Queen's University Belfast

Academic Institute

Donncha Hanna

E075

There has been increasing concern about increased levels of domestic abuse during the COVID pandemic lock downs. Worryingly, the Guardian newspaper reported that domestic abuse killings 'more than doubled' amid Covid-19 lock down. However, research from different countries does not seem to reach a consensus on the levels of increase or even if there was an increase at all. This project seeks to compare self-reported domestic abuse levels during COVID, specifically during lockdown, with the levels of domestic abuse reported before the pandemic. There has also been concerns at how the COVID-19 pandemic, and the associated lock downs, has impacted mental health and perinatal mental health in particular. Studies have suggested increases in the prevalence of depression in Belgium and China in pregnant women but there are no comparable figures for a Northern Ireland context. This project aims to compare the rates of self-reported intimate partner violence, mental disorder, or drug and alcohol use during pregnancy in Northern Ireland women during the COVID pandemic (but non-lock down), those periods of strict ‘lock down’ and previous time periods before the COVID pandemic. This will allow us to see the effect of the pandemic and associated restrictions on the domestic abuse and mental health of pregnant women throughout Northern Ireland. This will also allow to us to investigate a secondary aim of comparing self-report figures from this data set to other publically available figures (for examples, Police Service of NI publish monthly figures).

There will be no direct benefits to the public however the figures on perinatal mental health and domestic abuse maybe of interest to a range of public and charitable organisations. The research team will wish to disseminate the findings through scientific conferences, peer-reviewed journal articles or University press-releases as appropriate. This will the only time these figures will be available for a Northern Ireland population. This project has been discussed and designed in conjunction with a clinical psychologist and psychiatrist from the NHSCT. It is also being funded by the NHSCT.

31/03/2022

TRE