“She said ‘do you believe me?’”…Exploring specialist sexual violence professionals’ responses to, and understandings of, women with mental health problems after sexual violence

Abstract

New Zealand has one of the highest rates of sexual violence against women amongst high income countries. Impacts can be deleterious and pervasive, particularly on mental health. The literature has most frequently and strongly linked women’s experiences of sexual violence in adulthood to post-traumatic stress, suicidality and depression. In the aftermath, New Zealand women may seek support from professionals in the specialist sexual violence and general mental health sectors. Professionals working in these services have a crucial role in responding to women, but despite this little is known, both internationally and nationally, about these professionals’ perspectives of their work and the women they work with as professionals. This research aims to improve understanding of the experiences of professionals working in the sexual violence sector by investigating how they understand and respond to women, particularly in relation to sexual violence and mental health for women. Drawing on data from three semi-structured interviews and using thematic analysis, I identified four themes. Theme one describes strengths-based and client centered values as most fundamental to responding to abused women. Theme two discusses vulnerability, as understood by participants, as a woman’s inability to withstand a hostile male social environment and the role this has in causing sexual violence. Theme three explores participants’ understanding of mental health as a legitimate category of diversity, and the implications this has for their practice. Theme four discusses the mental health gap that participants understand women face when seeking help from mainstream mental health services. The findings of this research have highlighted participants’ responses to, and understandings of, women as primarily aligning with existing knowledge of best practice within the broader research contexts (both international and local). However, one novel finding challenges current notions of diversity. Understanding mental ‘illness’ as a legitimate manifestation of diversity benefits the professional participants in their work and the women they encounter. The study recommends either a review or re-establishment of good practice guidelines to encompass this understanding.