Intimate partner violence (IPV) and substance use are significant and interconnected public health problems facing women. For battered women, the presence of substance use increases the risk of re-victimization and the risk of more severe abuse. Battered women's shelters provide emergency shelter to approximately 300,000 women and children each year. A prime time to intervene with battered women might be when they enter a shelter and have already initiated a change in their lives. A shelter-based intervention fo battered women that addresses substance use problems might reduce the risk of substance use, reduce the risk of future IPV, and improve utilization of substance use treatment and community resources. The objective of this R34 Award is to develop and assess an innovative, easily implementable, low-cost, computer-delivered intervention, the SHE Program (Safe and Healthy Experiences) that will address known barriers in early identification and intervention for battered sheltered women with substance use issues. SHE will be based on motivational interviewing (MI) a well-defined intervention strategy that has yielded particularly promising results in a range of clinical issues and a range of patient populations, including substance using women. MI is consistent with an empowerment model, which is a highly recommended intervention model for victimized women. The R34 proposes two distinct phases to assess the SHE Program with battered sheltered women with substance use issues. During the Development Phase, the research team will conduct focus groups and develop the intervention to meet the needs of our target group, develop the software for the computer- delivered intervention, and conduct an open trial with 10 participants. During the Pilot Study Phase, we will conduct a two-group, randomized controlled study with a sample of 50 battered sheltered women who report substance use difficulties within the last three months, which will provide the necessary groundwork to examine the efficacy of the SHE Program in a future, large clinical trial. If the SHE Program is found to be feasible, acceptable and efficacious in improving outcomes for our vulnerable target population, the program has the potential to be widely disseminated while maintaining treatment fidelity across battered women shelters and may hold promise for IPV populations with substance use difficulties in other settings.
Substance use and intimate partner violence (IPV) are significant and interrelated public health problems facing women. An intervention for residents of a battered women's shelter that addresses substance use problems might reduce the risk of substance use, reduce the risk of future IPV, and improve utilization of substance use treatment and resources. The proposed project will develop a computer-delivered brief intervention that will address known barriers in early identification and intervention for battered sheltered women with substance use problems, with findings from this research informing future implementation of a low- cost, potentially high reaching intervention for improving outcomes for a vulnerable group of women.
