Webb Megan, Cooke Anne, Sweeney Angela
Salomons Institute for Applied Psychology, Canterbury Christ Church University, UK.
Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King's College London, England.
Womens Health (Lond). 2025 Jan-Dec;21:17455057251336142. doi: 10.1177/17455057251336142. Epub 2025 Aug 17.
Mental health (MH) services are uniquely positioned not only to contribute to the identification of domestic violence but also to provide support. Survivors of domestic violence regularly access secondary-care MH services. Although several studies and reviews have been conducted globally, the limited literature exploring survivors' experiences of MH services in England has focused on the acceptability of routine enquiry within MH services, MH service responses to domestic violence and abuse (DVA), and the facilitators and barriers to disclosure within community MH teams.
This study explores domestic violence survivors' narratives of navigating and receiving secondary-care MH services in the United Kingdom.
A qualitative study was undertaken with seven women who had experienced domestic violence. The study adopted a feminist, qualitative, narrative approach to enable in-depth exploration of survivors' accounts of secondary-care MH services.
Seven participants were recruited from three community-based third sector DVA services in the United Kingdom. Women participated in a face-to-face narrative inquiry interview ranging from 45 to 90 min. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed in two distinct phases using the Voice-Centred Relational Method and thematic analysis, respectively.
Results suggest that MH professionals (MHPs) consistently missed the connection between abuse and women's presenting distress. The structure of MH services resulted in superficial interventions and relationships, with key windows of opportunity for support missed. Whilst all women found a 'safe haven' where they felt heard, understood and supported, this was consistently outside of statutory MH services.
Women's experiences of secondary-care MH services often paralleled their experiences of abuse and were experienced as re-traumatising. Our findings suggest that adopting trauma-informed approaches, developing more integrated support, and considering alternative conceptualisations of distress beyond diagnosis could enable survivors to find safety and support.
心理健康（MH）服务处于独特地位，不仅有助于识别家庭暴力，还能提供支持。家庭暴力幸存者经常使用二级心理健康服务。尽管全球已开展了多项研究和综述，但在英国，探索幸存者心理健康服务经历的文献有限，主要集中在心理健康服务中常规询问的可接受性、心理健康服务对家庭暴力和虐待（DVA）的应对，以及社区心理健康团队中披露信息的促进因素和障碍。
本研究探讨家庭暴力幸存者在英国接受二级心理健康服务的经历和过程。
对七名经历过家庭暴力的女性进行了定性研究。该研究采用女性主义、定性、叙事方法，以深入探究幸存者对二级心理健康服务的描述。
从英国三个基于社区的第三部门家庭暴力服务机构招募了七名参与者。女性参与了时长45至90分钟的面对面叙事探究访谈。访谈逐字转录，并分别使用以声音为中心的关系方法和主题分析在两个不同阶段进行分析。
结果表明，心理健康专业人员（MHPs）一直未能认识到虐待与女性所表现出的痛苦之间的联系。心理健康服务的结构导致了表面化的干预和关系，错过了关键的支持机会窗口。虽然所有女性都找到了一个“安全港”，在那里她们感到被倾听、理解和支持，但这个“安全港”一直都在法定心理健康服务之外。
女性在二级心理健康服务中的经历往往与她们的虐待经历相似，并且被视为再次创伤。我们的研究结果表明，采用创伤知情方法、发展更综合的支持，并考虑超越诊断的痛苦的替代概念化，可能使幸存者找到安全和支持。
