Insights on Intimate Partner Violence Service Provision, Access, and Utilization During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review

Abstract Background Evidence suggests that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the incidence and severity of intimate partner violence increased globally. At the same time, organizations were forced to roll back, adapt, or discontinue programs. Purpose To gain global insights into the impacts of the pandemic on community-based organizations serving survivors, as well as survivors’ help seeking, access to and utilization of services, a scoping review was conducted answering the following questions: (1) What evidence exists related to community-based organizations service continuity? And (2) What were the experiences of IPV survivors in terms of help-seeking, access to services, and service utilization during the pandemic? Methods The process and presentation of this scoping review are outlined by Arksey and O’Malley (2005) and updated by Levac et al. (2010). Thematic analysis of primary studies was undertaken to aggregate findings. Results A systematic search uncovered 42 articles and reports relevant to the current study. Analysis revealed four overarching themes: (1) Organizational and service adaptations, which included subthemes related to transitions to remote services, challenges with remote service delivery, benefits of remote service delivery, other organizational/service adaptations, and perceived effectiveness of adapted services; (2) Challenges faced by organizations; (3) Barriers to survivors’ help-seeking and access to services; (4) Suggestions for the future. Conclusions Despite few formal outcome evaluations of specific interventions, findings across studies provide some formative insights that may be useful for future service continuity planning. Suggestions for future research are discussed.