iHEAL
The University of Western Ontario is implementing and evaluating the iHEAL program, a trauma-informed health-promotion intervention for women who have experienced intimate partner violence, in collaboration with researchers from 2 Canadian universities.
iHEAL educated registered nurses offer the 6-month program in inclusive and contextually relevant ways within 3 diverse community health settings in British Columbia, Ontario, and New Brunswick. Evaluation of the program focuses on how it can maintain its benefits for women, be sustainable for organizations, and support scale up beyond the initial partner organizations.
BMC Public Health publication about the project: Longitudinal effectiveness of a woman-led, nurse delivered health promotion intervention for women who have experienced intimate partner violence: iHEAL randomized controlled trial
Click here to learn about the iHeal app!
Community of Practice members:
Marilyn Ford-Gilboe
Contact Info: mfordg@uwo.ca
Role on Project: Project Lead
Bio: Dr. Marilyn Ford-Gilboe, RN, PhD, FAAN, FCAHS, FCAN is a Distinguished University Professor and Women’s Health Research Chair in Rural Health, Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing, Western University. For the past 30 years, her research and community work have focused on identifying, preventing, and reducing the harmful (and often long-term) health, social and economic consequences of intimate partner violence (IPV), particularly among women facing inequities or barriers to support. Her recent research has developed and tested trauma-and violence-informed interventions that have been shown to improve the health, safety and well-being of women who have experienced IPV, both technology-based applications and community-based F2F nursing interventions. Current work is examining how to successfully integrate, scale and sustain effective interventions in order to improve services, policies and community responses for women who have experienced violence. Her ongoing research on the measurement of IPV (Composite Abuse Scale Revised – Short Form) has been taken up nationally and internationally, creating opportunities to better assess the complexity of IPV globally.
Annette Browne
Contact Info: Annette.browne@ubc.ca
Role on Project: Project Co-Lead
Bio: Dr. Annette Browne, RN, PhD, FCAHS, FCAN studies health and healthcare inequities, with a particular focus on health inequities affecting Indigenous peoples. She conducts research on strategies to enhance equity-oriented health care for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, including interventions to address systemic racism and discrimination, and support the uptake of cultural safety and trauma- and violence-informed care. Her work is aimed at promoting health equity through improvements in nursing practice, healthcare delivery, and health policy.
Kelly Scott-Storey
Contact Info: kscottst@unb.ca
Role on Project: Project Co-Lead
Bio:Dr. Kelly Scott-Storey, RN, PhD is a health researcher and Professor in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of New Brunswick, Assistant Dean of the 4 Year Undergraduate Nursing Program & UNB-Humber Collaborative, Director of Community Research, Scholarship and Teaching at the Fredericton Downtown Community Health Centre and a Research Fellow with the Muriel McQueen Fergusson Center for Family Violence Research. Her program of research is broadly in the intersection of violence, gender and health and focuses on health interventions, use of technology, measurement of violence/scale development and community action.
Colleen Varcoe
Contact Info: colleen.varcoe@nursing.ubc.ca
Role on Project: Research Team Member/Practice consultant (BC)
Bio: Dr. Colleen Varcoe, RN, PhD, FCAHS, FCAN is a Professor Emeritus in the University of British Columbia School of Nursing. Her work aims to decrease inequity and violence including interpersonal and structural forms of violence such as racism and poverty. Her completed research includes studies of risks and health effects of violence and how to promote health for women who experience violence, especially Indigenous women. She has studied how to promote equity-oriented healthcare (cultural safety, harm reduction, and trauma- and violence-informed care) at the organizational level and worked with various Indigenous communities, organizations and issues, including in health care and criminal justice contexts.
Karen Campbell
Contact Info: Campk232@yorku.ca
Role on Project: Education Lead/Research Team Member
Bio: Dr. Karen Campbell, RN, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing at York University, Toronto, Ontario and formerly a Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing, Western University. Her program of research focuses on public health nursing issues at local and national levels, specifically health equity and social justice interventions for priority populations with attention to issues of gender, disability, and geography. Her recent research has explored the experiences of women living with episodic disabilities, chronic pain, and intimate partner violence, including how they navigate and experience services and supports, including community-based nursing interventions.
Jacqueline Potvin
Contact Info: Jpotvin2@uwo.ca
Role on Project: Research Associate/Project Manager
Bio: Dr. Jacqueline Potvin, PhD is a Research Associate in the Arthur Labatt Family School of Nursing, Western University. Her research background is in the relationship between gender inequality and health policy, with a focus on maternal and reproductive health. Her SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Guelph (Dept of Political Science) evaluated the inclusion of sexual and reproductive health and rights in Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy. She has previously worked in community-based gender-based violence and reproductive justice advocacy including as coordinator for the Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres.
