Domestic Abuse

Barriers

Mental Health staff as well as other health care workers can play a key role in the identification and assessment of domestic violence victims. They can also prevent obstacles which delay, impede, or actually seem to legitimize the violence a victim can be experiencing.

As the Mental Health System Power and Control Wheel on the previous page indicates, mental health system power and control are often used to violate confidentiality, ignore the victim’s needs, and trivialize or minimize the abuse, all of which can contribute to the escalation of violence in a client’s life.

Mental Health Staff Barriers

  • Fear of Involvement

Research on mental health staff indicates that even in cases where domestic violence is clearly present, staff members’ fear of involvement prevents them from providing appropriate intervention. The fear is often expressed as not wanting to open “Pandora’s Box.”

  • Time Constraints

Lack of adequate time to screen or assess clients seen in a mental health center is also a barrier to successful intervention. This may be even more of a factor in managed care settings or in clinics where staff are often allotted only 10 minutes per client. Research suggests, however, that adequate training and skill can effectively identify domestic violence patients even with time constraints.

  • Mental Health Staff Attitudes & Misconceptions About Domestic Violence

Believing in myths and/or adopting stereotypical thinking about domestic violence can impeded identification and assessment.

Research indicates mental health staff, like others, may feel that battered women deserved or provoked their abuse; that domestic violence is a private issue; that if a victim didn’t like the abuse she could easily leave; that domestic violence is a result of alcohol or drug abuse; that domestic violence only occurs in lower socioeconomic homes or certain racial and ethnic groups; that male victims don’t exist; that gay/lesbian couples are never abusive; or that children are not affected by domestic violence in the home.

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