Linkage of Domestic Violence and Substance Abuse Services; Final rpt

摘要

It is well established that substance abuse and domestic violence are linked with each other for male batterers, and there is evidence of a domestic violence-substance abuse relationship for victims as well. Substance abuse and domestic violence services are not typically linked with each other by programs, or if such service linkage does exist, it tends to be ad hoc and poorly developed. For the current study, computer-assisted telephone interview surveys were conducted of national samples of programs offering domestic violence and substance abuse services to identify how often and in what ways these two program types provide the complementary service. Domestic violence and substance abuse program directors recognized that many of their clients had the complementary problem, and high percentages of the two program types screened for the complementary problem. One-quarter of domestic violence program directors reported providing substance abuse services to their clients, and 54% of substance abuse program directors reported that they provide domestic violence services. Domestic violence program directors had less favorable attitudes than substance abuse program directors toward providing complementary services. Substance abuse program directors also were more likely than domestic violence program directors to think that substance abuse is implicated in domestic violence, and they were more optimistic that substance abuse treatment can reduce future domestic violence among treated offenders. Logistic regression analyses were conducted of the relationships between a variety of program and director characteristics and attitudes and complementary service linkage. Many of the relationships were inconsistent and difficult to interpret. Program directors who estimated that the complementary problem was more prevalent among their clients were more likely to direct programs that provide complementary services. A number of the factors expected to distinguish programs that did and did not provide complementary services, however, were unrelated to linkage or were related in unexpected ways to linkage. The report also identifies some implications of the study and recommends that a demonstration evaluation of complementary services fior victims of domestic violence be developed and implemented.