Impact of Culturally Specific Danger Assessment on Safety, Mental Health and Empowerment

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 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Intimate partner violence (IPV) and homicides disproportionately affect immigrant, refugee and indigenous women. Thus, there is need for empirically supported culturally competent assessment and interventions for abused immigrant, refugee and indigenous women to address risk factors and any health or safety concerns. The Danger Assessment (DA) instrument was originally developed to assess risk of homicide, near lethality and potentially lethal injury by an intimate partner. The goal of the proposed study is t develop and validate clinically useful, culturally specific versions of the DA to assess risk for severe IPV among immigrant, refugee and indigenous women. Further, the study will evaluate the impact of administering the culturally specific DAs with safety planning/referral tailored to te level of danger, women's preferences and culture in promoting women's empowerment, safety and mental health. Using a sequential mixed methods design (qualitative and quantitative), data will be collected from a) practitioners serving immigrant, refugee and indigenous survivors/perpetrators of IPV, and b) immigrant, refugee and indigenous women with IPV experiences. In the qualitative phase, focus groups with practitioners and in-depth interviews with survivors will be conducted to develop culturally specific versions of the DA for immigrant, refugee and indigenous women. In the quantitative phase, data will be collected from women a) to test the reliability and validity (including predictive validity) of the created DAs, and b) to evaluate the impact of administering the created DAs with DA-informed safety planning/referrals on women's empowerment, safety and mental health. Using a longitudinal randomized experimental design, women will be randomized to either the intervention website (i.e., DA followed by DA- informed safety planning/referral intervention administered via internet and/ or smart phone application accessible safety decision aid) or the control (i.e., non-DA informed usual care) website. Data on outcomes (i.e., safety, mental health and empowerment) will be collected at baseline and at 3, 6, and 12 months post- baseline. The study will result in evidence-based culturally tailored DAs for use by healthcare and domestic violence providers serving immigrant, refugee and indigenous survivors of IPV. The culturally tailored DAs may not only reduce risk for violence victimization, but also empower abused women and improve their mental health outcomes (i.e., PTSD, depression, drug/alcohol use).