Why don't they follow through? Intimate partner survivors' challenges in accessing health and social services

Intimate partner violence (IPV) screening and referral are routinely practiced by various healthcare providers. Although facilitators and barriers to IPV disclosure have been previously explored, healthcare providers' role in linking patients to longer-term IPV-related resources has received only superficial attention. This focus group study explored IPV survivors' service seeking experiences, using the complementary perspectives of advocates from a national domestic violence hotline (n = 24) and survivors from a domestic violence program (n = 30). Both advocates and survivors identified key service needs and access barriers. Advocates also shared successful strategies for "coaching" survivors that increased the likelihood of receiving services.