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To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlp.2004.12.004 Byline: Erica Burman (a), Khatidja Chantler (b) Keywords: refuge provision; action research; racism; immigration, culturally-sensitive services Abstract: This article on service responses to women of African, African-Caribbean, Irish, Jewish and South Asian backgrounds facing domestic violence draws on our recently completed study based in Manchester, UK (Batsleer et al., 2002) [Batsteeler, J., Burman, E., Chantler, K., McIntosh, S.H., Pantling, K., Smailes, S., Warner, S., et al. 2002. Domestic violence minoritisation: Supporting women to indepence. Women's Studies Centre: The Manchester Metropolitan University]. We frame our analysis of domestic violence and minoritisation around the question that is frequently posed in relation to women living with domestic violence: 'why doesn't she leave?' In response, we highlight the complex and intersecting connections between domestic violence, law, mental health provision, entitlement to welfare services, which function alongside constructions of 'culture' and cultural identifications, structures of racism, class and gendered oppression. All these contribute to maintain women, particularly minoritized women, in violent relationships. Further, we illustrate how leaving violent relationships does not necessarily guarantee the safety of women and children escaping domestic violence. Despite many recent legal and social policy initiatives in the UK that have usefully brought domestic violence into the public domain, there have also been counter-measures which have made leaving violent relationships correspondingly more difficult, in particular for women from minoritized communities. We offer an analysis of how state practices, particularly facets of immigration law in the UK (although Bhattacharjee, 1997, provides an equivalent U.S. analysis), interact with domestic violence. These not only equip perpetrators with a powerful tool to oppress minoritized women further, but it also indicates how state structures thereby come to impact directly on women's distress (Chantler et al, 2001). In addition, we highlight how other aspects of state policy and practice which enter into the material well-being of survivors of domestic violence, for example, housing, levels of state benefits, and child-care also pose significant obstacles to minoritized women leaving violent relationships. Whilst women from majority/dominant groups also face many of these barriers, we illustrate how the racialized dimensions of such policies heightens their exclusionary effects. It is argued that legal and psychological strategies need to address the complexity of how public, state and institutional practices intersect with racism, class and gender oppression in order to develop more sensitive and accessible ways of supporting minoritized women and children living with domestic violence. Author Affiliation: (a) Professor of Psychology, Manchester Metropolitan University, Department of Psychology and Speech Pathology, Elizabeth Gaskell Campus, Hathersage Road, Manchester M13 0JA, UK (b) Independent Researcher, Manchester Metropolitan University, Department of Psychology and Speech Pathology, Elizabeth Gaskell Campus, Hathersage Road, Manchester, UK

Researcher Khatidja Chantler on research about the specific problems of services for south Asian women who self-harm or attempt suicide This research study on service responses to attempted suicide and [...]

Abstract.Background:This paper examines the social structures, culture, gendered roles, and their implications for suicidal behavior in South India. Exploring the cultural process within the structures of family and society to understand suicide and attempted suicide from the perspectives of survivors, mental health professionals, and traditional healers has not been achieved in the existing suicide-related research studies conducted in India to date. Aims:This study aimed to explore the cultural implications of attempted suicide by examining the survivors' life stories, their perceptions, and service providers’ interpretations of problem situation. Method:A qualitative design was used drawing on constant comparison method and thematic analysis. The analysis was underpinned by the theoretical concepts of Bourdieu's work. In-depth interviews were conducted with 15 survivors of attempted suicide, eight mental health professionals, and eight traditional healers from Southern India. Results:The study found interactions among visible and invisible fields such as faith, power, control, culture, family, religion, and social systems to have strengthened the disparities in gender and role structures within families and societies and to have impacted survivors’ dispositions to situations. Conclusion:The role of culture in causing suicide and attempted suicide is explained by unraveling the negative impact of interacting cultural and structural mechanisms.

Background:Risk assessment and management of suicidal patients is emphasized as a key component of care in specialist mental health services, but these issues are relatively unexplored in primary care services. Aims:To examine risk assessment and management in primary and secondary care in a clinical sample of individuals who were in contact with mental health services and died by suicide. Method:Data collection from clinical proformas, case records, and semistructured face-to-face interviews with general practitioners. Results:Primary and secondary care data were available for 198 of the 336 cases (59%). The overall agreement in the rating of risk between services was poor (overall κ = .127, p= .10). Depression, care setting (after discharge), suicidal ideation at last contact, and a history of self-harm were associated with a rating of higher risk. Suicide prevention policies were available in 25% of primary care practices, and 33% of staff received training in suicide risk assessments. Conclusion: Risk is difficult to predict, but the variation in risk assessment between professional groups may reflect poor communication. Further research is required to understand this. There appears to be a relative lack of suicide risk assessment training in primary care.

The article discusses a 2008 study on the risk factors and the effect of raising the minimum age for a sponsor, and of leave to enter Britain as a spouse or fiance on the incidence of forced marriages. Three key themes emerged as risk factors while no qualitative evidence was noted on the impact of raising the age of sponsorship on the incidence of forced marriage cases in Britain. The study was conducted by Professor Marianne Hester and colleagues. Key findings and recommendations are cited.