N. Zoe Hilton

Interpersonal potentially traumatic events (PTEs), including physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, are common among forensic mental health patient populations, yet population‐level research examining their broader sociodemographic, forensic, and behavioural characteristics remains limited. This cross‐sectional study used routinely collected data among 5105 forensic inpatients admitted to a hospital bed in Ontario, Canada. Group differences were examined by interpersonal PTE exposure and gender. Approximately 27% of the sample reported a PTE history. Compared with those without PTE exposure, individuals with PTE were younger, less educated, more often identified as indigenous, and varied across several forensic (e.g., length of stay) and behavioural characteristics (e.g., restraint use). Gender‐stratified analyses revealed that among women, PTE exposure was associated with greater violence, behavioural disturbance, and restraint use, whereas among men it was associated with greater self‐harm severity. These findings support the integration of trauma‐informed and gender‐responsive approaches in forensic mental health assessment and treatment planning.

Involving people with lived experience as research partners is becoming more common in other fields (e.g., healthcare), but it is unclear whether this is also the case in intimate partner violence (IPV) research. This rapid scoping review aimed to characterize the extent to which IPV survivors/victims have been involved as research partners in the existing literature. We systematically searched five databases (MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, and Gender Studies, plus a final search in Google Scholar) for empirical studies published between 2014 and 2024 that involved IPV survivors/victims as more than “study participants” (e.g., involvement in the development of research questions, study design, data collection, data analysis, knowledge translation). A total of 2,596 records were identified, and 27 records met the inclusion criteria. Studies often did not report co-researcher demographic characteristics, making it difficult to fully determine the level of involvement of equity-deserving groups in IPV research teams. The most common participatory models used to guide the involvement of survivors/victims were community-based participatory research and participatory action research. Survivor/victim co-researchers were most commonly involved in research design, developing study materials, data analysis, and knowledge translation/dissemination. There was limited evidence of IPV survivors/victims being engaged as full and equal partners, rather than as collaborators or consultants. The review identified barriers, facilitators, diversity issues, and recommendations for IPV co-research, which can inform the development of guidelines for involving survivors/victims as full and equal members of the research team.

In this brief article, which pays tribute to Langhinrichsen-Rohling’s “Top 10 Greatest Hits” review of the intimate partner violence (IPV) literature, the authors comment on progress in 10 key areas and identify directions for future research and practice. These areas include (a) the role of substance use in IPV and the development of integrated IPV-substance use treatment; (b) animal abuse and its implications for shelter policy for women leaving abusive relationships; (c) the finding that coercive control is prevalent and the urgency to define, assess, and understand the impact of nonphysical forms of abuse; (d) the impact of IPV on children and evolving contexts and emerging trends; (e) measurement of psychopathy and its importance to understanding IPV risk; (f) IPV typologies and how they can inform different treatment responses; (g) the mental health effects of experiencing IPV and the need for mental health practitioners’ readiness to respond to IPV; (h) IPV in 2SLGBTQQIA+ relationships and its challenges for policing; (i) the finding that justice-involved individuals often do not specialize in IPV and the related prospects for IPV-specific and general violence theory development; (j) measures of IPV recidivism risk and directions for risk communication and violence prevention. The authors describe the contributions of Canadian researchers and international contributions to the IPV literature. They describe the Risk, Need, Responsivity model based on psychological theory that has influenced emerging IPV research, and the co-created RESPECT Framework that guides ethical, equitable, and intersectional collaboration with IPV survivors in future research.

Although intimate partner violence (IPV) is a pervasive public health and human rights issue, service systems often remain fragmented and inadequately responsive to the intersecting social and structural conditions that shape experiences of violence and access to care. This qualitative study explored the service needs of individuals who had experienced IPV, engaged in IPV, or both, with particular attention to how intersecting identities, cultural contexts, and systemic factors influenced help-seeking, beliefs about IPV, and access to support. Guided by intersectionality theory, twenty-four adults participated in semi-structured interviews between November 2024 and July 2025. Data were analyzed using practical thematic analysis, with interpretation supported by reflexive team discussions and lived-experience input from a Community Advisory Team and a Patient/Client & Family Council representative. Two overarching themes and seven subthemes were identified: (a) available and desired services, encompassing community supports, mental health care, housing, and legal systems; and (b) culture, identity, and lived experience in service access, focusing on cultural belonging, intersecting identities, and lived experience as a resource for navigating services. Participants described IPV-related services as siloed, under-resourced, and frequently retraumatizing. Access depended on service availability, as well as affordability, acceptability, cultural safety, continuity, and responsiveness to diverse lived realities. Community-based, culturally grounded, and trauma-informed supports were highly valued, while safe housing, sustained mental health care, and more nuanced legal and rehabilitative responses were identified as critical unmet needs. Participants with dual experiences or histories of engaging in IPV emphasized the importance of compassionate, accountability-oriented supports rather than exclusively punitive approaches. The findings shed light on the need for integrated, intersectional, and trauma- and violence-informed IPV service systems that embed lived experience and culturally safe, community-led approaches to improve equity, access, healing, and prevention.

