Abstract
To start with identifying an emerging issue, the first part of the chapter will outline problems of abuse survivors related to trauma or those that appear to be unrelated in the first place but make effects of the traumatic experience harder to handle. Secondly, the chapter will explore barriers to mental health practitioners responding to domestic violence and abuse cases adequately. Thirdly, the focus will be on elaborating practices and principles that can apply in the mental health institutions to recognize the actual realities and needs of abuse survivors and prevent re-traumatization by using trauma-informed care. Finally, in the final part, the authors argue about whether it is reasonable to call for the shift from the medical view in reducing stigma around mental health problems to promote environmental and interpersonal explanations rather than biomedical. In line with the overall statistics on the dominant pattern of violence against women, this chapter will mainly focus on gender-specific mental health and abuse aspects.
TopLiterature Review
There is abundant evidence in the literature about the negative effects of abuse on women’s mental health (Boskovic et al., 2018; Carr et al.,2013; Devries et al., 2014; El-Bassel et al., 2000; Lipsky et al., 2005).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Domestic Violence: Is a pattern of aggressive behavior to create control and/or dominance over one’s intimate partner and it can include physical, emotional, economical, sexual, and other types of violence. In this paper, the term domestic violence is used interchangeably with the term intimate-partner violence and domestic abuse.
Gender: Refers to the masculine and feminine type, it is physical, behavior, and biological traits, traditionally associated with sex, but is used to describe the characteristics of women and men that are socially constructed, while sex refers to those that are biologically determined.
Therapy: Is a process of personal development, growth, and/or recovery from one's specific or general struggles to develop skills and resilience to cope with everyday life more holistically. In this paper, the term Therapy refers to the talking therapies including psychotherapy, counseling, etc.
Abuse: Can take many forms and it is any action that intentionally harms another person, and can be verbal, emotional, psychological, physical, spiritual, financial, and other forms of abuse.
Trauma: Is an event or series of unpleasant and hurtful events that can cause severe casualties on one’s intrapersonal and interpersonal development. Trauma is sometimes unrevealed and hidden beneath one or several psychological mechanisms of defense one can develop, that keep trauma from being accordingly resolved.
Mental Health: Refers to one's psychological well-being that includes emotional, cognitive, and social functioning. It causes and affects how we think, feel and act.
Re-Traumatization: Is one’s reaction to an event or series of events that trigger an initial traumatic experience one has been through earlier in life.
Stigma: Is negative attitudes or discrimination against someone based on a distinguishing characteristic such as a mental illness, health condition, or disability. Social stigmas can also be related to other characteristics including gender, sexuality, race, religion, and culture.