A Trial of Telephone Support Services to Prevent Further Intimate Partner Violence

Abstract

We conducted a randomized-controlled trial of telephone support services (TSS) versus enhanced usual care (EUC) for women who had reported intimate partner violence (IPV) within the past year during a visit to a pediatric emergency department. TSS nurse interventionists identified appropriate referrals to community programs, helped participants by problem-solving barriers to obtaining these local services, and provided social support. Three hundred women, ages 18 years and above were recruited. The TSS and EUC groups did not differ on any outcome variable, including IPV victimization, feelings of chronic vulnerability to a perpetrator, depressive symptoms, and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms.

A systematic review of intimate partner violence interventions focused on improving social support and/ mental health outcomes of survivors

“…Krasnoff and Moscati's study [51] discussed a multi-component referral, support and case management intervention that reported similar reduction in perceived IPV victimization as seen in studies included in our review. There were some differences in the telephone support interventions included, Stevens et al's study [27] reported no difference in mental health outcomes compared to Tiwari et al's study [15] which found an improvement in mental health outcomes among the intervention group. We postulate differences in outcome could be attributable to the fact that Tiwari's intervention was more advocacy, empowerment and support focused than the intervention described in Stevens et al study, which was more information and referral focused.…”

“…These interventions involved the use of community-based advocacy interventions focused on individuals that were survivors of violence, these interventions were focused on assisting the survivors identify and access resources, supportive relationships and cope with the effects of intimate partner violence. Fifteen of the studies reviewed (11 RCTs, 2 pre-post evaluation, 1 retrospective study, 1 quasi-experimental study with randomization) described experiences with social support interventions that provided some sort of advocacy service in combination with community support for survivors of violence, on an individual level [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29].…”

“…Other outcomes like improved safety behaviors and a reduction in the utilization of community resources were also found across both groups. Stevens et al's [27] study focused on using telephone based support/referral services for IPV survivors compared to enhanced usual care (, the intervention was based on a social support and empowerment model. The study found no significant difference in outcomes between the intervention arm (telephone-based arm) and the control arm (enhanced usual care-community services provided by the community center including health, social, educational, and recreational services).…”

A Systematic Review of Intimate Partner Violence Interventions: State of the Field and Implications for Practitioners

“…M. Sullivan & Davidson, 1991; C. M. Sullivan, Tan, Basta, Rumptz, & Davidson, 1992; Tiwari et al, 2005, 2010) and 8 were individual-level clinically focused interventions (Gilbert et al, 2016; Iverson et al, 2011; Kiely et al, 2010; Miller et al, 2014; Rhodes et al, 2015; Stevens et al, 2015; Weir et al, 2009; Zlotnick et al, 2011). One intervention provided a community-based mutual aid support group which was clinically focused (Tutty et al, 1993), one intervention was a shelter-based intervention providing both a mix of clinical and advocacy services (McNamara et al, 1997), and two were a mixed individual and group clinical interventions.…”

Telehealth Interventions Designed for Women: an Evidence Map

“…58,59 High-risk breast cancer assessment included seven studies comparing in-person to telegenetic counseling, [60][61][62][63][64][65][66] and two addressing the needs of women at high risk. 67,68 IPV included six studies that promoted the safety or well-being of women who had experienced IPV, [69][70][71][72][73][74] and one study addressed post-exposure HIV prophylaxis. 75 There was one SR that examined telephone interventions for preventing new HIV infection 76 that identified this same study.…”