Mental health care providers face heightened risk for burnout, posttraumatic stress disorder, and other mental health problems due to workplace violence exposure and chronic stressors, exacerbated by postpandemic workforce challenges. Little evidence exists to guide interventions to reduce workplace trauma and burnout in psychiatric hospitals or to establish a baseline for evaluating implementation efforts. We consulted with 28 cross-sector stakeholders to share research and generate actions, then elicited further suggestions and feedback from 120 participants, producing 12 detailed recommended strategies to address workplace violence, burnout, and trauma. We then conducted a preimplementation survey of hospital leaders (N = 22) and union representatives (N = 18) at Canadian hospitals with inpatient mental health beds. Participants ranked their top priorities (i.e., most important, valuable, and urgent) and rated the perceived barriers and facilitators to implementing the recommended strategies at their hospital. Recommendations rated the highest priority concerned proactive strategies: preventing workplace critical events, creating psychologically healthy workplaces, and strengthening staff's ability to prevent and safely respond to critical events. However, hospitals were most likely to have engaged responses at the postexposure phase, including operational debriefing and trauma prevention for exposed staff. Capacity-building recommendations were the least likely to be undertaken. Current practices were related to ratings of familiarity and feasibility rather than agreement with the recommendation. Hospital and union representatives had similar priorities. These findings highlight the need for collaboration among hospital leadership, employee associations, government agencies, and other stakeholders to prevent workplace burnout and trauma. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Intimate partner violence (IPV) places high demands on police and is the most frequent type of violent offending reported to the police in Canada. Police responses are often guided by actuarial risk tools, such as the Ontario Domestic Assault Risk Assessment (ODARA), which provide estimates of recidivism rates associated with specific scores. The interpretation of these case-specific recidivism rates should be guided by the base rate of IPV perpetration in the general population. Accordingly, this study examined officially reported IPV base rates in three Canadian provinces from 2016 to 2018, the settings used for updating the ODARA norms. The overall incidence of perpetration of IPV was 200 per 100,000 (1 out of 500 per year), with substantially higher rates for men against women (304 per 100,000) than for women against men (75 per 100,000). Perpetration against same-gender victims was rare (11 per 100,000 for men to men; 6 per 100,000 for women to women), although these estimates did not control for the proportion of the population who were in same-sex relationships. Regional differences were observed, with lower overall rates in Atlantic Canada than in Alberta and Ontario and relatively high rates of women as perpetrators in Ontario. All population rates were lower than the lowest rates estimated by the 2021 ODARA norms. We recommend that local IPV rates be used to evaluate the effectiveness of public protection policies.

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Introduction: Incarcerated populations are ageing, yet their specific needs remain unclear, hindering adequate care planning. We provide a comprehensive overview of health burden among incarcerated adults in Switzerland, focusing on age-related differences. Methods: This is a retrospective cross-sectional analysis based on data extracted from medical records from 10 prisons and forensic-psychiatric institutions in Switzerland (N=384), comprising 151 older adults. We performed descriptive statistics for all variables. A multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted to identify diagnostic characteristics that differentiate older from younger incarcerated adults. We assessed whether a breakpoint exists in the association between age and total somatic disease burden using a segmented regression model. Results: Almost all older adults had at least one chronic condition (97%), of which the most common were substance use (20.4%) and mood disorders (14.3%), as well as endocrine and metabolic (25%), cardiovascular (17%) and respiratory (14%) diseases. Age differences emerged for affective (OR 1.58, 95% CI 1.23 to 2.05) and personality disorders (OR 2.06, 95% CI 1.60 to 2.66). We found an estimated breakpoint at age 39, at which the number of chronic somatic diseases began to increase at a rate greater than before. Conclusions: The increase in chronic somatic diseases around age 39 may warrant further examination of the commonly used age cut-off of 50. Given the high prevalence of chronic conditions among older adults, health services should shift from a focus on acute care to long-term chronic disease management, enhance screening for early disease detection and provide preventive care.

Forensic mental health treatment represents a specialized form of care aimed at stabilizing psychiatric illness, reducing hospital readmission risk, and supporting reintegration into the community. Various factors are consistently associated with forensic mental health and treatment planning. One relevant factor is exposure to an interpersonal potentially traumatic event (PTE), which is common among forensic inpatients. We analyzed data from 5,105 forensic hospital admissions in Ontario, Canada, between 2013 and 2023, examining whether exposure to sexual, physical, and/or emotional abuse relates to psychiatric symptom severity (i.e., aggression, positive symptoms, depressed mood, and manic symptoms). After accounting for confounding factors (age, gender, education), any exposure to PTE was associated with increased severity of positive symptoms, depressed mood, and manic symptoms, but not aggressive behavior. Timing of PTE exposure (within 1 year versus more than 1 year ago) did not relate to outcomes. Effects were more pronounced among sufferers of polytrauma, highlighting the cumulative burden of PTE exposure. PTE exposure was related to greater symptom severity in men and women, but it was associated with aggression and higher symptom severity in cases of polytrauma among women only. These findings underscore the importance of trauma-informed care and gender-responsive approaches in forensic mental health services.