Post-Shelter Services: The Efficacy of Follow-Up Programs for Abused Women

Abstract

Abused women who decide to leave their partners face a number of obstacles, including increased risk of abuse, lack of social support, and difficulty accessing community resources Post-shelter follow-up programs are a new form of intervention designed to provide support and advocacy to women who wish to establish new lives independently from their abusive partner. This article presents evaluations of two such follow-up programs, consisting of both quantitative and qualitative components. Workers provided the demographic characteristics and answered rating scales regarding safety, self-esteem, and use of social supports for 60 women. Standardized measures of social support and perceived stress were completed by a subset of 28 women when they entered the programs and 3 months later. The women significantly improved their amount of appraisal support, although tangible and belonging support and perceived stress levels did not change significantly. Self-esteem improved significantly for another subset of 12 follow-up program clients. In-depth interviews with 31 of the women identified problematic issues with which the clients reported receiving support from the follow-up program. Clients also outlined their views of the strengths and limitations of the programs. The majority of the women perceived the programs as central in their not returning to an abusive relationship.