Effect of an In-Clinic IPV Advocate Intervention to Increase Help Seeking,Reduce Violence,and Improve Well-Being

Abstract

This quasi-experimental study investigated the efficacy of clinic-based advocacy for intimate partner violence (IPV) to increase help seeking, reduce violence, and improve women’s well-being. Eligible and consenting women attending one of six selected clinics in the rural Southern United States were assessed for IPV. Consenting women disclosing IPV were offered either an in-clinic advocate intervention or usual care, depending on the clinic they attended and were followed for up to 24 months. Over follow-up time both IPV scores and depressive symptoms trended toward greater decline among women in the advocate intervention clinics relative to the usual care (business card referral only).

Keywords

abuse depression evaluation health care intervention women

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Arias

Lynberg

Simon

Kresnow

Shelley

(2004). Respondents’ reactions to sensitive questions regarding intimate partner violence and sexual violence. Paper presented at the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy, New Orleans, LA.

Bonomi

A. E.

Thompson

R. S.

Anderson

Reid

R. J.

Carrell

Dimer

J. A.

. (2006). Effects of intimate parter violence on women’s physical, mental and social functioning. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 30, 458-466.

Brown

J. B.

Lent

Schmidt

Sas

(2000). Application of the Woman Abuse Screening Tool (WAST) and WAST—Short in the family practice setting. Journal of Family Pracicet, 49, 896-903.

Campbell

J. C.

(1995). Prediction of homicide of and by battered women. In Campbell

J. C.

(Ed.), Assessing dangerousness: Violence by sexual offenders, batterers and child abusers (pp. 96-113). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Campbell

J. C.

(2002). Health consequences of intimate partner violence. Lancet, 359, 1331-1336.

Campbell

Lewandowski

L. A.

(1997). Mental and physical health effects of intimate partner violence on women and children. Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 20, 353-374.

Coker

A. L.

Flerx

V. C.

Smith

P. H.

Whitaker

D. J.

Fadden

M. K.

Williams

(2007). Partner violence screening in rural health care clinic. American Journal of Public Health, 97, 1319-1325.

Coker

A. L.

Pope

B. O.

Smith

P. H.

Sanderson

Hussey

J. R.

(2001). Assessment of clinical partner violence screening tools. Journal of the American Medical Women’s Association, 56, 19-23.

Cole

T. B.

(2000). Is domestic violence screening helpful? Journal of the American Medical Association, 284, 551-553.

10.

Cripe

S. M.

Sanchez

S. E.

Sanchez

Quintanilla

B. A.

Alarcon

C. H.

Gelaye

. (2010). Intimate partner violence during pregnancy: A pilot intervention program in Lima, Peru. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 25, 2054-2076.

11.

Feldhaus

K. M.

Koziol-McLain

Amsbury

H. L.

Norton

I. M.

Lowenstein

S. R.

Abbott

J. T.

(1997). Accuracy of 3 brief screening questions for detecting partner violence in the emergency department. Journal of the American Medical Association, 277, 1357-1361.

12.

Gillum

T. L.

Sun

C. J.

Woods

A. B.

(2009). Can a health clinic-based intervention increase safety in abused women? Results from a pilot study. Journal of Women’s Health, 18, 1259-1264.

13.

Kiely

El-Mohandes

El-Khorazaty

M. N.

Gantz

M. G.

(2010). An integrated intervention to reduce intimate partner violence in pregnancy: A randomized trial. Obstetrics & Gynecology, 115, 273-283.

14.

MacMillan

H. L.

Wathen

C. N.

Jamieson

Boyle

M. H.

Shannon

H. S.

Ford-Gilboe

. (2009). Screening for intimate partner violence in health care settings: A randomized care setting. Journal of the American Medical Association, 302, 493-501.

15.

McFarlane

Groff

O’Brien

Watson

(2006). Secondary prevention of intimate partner violence: A randomized controlled trial. Nursing Research, 55, 52-61.

16.

McFarlane

Malecha

Gist

Watson

Batten

Hall

. (2002). An intervention to increase safety behaviors among abused women. Nursing Research, 51, 347-354.

17.

McFarlane

Parker

Soeken

Bullock

(1992). Assessing for abuse during pregnancy. Severity and frequency of injuries and associated entry into prenatal care. Journal of the American Medical Association, 267, 3176-3178.

18.

McFarlane

Soeken

Wiist

(2000). An evaluation of interventions to decrease intimate partner violence to pregnant women. Public Health Nursing, 17, 443-451.

19.

Miller

Decker

M. R.

McCauley

H. L.

Tancredi

D. J.

Levenson

R. R.

Waldman

. (2011). A family planning clinic partner violence intervention to reduce risk associated with reproductive coercion. Contraception, 83, 274-280.

20.

Nelson

D. E.

Holtzman

Bolen

Stanwyck

C. A.

Mack

K. A.

(2001). Reliability and validity of measures from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Social and Preventive Medicine, 46(Suppl. 1), 03-42.

21.

Nelson

H. D.

Nygren

McInerney

Klein

(2004). Screening women and elderly adults for family and intimate partner violence: A review of the evidnece for the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Annals of Internal Medicine, 140, 387-396.

22.

Plichta

S. B.

(2004). Intimate partner violence and physical health consequences: Policy and practice implications. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 19, 1296-1323.

23.

Sherin

K. M.

Sinacore

J. M.

X. Q.

Zitter

R. E.

Shakil

(1998). HITS: A short domestic violence screening tool for use in a family practice setting. Family Medicine, 30, 508-512.

24.

Smith

P. H.

Danis

Helmick

(1998). Changing the health care reponse to battered women: A health education approach. Family and Community Health, 20, 1-18.

25.

Smith

P. H.

Earp

J. A.

DeVellis

(1995). Development and validation of the Women’s Experience With Battering (WEB) Scale. Womens Health, 1, 273-288.

26.

Smith

P. H.

Smith

J. B.

Earp

J. A.

(1999). Beyond the measurement trap: A reconstructed conceptualization and measurement of woman battering. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 23, 177-193.

27.

Smith

P. H.

Tessaro

Earp

J. A.

(1995). Women’s experience with battering: A conceptualization from qualitative research. Womens Health Issues, 5, 173-182.

28.

Sullivan

C. M.

Bybee

D. I.

(1999). Reducing violence using community-based advocacy for women with abusive partners. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 67, 43-53.

29.

Tiwari

Fong

D. Y. T.

Yuen

K. H.

Yuk

Pang

Humphreys

. (2010). Effect of an advocacy intervention on mental health in Chinese women survivors of intimate partner violence. Journal of the American Medical Association, 304, 536-543.

30.

Tjaden

Thoennes

(1998). Prevalence, incidence, and consequences of violence against women: Findings from the National Violence Against Women Survey. Washington, DC: US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs.

31.

Ware

J. E. J.

Snow

K. K.

Kosinski

Gandek

(1997). SF-36 Health Survey manual and interpretation guide. Boston, MA: The Health Institute, New England Medical Center.