We are delighted to receive support from STIRF and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham Charity (QEHBC) to fund research in the area of sexual violence.

The project aims to increase our understanding of what matters to patients when they attend health care settings after experiencing sexual violence. This is on the background of the reporting of sexual offences in the UK being at the highest level since introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard in 2002, and also an awareness that it can be extremely difficult for patients to present to health care services, disclose what has happened and seek support.

This systematic review will collect data from a wide range of sources and will be reviewed in a robust and thorough manner, to look at patient experience and outcome after attending a range of health care settings. Identifying key themes and practice that are of greatest importance to patients will then be disseminated to a wide and relevant audience so that this can be put into practice.

Rachel Caswell