Domestic violence is a major public health issue and this is the first study to look at the views of both service users and mental health professionals in relation to the disclosure of domestic violence. The study was a cross-sectional, semi-structured interview study, which I think is not so usual. The type of sample was purposive and in my opinion, appropriate to ensure diversity in age, ethnicity, diagnosis and experience of domestic violence.
The interviews were carried out between May and December 2008, were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim. They gave us a pretty extensive analysis of the way they made out the two maps representing the two themes and their associated subthemes, so in my opinion the data were analyzed appropriately.
In qualitative research, as this paper is, ethics should extend beyond review boards’ requirements to involve complex issues of confidentiality, reflexivity and power. Reflexivity is a very important point, because it refers to recognition of the influence a researcher brings to the research process and I did not notice any mention about it. Also, I didn’t notice anything about the issues of confidentiality and anonymity, especially in this case, where the data constitute personal reports about the experience of domestic violence, but to be honest I do not know the criteria, with which they received ethical approval from these institutes, so maybe the issues of confidentiality and anonymity were covered.
Overall, I do believe what the researchers did was clear. I, also, think it was very interesting study cause of consisting both service users and mental health professionals and the main findings show us that fear is the most significant factor and there are many needs to be addressed and be improved, such as the training regarding domestic violence, lack of effective interventions, etc. Last but not least, it is worth noting that they gave some money to the service users for their time and this makes me wonder if this fact acted as a motive to the service users to get involved to this study, because we should not forget that the area, where the study took place, was a socioeconomically deprived borough in south London.
