Exploring and Addressing Barriers to Accessing Domestic and Sexual Violence Services within at-Risk Communities

Background and Purpose: Domestic and sexual violence (DV/SV) are national and global public health crises that remain inadequately addressed owing in part to barriers to help-seeking, highlighting a grand challenge for social work surrounding efforts to end violence. The purpose of this study is to identify potential barriers that exist for at-risk populations in a large East Coast County. These populations are considered at-risk due to their immigration status and relatively low income in this part of the county. To identify barriers, we partnered with a DV/SV service provider located in a large East Coast County, who requested our assistance with an exploration of identified service gaps. The County Services believed that this gap existed in certain at-risk neighborhoods based on their zip codes that were hot spots for DV and SV, based on police reports; however, the County Services recorded few calls from these neighborhoods. Thus, there were likely many potential barriers to seeking and accessing services. These barriers likely included language, culture, race, ethnicity, and immigration status.

Methods: We conducted an internet search to create a list of over 100 local community leaders and service providers within the identified at-risk neighborhoods. We contacted all these individuals and organizations, and from this list, 12 local community leaders and/or service providers agreed to be interviewed via zoom. The interview consisted of 15 semi-structured interview questions. We designed the questions in collaboration with the partnering DV/SV agency. Questions addressed topics such as the community leader’s understanding of DV/SV, knowledge of existing services and resources, their knowledge of barriers to services to community members, and strategies to address identified barriers. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. The content of these interviews was then coded using thematic analysis. Themes were inductively labeled using in vivo, descriptive, and values codes.

Results: Each interview revealed 3-6 themes, with a total of 59 themes across all the interviews. Common themes suggest that DV/SV are taboo issues within the community, that culture largely influences help-seeking, and that local DV/SV service expansion is in demand to meet the needs of diverse community members. Needs for enhanced knowledge on what DV/SV entails remain, along with concerns regarding stigmatization due to immigration, culture, language, housing, and socioeconomic status when seeking DV/SV services. We will expand on these themes in our poster.

Conclusion and Implications: DV/SV services can be improved by promoting public DV/SV education, integrating more culturally sensitive practices, and building community trust. Strategies for achieving these goals will be discussed. The results of this study present many implications for practice. Some leaders made specific suggestions for services to better reach individuals in their communities, which may be considered by DV/SV service providers. The barriers revealed by this research could inform DV/SV services to develop policy and practice strategies to better serve diverse communities. Our results are narrowly focused on communities within one large East Coast County, and therefore, more research should be done to determine the barriers other communities face when accessing DV/SV services.