The Impact of Short-Term Counseling at a Domestic Violence Shelter

Abstract

Objective: Women who received counseling at a domestic violence shelter were evaluated with several measures to determine the impact of the services they received. Method: A pretest and posttest design using clinical measures for life functioning and coping ability along with posttest-only measures of satisfaction and helpfulness of service were used to assess the outcomes of their counseling and other social work services at the agency. Results: Significant improvement on clinical measures of life functioning as well as coping ability along with a sense of being helped and satisfied with the social work services received are noted. Conclusions: Counseling along with a supportive agency milieu prove beneficial to women seeking services for partner abuse. Limitations of this study are also noted.