Assessing Woman Battering in Mental Health Services

Assessing Woman Battering in Mental Health Services challenges traditional mental health approaches to domestic violence and offers alternative strategies and procedures to improve the response to battered women. The book is a guide to the conceptual and practical issues associated with identifying and assessing battered women in mental health services. Edward W. Gondolf draws from research on mental health assessment and his own surveys of battered women's services to illustrate these issues. The expertise of battered women advocates is used to develop answers to critical assessment issues. Beyond a how-to book, Assessing Woman Battering in Mental Health Services discusses the issues underlying the identification and assessment of battered women and assists clinicians in providing an appropriate and safe response for them. It presents ways to build collaboration that improves assessment and referrals, and establishes a supportive environment that enhances disclosure of woman battering, identifying potential strengths and further safety rather than increasing risks. Concluding chapters consider issues involved in assessing women of different racial backgrounds and men who battered their female partners. This timely and well-written book is directed to mental health practitioners and domestic violence workers as well as academics, researchers, and students in the helping professions.