Responding to the individual trauma of domestic violence : challenges for mental health professionals

A clear link exists between domestic violence and mental health problems for women. Depression, trauma symptoms, and suicide attempts are issues that seriously undermine the emotional well-being of women who have been subjected to violence and abuse from their partner or ex-partner. This paper draws on a research project that highlighted the mental health issues for women using domestic violence services and raised a number of pertinent problems for policy and practice in this area. Bringing services for survivors into the mainstream of service provision within the health and mental health arena may bring problems if a model of individualized service provision is not enhanced by the involvement of professionals and their organizations in the social movement to support survivors and skills that enhance social support. Ideas put forward by Judith Herman (1992) are used to explore this argument