Project: What works and why? The significance of how interventions and cooperation among organizations affect victims' health and well-being
The purpose of this project is to identify and analyse the needs and expectations of abused women, but also their experiences of receiving support and treatment. Through the project's four sub-studies, different perspectives are combined in the search for the answer to the question: What works and why?
Project information
Project manager
Lotta Agevall Gross
Other project members
Johanna Thulin and Cecilia Kjellgren, Linnaeus University; Mikael Skillmark, Jönköping University, Sweden; Verner Denvall, Lund University, Sweden
Financier
Forte (the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare)
Timetable
2019–2023
Subject
Social work (Department of Social Work, Faculty of Social Sciences)
More about the project
Domestic violence is a global problem. According to the WHO, it is estimated that between one in three and almost one in two of all the women of the world have experienced violence in close relationships. In Sweden, approximately 15,000 police reports are made by women who have been subjected to domestic violence. However, the number of unrecorded cases is assumed to be large.
Exposure to violence has far-reaching consequences for the individual's mental and physical health, as well as for the woman's financial security. Unfortunately, there is currently limited knowledge about the outcome of the interventions carried out within social services.
The purpose of the study
The purpose of this study is to identify and analyse the needs and expectations of abused women, but also their experiences of receiving support and treatment. By gathering knowledge about their situation and their stories about the need and experiences of receiving support and treatment from social services, women's shelters and other authorities, we examine the effects of the treatment work in relation to other circumstances that have had an impact on the woman's health and well-being.
Through the project's four sub-studies, several different perspectives are combined in the search for the answer to the question: What works and why? The significance of how interventions and cooperation among organizations affect victims' health and well-being.
In the study, we examine the importance of support from social services or women's shelters for women who have been exposed to violence, which intervention may have been particularly effective, and how the life situation has possibly changed. We also examine the treatment itself and the cooperation around the victim of violence.
Four sub-studies
The study is divided into four sub-studies:
1. Treatment conversations with abused women in social services: What is being done, and why?
The purpose of sub-study 1 is to analyze the content of treatment conversations between abused women and social workers, and how social workers describe and justify the implementation of the treatment.
Contact person for sub-study 1 is Mikael Skillmark.
2. Effects of specialized treatment for women exposed to violence in a close relationship – treatment or support? A comparison between the efforts of social services and women's shelters.
In sub-study 2, we examine the importance of support from social services or women's shelters for women who have been subjected to violence in a close relationship; if something has been particularly helpful and how the life situation has possibly changed. The study is a pre- and post-measurement based on several different self-assessment instruments.
Contact persons for sub-study 2 are Johanna Thulin and Cecilia Kjellgren.
3. Experiences of women exposed to violence in receiving support from social services.
In sub-study 3, we investigate which circumstances in the women's everyday life affect their health and well-being. The research study is a qualitative interview study.
The contact person for sub-study 3 is Lotta Agevall Gross.
What works and why? The significance of how interventions and cooperation among organizations affect victims' health and well-being.
Sub-study 4 is a vignette study in which we examine what the cooperation concerning a woman exposed to violence looks like, and how cooperation can affect the outcome of interventions.
The contact person for sub-study 4 is Verner Denvall.
The results of the study are presented in scientific articles, at conferences and through feedback in the municipalities. The project will contribute new knowledge about the effects of interventions, and will be of importance for those who work with supporting women and children who have been exposed to violence.
Additional study
The project examines support and interventions that specialized municipal units provide to women exposed to violence. In 2020, we received an additional grant from Forte (the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare), which enabled us to also investigate how abused women's help-seeking is affected by the pandemic and their perception of whether the quality of interventions has been affected by Covid-19. A further aim of the additional study was to investigate how professionals in the municipalities and personnel at women's shelters perceive the consequences of the pandemic for their clients and how it has impacted their efforts.
Publications
- 2022: Balancing in the pandemic: how social workers respond to new risks when supporting clients who experience domestic violence. European Journal of Social Work.
Previous publications
The research group has previously received funding from Brottsoffermyndigheten (the Swedish Crime Victim Authority) and cooperated with them in the project Våld i nära relationer – organisering av lokal evidens och utfall av bedömning och behandling. Four publications were published within the project:
- 2019: Lost in comparison: A program theory analysis of performance measurement in social work. Nordic Social Work Research.
- 2019: The pursuit of standardization in domestic violence social work: A multiple case study of how the idea of using risk assessment tools is manifested and processed in the Swedish social services. Qualitative Social Work; Research and Practice. 18(3), 458-474.
- 2017: Riskbedömningens logiker i arbetet med mäns våld mot kvinnor. Socialvetenskaplig tidskrift 24(3-4), 201-218.
- 2015: Brottsoffer i indikatorland: Öppna jämförelser inom socialtjänstens brottsofferstödjande arbete. Socialvetenskaplig tidskrift, 22(3-4), 341-358.
Contact
The researchers participating in this project are active in the research group Våld och kön (Gender and Violence in Social Work; GAVIS) and can be reached via +46 (0)772–28 80 00 (switchboard) and e-mail.