Improving the mental health of women intimate partner violence survivors: Findings from a realist review of psychosocial interventions

Background Intimate partner violence (IPV) is highly prevalent and is associated with a range of mental health problems. A broad range of psychosocial interventions have been developed to support the recovery of women survivors of IPV, but their mechanisms of action remain unclear. Methods Realist review following a prospectively published protocol in PROSPERO (CRD42018114207) and reported using the Realist and Meta-narrative Evidence Synthesis: Evolving Standards (RAMSES) guidelines. Results Evidence was extracted from 60 reviews and triangulated in expert consultations. Mechanisms of action were categorised as either associated with intervention design and delivery or with specific intervention components (access to resources and services; safety, control and support; increased knowledge; alterations to affective states and cognitions; improved self-management; improved family and social relations). Conclusions Findings suggest that psychosocial interventions to improve the mental health of women survivors of IPV have the greatest impact when they take a holistic view of the problem and provide individualised and trauma-informed support.

• Publication year

  2022

• Venue

  PLoS ONE

• Publication date

  2022-03-17

• Fields of study

  Sociology, Medicine, Psychology

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0264845PMID 35299229PMCID 8929660
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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