The domestic violence survivor assessment: a tool for counseling women in intimate partner violence relationships
Section snippets
Background
Many researchers have explored the process of change that women experience when resolving abusive relationships. We reviewed qualitative research on the meanings women attach to the journey of change to safe lives as the basis for guiding our instrument development.
Changes in a woman’s behavior are propelled or constrained by the meaning she attaches to her experiences. Understanding the meaning of any relationship becomes more complex as one begins to include the social context of children,
Domestic violence survivor assessment (DVSA)
Working with three community-based agencies to develop and implement outcomes for their women’s domestic violence counseling programs, a need to develop an assessment tool that could be used on admission and discharge to guide interventions and measure outcomes was identified. The agencies were the family violence programs of one rural and one suburban office of United Family Services of Central Maryland and the third was the Counseling and Outreach Department of House of Ruth of Baltimore. All
Target population to serve
The DVSA completed on intake at the community program was reported as useful for systematic review of issues many battered women face and a guide for the initiation of counseling. The providers/advocates at the hospitals report more complete information is provided by women who are in-patients or returning to the ambulatory clinics or domestic violence support program. Women in crisis seen in the emergency department are often unable to focus globally on their life situation at that time.
Practice implications for interventions
The
Conclusion
Counselors are most helpful when they directly discuss the violence and unconditionally accept the client’s definition of the situation [30]. The client’s perceptions are the reality in which she lives. The DVSA is designed to capture her reality and assist counselors to guide her to more deeply understand what she is experiencing, that it is abusive and harmful to her and her children, and that options exist which can transform her life. The goal is empowerment that is as complex as the
Acknowledgements
Patricia Lanning LCSW, Terri Wurmser MSW, and Sandra Rappeport LCSW, administrators at House of Ruth, Baltimore City and Family and Children’s Services of Central Maryland, along with their staff, contributed to the development, testing, and revision of the DVSA. This research was supported by Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Grant #R03 HS10731 and NIJ. Maryland STOP Grant #97, 98, 99-043-FVC.
References (32)
- et al.
Women’s experiences with battering: a conceptualization from qualitative research
Women Health Issues
(1995) Process of entrapment in and recovery from an abusive relationship
Issues Ment. Health Nurs.
(1989)- et al.
From theory to practice: the development of assessment guides from qualitatively derived theory
Qual. Health Res.
(1998) - et al.
The social construction of deviance: experts on battered women
Soc. Probl.
(1984) - et al.
Using feminist MRI briefing therapy during initial contact with victims of domestic violence
Psychotherapy
(1997) - et al.
Voices of strength and resistance: a contextual and longitudinal analysis of women’s responses to battering over time
J. Interpers. Viol.
(1998) - Gilligan C. In a different voice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,...
Why did she do that? Issues of moral conflict in battered women’s decision-making
Issues Ment. Health Nurs.
(1999)Family violence: toward more precise and comprehensive knowing
Issues Ment. Health Nurs.
(1999)Women’s reasons for leaving abusive spouses
Health Care Women Int.
(1991)
The assault of self: stages in coping with battered husbands
Qual. Sociol.
Women’s strategies for survival: developing agency in abusive relationships
J. Family Viol.
How women experience battering: the process of victimization
Soc. Probl.
Cited by (40)
Selecting outcomes for intimate partner violence intervention trials: Overview and recommendations
2014, Aggression and Violent BehaviorCitation Excerpt :While there is a relatively sound theoretical base for the concept of readiness for change and it has been clearly described by women in qualitative studies, measuring it has proved challenging. The Domestic Violence Survivor Assessment (Dienemann, Campbell, Landenburger, & Curry, 2002) describes the cumulative process of women's decision-making across the IPV trajectory. However, generally there is a paucity of validated tools for applying in trials.
Women's journey to safety - The Transtheoretical model in clinical practice when working with women experiencing Intimate Partner Violence: A scientific review and clinical guidance
2013, Patient Education and CounselingCitation Excerpt :Prochaska and DiClemente's Transtheoretical Model of Change (TTM) – often referred to as the Stages of Change (SOC) Model, details five stages and ten processes of change and the constructs of decisional balance and self-efficacy [23–25]. It may provide a means of evaluating and supporting women's readiness and ability for change in the context of abusive relationships [21,22]. Nursing and health research using TTM, has explored women's journey to safety, and provided SOC-based Healthcare Guidelines [22,26–30].
Domestic violence and sexual assault services: Inside the black box
2009, Aggression and Violent BehaviorPsychometric Properties of the Domestic Violence Survivor Assessment
2009, Archives of Psychiatric NursingIn the jaws of death: Surviving women's experience of male intimate terrorism
2023, Journal of Advanced Nursing