We Care: Women’s Empowerment: Cervical screening Access, Recovery and Empathy

Background and rationale

Cervical cancer is found anywhere in the cervix area and is one of the most preventable forms of cancer. Despite this, cervical cancer is one of the most common cancers among women and contributes significantly to the global burden of Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALY). Estimates indicate that in the UK one in four girls experience childhood sexual abuse and one in three women experience sexual violence. The limited qualitative research with victims-survivors of sexual violence and abuse (SV&A) makes it difficult to fully understand their experiences of health screening services. This project seeks to address this gap by diversifying research participation and explore the voices of underheard groups with the aim of reducing health and social inequalities and contributing to research, policy and practice. To achieve parity in healthcare provision, women who are unable to access cervical screening should be supported to do so. 

The aim is to explore the uses and limitations of the current cervical screening care provision in Wales, England, Sweden and Australia for women who have experienced SV&A, to inform the enhancement to this service and measure the impact of this enhancement. The focus is on women’s diverse and comparative experiences of cervical screening care across Wales, England Sweden and Australia. The comparative research sites will ensure variations in the experiences of women, provide an intersectional lens and international standing to this project. This project aligns with the aim of preventing ill health, promoting engagement with preventative services, and improving public health and social care.

Study aim and Objectives 

The overall aim is to measure the impact of enhancing cervical screening care provision in Wales, England, Sweden and Australia for women who have experienced SV&A. 

The key objectives are focused on: 

• Co-producing the development of the research with women with living experiences of SV&A (through the Project Advisory Group) and with practitioner stakeholders (through the Project Steering Group).
• Identifying the nature of the issues experienced by women who have experienced SV&A, when accessing cervical screening care provision in Wales, England, Sweden and Australia.
• Completing systematic reviews of the literature to inform the knowledge and evidence for this study to be applied across all study workstreams.
• Exploring the uses and limitations of the current cervical screening care provision.
• Advancing knowledge to support the development of a theoretical and evidence-based practice model focused on enhancing care provision for women.
• Developing an evidence-based practitioner toolkit to inform good practice and standards around enhancing care provision to build a model of compassionate care.
• Completing a Social Return on Investment (SROI) analysis to measure the impact of the new practice model and toolkit. To complete additional economic evaluations of cervical screening.  
  
   

This research will be completed across six sequential workstreams of data collection, as summarised in the flow diagram below: