim, with the purpose of exerting power and control. It materialises in threats, verbal abuse, humiliation or debasing treatment, demand for obedience, social isolation, blame, deprivation of freedom, economic control, emotional blackmail, rejection or abandonment.

Reflective practice
Reflective practice allows professionals to study their own experiences to improve the way they work and support continued learning in the workplace. Within domestic and sexual violence practice it is beneficial for staff groups to undertake reflective practice together, sharing cases and the approaches taken and challenges that were faced. Discussing these with other workers allows the group to share experiences, learn from each other, balance actual practice with theory and learning and therefore enable ongoing learning based upon real experience.

Role play
Act out or perform the part of a person or character, for example, as a technique in training for further analysis of the situation or scene afterwards, generally by a group led by an instructor. This is particularly helpful for learning in domestic and sexual violence as it allows the participant to test out their approach in a simulated way and receive feedback, without the need to involve real survivors. This is particularly important due to the sensitive nature of the issue.

Sexual abuse
See ‘Sexual violence’.

Sexual violence (SV)
“Sexual violence is any sexual act, attempt to obtain a sexual act, unwanted sexual comments or advances, or acts to traffic, or otherwise directed, against a person’s sexuality using coercion, by any person regardless of their relationship to the victim, in any setting, including – but not limited to – home and work.” (WHO Guidelines, 2013.)

Coercion can cover a whole spectrum of degrees of force. Apart from physical force, it may involve psychological intimidation, blackmail or other threats; for instance, the threat of physical harm, of being dismissed from a job or of not obtaining a job that is being sought. It may also occur when theperson it is aimed at is unable to give consent; for instance, while drunk, drugged, asleep or mentallyincapable of understanding the situation.

Simulation training
Simulation-based education enables knowledge, skills and attitudes to be acquired in a safe, educationally orientated and efficient manner. Procedure-based skills, communication, leadership and team working can be learnt, be measured and have the potential to be used as a mode of certification to become an independent practitioner. Also see ‘Role play’.

Supervision
See ‘Clinical supervision’.

Survivor
A victim of domestic or sexual violence who has been able to leave the emotional, mental and physical control of an abuser and moved forward in being in control of their own life and choices. This is not to distinguish a ‘survivor’ as being better than a ‘victim’. Not at all. It demonstrates the right and ability of victims, for themselves and with the right societal and individual support, to move beyond the impact of being a victim of a perpetrator’s criminal behaviour.

Tool
A recommended approach, set out in a standard template, to be used as part of the training cycle; either in planning, preparing, delivering or monitoring/evaluating stages of training in domestic or sexual violence.

Toolkit
The full set of tools. Also see ‘Tool’.

Trainee
A person (‘learner’) undergoing training in domestic or sexual violence. Generally, within the Toolkit the term ‘participant’ is used to describe people who attend training courses. Also see ‘Participant’.

Trainer
A person who is involved in delivering training to participants. This includes experts working the field of domestic and sexual violence who might not typically be ‘trainers’ in their principle profession. They are included within our definitions as participants identified that experts provided valuable input during training enabling participants to gain greater confidence and understanding.

Training
Set of procedures to teach a person certain knowledge, skills and behaviors through different methods, that should be selected depending on the objectives of the specific training activity. This is usually part of a course, session, workshop or ongoing learning. When the goal is to provide tools to perform a function or role it is also called training.

Victim
An individual who has had domestic or sexual violence perpetrated against them.

Violence against women (VAW)
Defined at 1993 United Nations General Assembly as: “Any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life. It includes many different forms of violence against women and girls, such as intimate partner violence (IPV), non-partner sexual violence, trafficking, and harmful practices such as female genital mutilation.” (United Nations. Declaration on the elimination of violence against women. New York, United Nations, 1993.)

Defined by the Council of Europe as: “A violation of human rights and a form of discrimination against women and shall mean all acts of gender-based violence that result in, or are likely to result in, physical, sexual, psychological or economic harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.” (Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. Article 3a (2011).)