This investigation will evaluate the effect of a public service campaign about domestic violence on individual help-seeking behavior, news coverage, funding for domestic violence services, and the response of the criminal justice system to domestic violence cases in the Boston area. The campaign was designed both to reach out to isolated women with information and to target social attitudes about domestic violence with the ultimate goal of increasing womens' ability to seek services and mental health treatment. The study, using a quasi-experimental design with interrupted time series analysis, provides a unique opportunity to evaluate the impact of intensive media attention on this key mental health issue.
