Citation

Ullman SE. Women Ther. 2007; 30(1-2): 61-84.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1300/J015v30n01_04

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Sexual assault victims experience significant mental health sequelae from being victimized. Despite these psychological symptoms, survivors seek traditional mental health services at low rates. Little research has addressed the potential barriers that may lead to lower rates of mental health service seeking or whether these services in fact help survivors to recover from the psychological impact of sexual assault. This paper reviews literature on sexual assault victimization and mental health service seeking to examine what is currently known. Certain demographic background, assault characteristics, and post-assault factors appear to be related to likelihood of mental health service seeking, yet most studies of correlates of victims' help-seeking have been limited to nonprobability samples. Suggestions for theory, research, and clinical practice are made including longitudinal investigations studying a range of potential mental health support sources and development of innovative mental health services targeting underserved subpopulations.

Keywords

barriers; women; mental health services; Sexual assault