Domestic Violence: Lagos assures residents of speedy delivery on cases

The Lagos State government has reassured citizens of the speedy delivery and management of cases involving Gender-Based Violence in the State.

The government through the State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency, DSVA gave the assurance at the launch of the Case Conference Meeting and onboarding of relevant responder agencies of the Lagos Stare Domestic and Sexual Violence Case Management System, DSVCMS.

Speaking at the launch of the case conferencing training, the Executive Secretary of Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency, DSVA, Ms.Titilola Vivour-Adeniyi explained that the need becomes imperative to upscale the way cases of Sexual and Gender Based Violence is being handled and managed manually.

Vivour-Adeniyi said the meeting was organised to introduce technology to fast track attention to cases and make swift necessary referrals to responder agencies, thereby optimize the operational efficiency of the whole process.

She maintained that the era of reporting cases through social media is gradually fading out as the state is embracing a structured approach in digitising case management in order to protect and ensure that the confidentiality of the process is not compromised.

“From the filling of complaint forms, to printing referral letters to other referral/responder agencies, to dispatching letters, following up of cases and other related manual processes. This therefore slows down the process of providing services, especially as Sexual and Gender Based Violence responders are duty bound to respond to incidents timeously.

“The 2020 COVID Pandemic with all the challenges that it brought, also presented an opportunity for service providers and the State to look inwardly, identify the lacunas in the system and re-strategize on ways to enhance our service delivery.

“In view of the need to standardise our response mechanisms in Lagos State, the Joint EU-UN Spotlight initiative provided support to the Lagos State Government, through the development of the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Unified Response Protocol and Referral Pathway Document which was ratified in 2021.

“Part of the support was towards the development of a Case Management Mobile Application, which is both mobile (Android and IOS) and web portal and whilst we have since implemented the URPRP, the mobile application (DSVMCS) has been in the testing phase for the past one year.” She said

Vivour-Adeniyi believes the innovation would enhance the ability to follow up on cases and ensure all relevant responder agencies, including the police, health care workers, social services and partner Non-Governmental Organisations are able to discharge their roles optimally.

Effective delivery 

One of the resource persons at the conference, Dr. Abimbola Folami explained further on the components of the conference and how it is designed to achieve effective delivery of cases on Domestic and Sexual Violence in Lagos.

Folami, an Assistant Reproductive officers Lagos State Primary Health Care Board added that the whole idea is to reduce the cumbersome operational paperwork and ensure quick response to cases by the critical stakeholders.

According to her “It is a new electronic tools for capturing data for cases involving Sexual and Domestic Violence in Lagos State. The essence is to lessen the burden of paper work and also to ensure a faster response.

“The good thing about the system is that as soon as there is a case that is being reported because it encompasses everybody in the domestic and sexual violence team, we called it a unified response platform, there we have, Doctors, Police, Social workers, officers from Ministry of youth and social development among others.

“So whenever there is a case, either the police get to see the cases or the doctor sees it first, they log it on the system and once you do the log in, everybody sees it, so automatically,  you have activated a response and as you’re seeing your patients you’re putting all the details there from that input, the next person that will manage that patient would have been privy of the information about the patient and will know what is likely to happen next to the patient.

“It prompts you to prepare yourself because the activities will allow you to know the patient history and data and prepare yourself towards necessary assistance to be rendered to the patient, basically the application fosters a unified and holistic care for a patient involving in the Domestic and Sexual based violence.”

Data is key

In her remark, A Reproductive Health Coordinator Lagos State Ministry of Health, Dr. Victoria Omoera maintained that adequate data is key to identify basic social economic factor and adequate information about a case will make its implementation seamless and faster.

Omoera noted that inculcation of electronic tools would allow for proper documentation and will assist stakeholders and Lagos state to activate a response system that is effective and efficient.

She said “You know data is key, once you say you are doing something and you must get data to back it up. This will ensure that we receive data from every service delivery point. Once you see a survivor, your data gets into that system.”

“For us at this stage we need data to plan, when data comes in then we can assign case waters and at the end of the day we can review the entire data to know the issue and where our clients are coming from and this will assist us when planning for the next cycle. We will be able to identify priority activities and be able to channel funding appropriately and as a state, we can holistically approach this as one unit and a response system that is effective and ensuring that perpetrators will get care and justice at the end of the day.

“Once you have a unified platform where everybody can respond to it means that responses are actually faster and on behalf of all the first respondents. Gone are the days when you now need someone to send you a hard copy to you before you start working. This will ensure that survivors who have already been through a traumatic process can get faster service.”

Some of the participants commended the initiative which they thought would bring about cohesive relationship and comprehensive harmonisation of case management system particularly that involved Domestic and Sexual Violence in Lagos State.

 

 

PIAK