Preventing intimate partner violence and child maltreatment in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

Three training workshops on preventing intimate partner violence and child maltreatment were held in March–April, 2015 in Skopje, organized by WHO/Europe, and the WHO Country Office and the Ministry of Health of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. A special module of the Training, Educating and Advancing Collaboration in Health on Violence and Injury Prevention (TEACH-VIP) curriculum, developed by WHO and a network of global injury prevention experts, provided the framework for lectures and working groups on preventing intimate partner violence and child maltreatment. 

Ms Snezana Chichevalieva, Head of the WHO Country Office, opened the workshops. Keynote presentations on intimate partner violence and child maltreatment were given by Dr Fimka Tozija, Institute of Public Health, Medical Faculty in Skopje, and Ms Dimitrinka Jordanova Peshevska, WHO consultant on violence prevention. 

The workshops were attended by about 30 participants, consisting of professionals (including general practitioners and nurses) and other professionals from various sectors (social, educational), highlighting the role of intersectoral collaboration in preventing intimate partner violence and child maltreatment. 

Participants resolved to:

• promote the uptake of TEACH-VIP in health and social professional training;
• use the materials for municipal-level trainings for violence prevention practitioners;
• increase understanding of violence as a health and social outcome of different risk factors;
• promote the new intersectoral protocol on prevention of child maltreatment; and
• discuss challenges and opportunities in developing the new protocol on family violence.