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This paper reports findings of a qualitative study examining the perceptions of 21 Australian women professionals who conduct home visiting with families experiencing intimate partner violence. There is scant evidence documenting how home visiting professionals adapted practice to address the safety concerns of women and their children within the context of the pandemic. Practitioners noted an increase in the risk level and complexity of intimate partner violence (IPV), including the ways that perpetrators weaponized the pandemic to exert power and control over women and children. Practitioners reported on their rapid adaptation of practices, to ensure the continuation of services which included moving to online delivery methods, wearing PPE, and negotiating practice from a distance. While responses to these changes were mixed, most reported their desire to continue to use online platforms post-pandemic, reporting increased safety, flexibility, and accessibility for the majority of clients. This research addresses a gap in respect of professionals' perceptions of the issues facing survivors of IPV and of their professional practice during the COVID-19 pandemic. As policies, practices, and protocols continue to adapt to the challenging environment posed by the pandemic the experiences of professionals and service users are critical to inform these changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There is growing recognition of the importance of involving patients and families with lived experiences of illness in healthcare service quality improvement, research and implementation initiatives. Ensuring input from people with palliative care needs is important, but how to enable this is not well understood. Aim: To seek the perspectives of Australian patients with palliative care needs, and their family members, to elicit their views on how to best contribute to inpatient palliative care quality improvement initiatives. Design: An exploratory qualitative study, using semi-structured interviews. Setting/participants: Eligible participants were adult patients with palliative care needs receiving care within a hospital setting, and their family members. Recruitment occurred through: five hospitals in New South Wales, Australia; and snowballing. Results: Fifty participants took part (21 patients and 29 family members). Results confirmed four themes: (1) Mechanisms for providing feedback about care quality need to be supportive and individualised; (2) The clinician-patient/family power imbalance makes real time feedback challenging to provide; (3) Willingness to contribute varies according to diagnosis, timing and role and (4) Face to face feedback is preferred for health service improvement work. Conclusions: Enabling meaningful consumer input to quality improvement requires careful consideration due to the unique requirements of the palliative care population. Embedding tailored outcome and experience measures to inform real-time care provision coupled with focussed opportunities for input into service improvement may best foster improvements in inpatient palliative care, founded in what matters most for people requiring this care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]