What works in domestic abuse and sexual violence services? Encouraging signals, fragmented evidence, and an urgent measurement problem

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Services for domestic abuse and sexual violence are widely delivered and highly valued, but how confident can we be that they work? A new UK-focused systematic review of what the evidence actually shows.

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The hidden health burden of intimate partner and child sexual violence

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A new Global Burden of Disease analysis links intimate partner violence and child sexual abuse to far more health outcomes than we previously counted.

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Carrying heavy secrets alone: sexual trauma disclosure in boys and men

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Boys and men take 15-20 years on average to disclose sexual trauma. Masculine norms, shame, and fear of disbelief create unique barriers to help-seeking.

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Mental health service users face higher sexual victimisation risk

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Mental health service users face higher sexual victimisation rates than the general population: 13% in the past year for women, 3% for men, across all service settings.

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South Asian survivors face barriers to childhood sexual abuse support

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In this qualitative study, mental health professionals identify gaps in trauma care for South Asian survivors of childhood sexual abuse: from long waiting lists to cultural mismatches in therapy.

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Mental health impacts of sexual violence in older adults: a qualitative study

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This qualitative study interviewed 15 older adults (aged 70+) who had experienced sexual violence during their lifetimes. Participants reported anxiety, guilt, shame, disrupted identity and interpersonal distrust, yet most did not associate mental health difficulties with their trauma.

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Childhood trauma and abuse: long-term outcomes for people with eating disorders

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In her debut blog, Ivana Kihas summarises a Norwegian 17-year longitudinal study examining the trajectories of eating disorder symptoms and associations with childhood maltreatment and sexual abuse.

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Psychosocial interventions for survivors of human trafficking: a realist review

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In her debut blog, Shivangi Talwar explores this realist review of psychosocial interventions for survivors of human trafficking, which aims to determine what works for whom, in what contexts, and how.

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Is trauma a transdiagnostic risk for mental health problems? Recent umbrella meta-analysis suggests yes

Mental health services worldwide operate using discrete categories, but significant symptom overlap between different mental health disorders suggests that transdiagnostic approaches may be plausible.

In her debut blog, Megan Bailey summarises an umbrella review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses on whether psychological trauma can be considered as a transdiagnostic risk factor for mental health disorders.

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Youth trauma narratives: a thematic analysis of meaning-making during trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy (TF-CBT)

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In her debut blog, Georgina Thompson explores a qualitative study of how young people create meaning of their experiences during trauma narration, when receiving trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy.

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