<< Background >>Health care professionals encounter numerous individuals in their practice, and given the high rates of intimate partner violence within the population, it is important that they are aware of how to identify and respond to domestic violence (DV). Poor adherence to treatment can have negative effects on outcomes and healthcare cost. Adherence with treatment is an important factor which can influence the outcome of that treatment (Hayden et al., 2005). Poor adherence to treatment has been identified across many healthcare disciplines including physiotherapy (Vasey, 1990, Friedrich et al., 1998, Campbell et al., 2001). According to various studies, depression, anxiety, feelings of helplessness and poor social support have all been found to be important factors blocking treatment adherence. (Jack et al 2010) Studies have found that all are common with victims of DV. Thus, it is quite safe to assume that being a victim of abuse can hinder progress in physiotherapy programmes. Thus, being able to identify such situations and properly address them would be a highly useful skill for physiotherapists to have in treating patients.Additionally, healthcare providers, such as physiotherapists, are in a unique position to identify and help victims of DV, “as victims often discuss their experience related to violence if inquired about it in a non-judgmental, empathic and direct way.” (Alshammari et al 2018) Despite this, multiple studies point towards the lack of IPV/DV enquiry in the majority of the outpatient settings (Clark, Lynette, & Mary, 2017 ; Ballan & Freyer, 2019 ). In addition to patient-related barriers, research has indicated that several staff-related barriers weaken healthcare systems’ ability to identify and support victims. One of the major barriers is lack of formal training (Alvarez et al, 2016 ). This includes education that starts in vocational schools and continues during their career, to ensure that best practices are used. In response to this, educational content on domestic violence has started to be developed for some healthcare providers such as nurses and midwifes. However almost no courses are being offered to physiotherapists in Europe and especially in our partner countries (Estonia, Greece, Spain, Cyprus). Health care professionals who work with their patients one-on-one, regularly, and have good rapport with them, such as physiotherapists, are well suited for noticing signs of DV in their patients. This becomes especially important as the average time a physician spends with their patient has decreased over the years (Wood, 2017) , narrowing the opportunity to discuss important things affecting patients’ health. This trend has not affected physiotherapists and similar health care professionals due to the nature of their work, making them well-suited for also addressing concerns about DV .Research has shown that in addition to a lack of skills of healthcare workers, their attitudes towards and beliefs concerning DV can hinder their ability to properly serve DV victims. Thus, we are targeting the gap in the skills of the physiotherapists so they can provide better service and improve the resultativeness of treatment the patients receive.<< Objectives >>OPEP-DV focuses on professional education and training of physiotherapy professionals working with women so that they can identify and provide assistance to victims of domestic violence (DV). The projects goal is to develop a standalone training course and an online education module on domestic violence for current and future physiotherapists and other healthcare workers (e.g. nurses, midwives and careworkers) working closely and on regular basis with female patients. The secondary goal is to improve and unify the physiotherapists’ education in EU countries on topics connected to identifying and supporting victims of IPV/DV. Indirect goal of the project is that more victims of domestic and interpersonal violence are identified and helped in the whole EU. We shall resolve the gap in health care workers’ education by following key goals:1. Understand the operating contexts and current attitudes of health care workers, especially physiotherapists in each partner country and propose solutions to address these gaps2. Understand the current content of physiotherapists’ education and how much IPV/DV related topics are currently integrated in the programmes.3. Using this information to create training curriculum for healthcare workers that differentiates between their different contexts, especially aimed for physiotherapists in diverse regional and cultural backgrounds4. Using these materials to create an accredited online course that can be used within continuing education programs for physiotherapists and other healthcare professionalsWe believe that by providing policy makers and VET training providers with practical and proven tools to improve the training of current and future physiotherapists will speed systemic adjustments needed in this field.<< Implementation >>OPEP-DV focuses on professional education and training of physiotherapy professionals working with women so that they can identify and provide assistance to victims of domestic violence (DV). We will propose a set of connected activities to achieve our main goals: 1. Study the training, operating contexts and current attitudes of health care workers, especially physiotherapists in each partner country and propose solutions to address these gaps2. Develop stand-alone training curriculum to address all key gaps in current physiotherapists’ training in relation to DV. It will be oriented to VET providers and would be implementable in different regional and cultural settings across EU. By the end of the project, it will be implemented at least in the training programs offered by M&M.3. Develop the curriculum into an attractive and real-life cases based MOOC to be used by current and future physiotherapy professionals and other similar health care specialists working closely and on regular basis with female patients. The MOOC would be accredited to prove the quality and it would be freely available by UTARTU after the project ends. It will also be incorporated into the physiotherapists’ curriculum by THCC.4. Promote the training curriculum and MOOC as well as the need to teach physiotherapists on the topic of DV among health care and education policy makers as well as among VET education providers in partner countries and EU. To support the implementation of these activities, set of transnational meetings, mutual training workshops and multiplier events has been planned. All the project results will be created in collaboration with associated partners in partner countries. This will enable us to increase the quality of our results and extend the reach of our activities beyond the partner organisations and their regions.<< Results >>The project will result in a training curriculum and respective MOOC addressing specifically the needs and context of our target groups – the physiotherapists and other health care specialists, and VET and professional training providers for physiotherapists and other health care providers. It is estimated that over 300 people from our key target audiences will be directly affected by the end of the project. As a result of our project activities, through training physiotherapists and other health care professionals more women who are victims of abuse will receive help and referrals to services they need to deal with DV. The participating professionals will benefit directly from the project results. They will attain new and improved knowledge on methods and tools related to identifying, referring (either externally or internally) and providing interventions to support people who experience domestic violence and abuse.By the end of the project, M&M will incorporate the training curriculum in their training programmes and THCC will add the MOOC to their physiotherapists’ curriculum. All project activities will feed into policy recommendations for healthcare policy makers, practitioners, and VET training providers (PR1) to improve the training of physiotherapy professionals, so that they can identify and provide high quality assistance to DV victims. The report and policy recommendations will make suggestions for better unification of physiotherapists’ training in the European countries. The project partners will launch project homepage, which will give access to all project outputs and related materials. The page will have interdisciplinary focus and it will bring together relevant physiotherapy, DV, and continuous professional healthcare education related information for our target groups. All the materials will be in English, Estonian, Greek, Spanish, Russian and Turkish. The overarching result of our project activities is that by training physiotherapists and other health care professionals more women who are victims of abuse will receive help and referrals to services they need to deal with DV.