Improving specialist services for women who have experienced Female Genital Mutilation. A sequential mixed methods study to inform service transformation
What we are doing?
The aims of this study are to:
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Explore current models of FGM specialist care.
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Identify information, support and treatment needs for women attending FGM specialist clinics.
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Make recommendations for theoretically informed co-designed models of FGM specialist care.
The primary objective is to:
- Map existing specialist FGM care provision in the UK (by surveying Specialist Service Leads and interviewing a purposive sample of Service Leads to explore service configuration in detail).
- Explore women’s views and experiences of FGM specialist services after they have attended an FGM specialist appointment.
- Make recommendations and build an evidence base for specialist FGM service provision.
Why we are doing it?
There is little evidence to underpin optimal FGM specialist care, such as service configuration, content of consultations, how women’s needs are assessed, use of evidence-based information resources, and what women want from services. Women attending FGM clinics increasingly seek information about sexual function, bodily integrity, and reconstruction surgery but these topics rarely feature in UK-specific research. Evidence around existing services lack any theoretical basis and have been constructed pragmatically in response to perceived needs, with little empirical work to ensure that service design is informed by the views of women and is effective in meeting women’s complex needs.
What the benefits will be and to whom?
This study will identify information, support and treatment needs for women attending FGM specialist clinics and will provide the evidence to make recommendations for theoretically informed co-designed models of FGM specialist care.
Who we are working with?
- Survey sent to all FGM Specialist Service Leads in UK (22 clinics sites)
- Follow-up interviews with 5-10 purposively sampled FGM Specialist Service Leads
- Interviews with 15-30 purposively sampled female patients who have attended an FGM Specialist Service
Contact
Juliet Albert, PhD student at University of Nottingham, FGM Specialist Midwife at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, NIHR DCAF (Doctoral Clinical Academic Fellowship), juliet.albert@nottingham.ac.uk.