Mentor mothers may help docs care for abused women

Mothers with special training can help family doctors provide at-home support to women with violent partners, a new study suggests.

Family doctors often see women in their practices who are suffering from intimate partner violence, but in the office, the physicians may not be equipped to give these women the help and support they need, say Dutch researchers.

Over a four-month period, "Mentor support had an important role for mothers in becoming aware of the negative effects of (partner violence) on their children and to accept professional support, preventing mental problems and intergenerational transmission of violent behavior," the study authors write in the journal Family Practice.

Gert-Jan Prosman of the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center and his colleagues designed a program called Mentor Mothers for Support and Advice (MeMOSA) to train women to help other mothers in violent relationships.

The mentor mothers were recruited from welfare, healthcare and educational institutes in Rotterdam and had previous education in social work or healthcare.

The aim of the program, Prosman's team writes, was to reduce the victims' exposure to violence and also the symptoms of depression that usually go along with an abusive relationship. The intervention also sought to improve the women's acceptance of outside help, like mental health care, and their participation in society.

According to the report, 50 to 60 percent of women in an abusive relationship suffer from depression and are commonly isolated by their abusive partners.

The World Health Organization sees domestic violence as a major health problem and defines it as violence caused by a partner or ex-partner from an intimate relationship, including physical, mental and sexual abuse.

Evidence-based programs designed to help victims of IPV are unusual in family practices, Prosman's team writes. The authors were not available to comment on their study.

The seven mentor mothers they recruited received 10 days training in the new program for the study that lasted 16 weeks. Forty two family doctors agreed to participate by referring patients to the program.

The mentor mothers' training included background on intimate partner violence, depression, children witnessing abuse, parenting support, practical skills and how to deal in emergency situations.

At the beginning of the study, 63 abused women were selected by their family doctors to receive visits from a mentor mother, and 43 of the women completed the program. All the participants had children under age 18 and women were recruited between 2007 and 2010.

At the beginning, each woman was interviewed and tested to determine how much violence she was exposed to, how depressed she was and her degree of participation in society.