Research report

Seeking help for domestic violence: Exploring rural women’s coping experiences:
Final report

Seeking help for domestic and family violence: exploring regional, rural, and remote women’s coping experiences presents the results of a qualitative study examining the experiences of women seeking help for domestic and family violence who live in regional, rural, and remote areas in Australia.

The study contributes to the limited evidence on how geographical and social isolation shapes women’s coping with, and decisions to seek assistance for, domestic and family violence, and their efforts to live safely.

Little is known about how social and geographical isolation shape women’s coping abilities and domestic violence service provision. This study engaged with five different types of social and geographical locations at sites in South Australia and Western Australia to explore how isolation affects different women’s abilities to seek assistance and cope with experiences of domestic violence.

The project used a qualitative research design to gain insights into women’s help-seeking behaviour and coping mechanisms. It also examined how workforce, resources, and contextual factors affect service provision in rural and remote regions.

 

 

Publication details

This work is part of the ANROWS Horizons series. ANROWS Horizons (Research reports) are in-depth reports on empirical research produced under ANROWS’s research program.

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Authors

PROFESSOR SARAH WENDT
Professor of Social Work, School of Social and Policy Studies, Flinders University

PROFESSOR DONNA CHUNG
Professor of Social Work and Social Policy, School of Occupational Therapy and Social Work, Curtin University

DR ALISON ELDER
Research Associate, Division of Education, Arts and Social Sciences, University of South Australia

DR ANTONIA HENDRICK
Lecturer, School of Occupational Therapy and Social Work, Curtin University

ANGELA HARTWIG
University Associate, Social Work and Social Policy, School of Occupational Therapy and Social Work, Curtin University

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ISBN: 978-1-925372-54-0 (print) 978-1-925372-55-7 (online)

72 pp.

 

Suggested citation

Wendt, S., Chung, D., Elder, A., Hendrick, A., & Hartwig, A. (2017). Seeking help for domestic and family violence: Exploring regional, rural, and remote women’s coping experiences: Final report (ANROWS Horizons, 06/2017). Sydney: ANROWS.