ArticleWomen's health (London, England)
'Where is the help for me here?' Female domestic violence survivors' narratives of navigating and receiving secondary-care mental health services in the United Kingdom.
Article in Women's health (London, England). The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Critically Exploring Self-Harm Through Lived Experience Perspectives: A Survivor-Controlled Integrative Review Employing Participatory Methodology.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMental 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.
objectivesThis study explores domestic violence survivors' narratives of navigating and receiving secondary-care MH services in the United Kingdom.
designA 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.
methodSeven 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.
resultsResults 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.
conclusionWomen'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.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.