A Syndemic Approach to Gender-Based Violence and Its Applications to Social Work Research and Practice

Gender-based violence (GBV) is a significant public health problem affecting approximately one in three women worldwide and is associated with a range of adverse outcomes. The intersecting risks of GBV, substance use and misuse, adverse mental health, and HIV/STIs, among others, are intensified among marginalized populations of women, and social and structural challenges often preclude them from being able to seek and access services. This chapter adopts a syndemic framework to explicate the relationships between GBV and multiple intertwined epidemics among marginalized populations of women and contextualizes the application of syndemics in social work research and practice as it relates to GBV. Specifically, this chapter describes (1) the prevalence of GBV and the literature on the association between GBV exposure and health, mental health, and economic risks; (2) GBV and marginalization; (3) the syndemic framework and findings from a range of global studies applying this lens in examining GBV and the intertwined epidemics of substance use, HIV, and trauma/mental health; (4) a case example that applies a syndemic lens to intervention development with female fish traders in southern Africa, a mobile population frequently exposed to GBV and environmental shocks, mental health problems, substance use, and HIV risk behaviors; and (5) the importance of using decolonizing and anti-oppressive practices to guide all aspects within applications of the syndemic approach in intervention development, highlighting the importance of language and emphasis on the voice of the populations with whom we work.