Partner Violence and Survivors' Chronic Health Problems: Informing Social Work Practice (Report)

One out of every four women in the United States will report physical or sexual assault by a partner, spouse, or date at some point in her lifetime (Tjaden & Thoennes, 2000). Empirical research has established the serious nature of both the physical and the mental health consequences of partner violence and has shown the complex biopsychosocial needs and challenges often faced by women who experience partner violence (for earlier reviews see Campbell, 2002; Golding, 1999; Logan, Walker, Cole, & Leukefeld, 2002; Plichta, 2004). Because social workers are often frontline professionals working with partner violence survivors, it is important that social workers--regardless of their practice setting and specialty--are knowledgeable about the chronic and serious health consequences of partner violence. Although most social work professionals may expect that partner violence survivors will sustain acute physical injuries, social workers may be less knowledgeable about the long-term physical effect of violence on survivors' health. In an effort to enhance social work practice for violence survivors, the goal of this article is to inform social work practitioners through a review of the most pertinent research on chronic health consequences of partner violence. With this overall goal in mind, our first aim was to extend prior efforts to summarize and synthesize the research on the health correlates and consequences of partner violence through a review of articles published from 2000 through the present. Building from this review, our second aim was to help inform social workers, across practice settings, about the chronic health consequences of partner violence.