Table 1 Two themes and eight subthemes identified through iterative thematic analysis with exemplar quotes
Theme 1: Awareness as to how COVID-19 created new implications for service delivery in Domestic and Family Violence | Theme 2: Responsivity to, and addressing of, the impact on practitioners’ wellbeing when delivering services during a pandemic | ||
|---|---|---|---|
Increased workload: frontline workers on two pandemics | “I mean, we’re focusing on this pandemic, but the real pandemic’s been there forever, and it's not getting better” P16, manager, health care | The urgency was unrelenting and exhausting | “This work is relentless and overwhelming; and it’s true. Nothing has changed; it’s going to get worse.” P27, manager, health care |
Maintaining high quality care | “That’s why we do what we do. It’s a human connection... and you’ve got to have that connection and you find a way” P30, counsellor, health care | Connection and disconnection | “We all agree that we miss the opportunity to debrief after a particularly heavy session.” P29, case worker, health care |
Rising costs in the face of funding insecurity | “Once that funding is no longer available, we will go back to staff sitting on extremely high caseloads which means extremely high risk” P9, manager, DFV advocacy and crisis service | Blurring of personal and professional boundaries | “Talking about domestic violence to a client over a phone in your own home, it’s very different to having it in a workspace.” P38, manager, court support |
Sense of achievement | “I don’t know what we could have done better” P9, manager, DFV advocacy and crisis service | Vicarious trauma and concern for what was to come | “It’s who we’re not seeing that worries me…” P6, manager, counselling |