Intimate Partner Violence Residential Programs as Optimal Healing Environments: Survivors’ Perspectives

Overview: This poster describes themes surrounding the application of the Optimal Healing Environments (OHE) framework to residential programs for survivors of intimate partner violence. This presentation will highlight how the OHE framework could be used to make shelters and transitional housing programs trauma-informed healing spaces for survivors.Proposal text:

Background: Residential programs, like shelters and transitional housing programs, are critical resources for survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV). Operating from an empowerment model and aimed at survivors’ safety and self-sufficiency, residential programs provide survivors with tangible resource, such as food, clothing, and shelter, as well as supportive services to help them recover from experiences of IPV. These aims are in line with the public health design concept of Optimal Healing Environment (OHE). OHE which comes from perspective called salutogenesis (Antonovsky, 1987) in which the goal is to structure healing environments to enhance individuals’ resources and capacities for healing as well as provide supportive spaces that contribute to healing. Sakallaris and colleagues (2015) developed a framework for the operationalization of OHE that has been applied to healthcare settings. This framework involves addressing four key domains: internal, interpersonal, behavioral, and physical structure environment. The purpose of this study was to capture survivors’ experiences in residential programs across the domains of OHE, in order to draw implications for optimizing the healing efficacy of residential program environments.

Method: Twenty-five survivors of IPV were recruited from IPV shelters and transitional housing programs to participate in one-on-one interviews that lasted approximately 30 to 60 minutes. Interviews were conducted using a semi-structured interview guide with open-ended questions asking participants to broadly describe their experiences whilst living in the shelter or transitional housing program. Fifteen participants were living in shelters and ten in transitional housing programs. Participants were all women, 37.5 years old on average, and were primarily Caucasian. Interviews were audio-recorded and professionally transcribed. Data was then analyzed in Atlas.ti (8.4.4) using thematic analysis to identify participants’ experiences across the four domains of the OHE framework. Themes were developed under the four domains to reflect participants’ perceptions and experiences within residential IPV programs.

Results: Related to the internal environment, themes included participants beliefs about themselves and healing, personal resources, and capabilities they possess, such as skills and education, which aided them in gaining self-sufficiency. In terms of the interpersonal environment, participants discussed themes of positive and negative relationships with staff, and ways in which residents would help each other. Related to the behavioral environment, participants shared experiences of accessing services focused on behavioral change, such as education surrounding abusive relationships, which spurred their continued healing. Finally, participants described aspects of the physical environment of residential programs which both positively and negatively contributed to their healing, such as having a personal kitchen or being confined to a small room with a large family.

Implications and

Conclusions: This study demonstrates the utility of the OHE framework for residential IPV programs. Participants reported positive gains from services and support from staff and other residents. Residential programs which address all four domains can enhance their capacity to help survivors heal and empower them to gain further independence. This could lead to increases in safety and a reduction in future shelter stays as well as provide insight into the future design of trauma-informed residential services that optimize healing from trauma.