Mental health help-seeking after a sexual assault: A dyadic study of sexual assault survivors and informal support providers.

Abstract

Ample research exists on sexual assault survivors' formal help-seeking behaviors and its impacts on recovery; however, little research exists on how informal support providers (ISPs; e.g., friends, family, partners) feel about survivor formal help-seeking and/or how these behaviors impact the survivor-ISP relationship. This qualitative, semistructured interview, cross-sectional study examined 28 matched dyadic pairs of survivors and their ISPs discussing formal help-seeking post assault. The majority of survivors sought therapy post assault, and survivors and ISPs discussed the positive impacts of counseling on survivor recovery, but also encountered barriers that delayed/interrupted their care. Some survivors chose not to seek help post assault, which usually negatively impacted their ISPs. This study provides implications for clinical practice around supporting both survivors and their ISP in the formal help-seeking process.

Initial testing of components of the cultural determinants of trauma recovery (CDTR) theory amongst American Gender‐Based violence survivors: Structural equation modelling

“…Whilst mental health service use may be an essential component of recovery, most survivors do not use it or do not use it specifically for their trauma. Also, aspects of mental health services focus on symptom reduction (medication), and research supports the notion that symptom reduction alone is insufficient for healing (as measured in this study; O'Callaghan et al, 2022; Parcesepe et al, 2015). This finding suggests that we need to continue evaluating the interventions and processes needed in counselling or psychotherapy that encourage or facilitate meaning‐making.…”

“…Because mental health service use is a broad category, we define mental health service engagement as medication and counselling in this study. Furthermore, whilst trauma‐informed and trauma‐specific service use should be helpful, most survivors do not believe that the typical mental health service is not trauma‐informed (O'Callaghan et al, 2022; Parcesepe et al, 2015). Therefore, we believe that the relationships between service use and trauma healing (as defined in our study) are unknown, leading us to ask a research question rather than hypothesize at this stage in the theory testing.…”

The shame of sexual violence towards women in rural areas

“…In rural and remote areas, there is also a lack of services available to help survivors of SV, with some rural areas reporting major gaps in service previsions (Carter‐Snell et al., 2020; Keynejad et al., 2021; O'Callaghan et al., 2022). Some rural areas report a lack of frontline crisis support services including crisis housing and counselling services (Flynn et al., 2022), a lack of transportation to services, and difficulty in attracting trained staff which limits staffing resources (Carter‐Snell et al., 2020).…”

“…Reports suggest only 15% of survivors of rape report the incidence to police, while 54% seek mental health services, the latter being considered more helpful than formal SA services (O'Callaghan et al., 2022). Thus, reports of SV are common among women seeking mental health services; 1/3 of women presenting for mental health services identify a history of DV and/or SV (O'Dwyer et al., 2019).…”

Secondary Institutional Betrayal: Implications for Observing Mistreatment of Sexual Assault Survivors Secondhand

“…For example, women survivors of military sexual trauma reported waiting between 15 to 38 years after their assault to seek PTSD treatment from the Veterans' Health Administration (Kelly, 2021). This is concerning given that avoiding or delaying treatment can negatively impact survivors' mental and physical health outcomes (O'Callaghan et al, 2023).…”