A Qualitative Study About The Effects of Women's Shelter Models On Women's Mental Health

Objective: Violence against women with different forms in public and private spheres is still a widespread issue both in worldwide and Turkey as a result and reproduction tool of the unequal power relationship between gender roles which come from the patriarchal system. Mental health of women who have been subjected to violence and applied for a shelter are commonly affected by the conditions which have been shaped by shelters' models and dynamics. This study aims to show the effects of women's shelter models on the psychosocial empowerment processes and offer suggestions on several models according to the narratives of survivors. Methods: This qualitative study was carried out between 15 March and 15 May 2018 with 8 women who applied for shelter in several districts of Istanbul after they were subjected to violence and stayed in shelters for at least 3 months and left at least 6 months ago. In addition to the 8 women participating in the qualitative research, the data of the quantitative study; 2 women have been added and 10 women in total have participated in the qualitative part which has been used as supportive data. Results: Based on the themes that emerged in the descriptive analysis conducted from the deciphered texts of the deep interviews; 5 main categories and several subcategories were defined as; empowerment experiences, psychosocial support, repression and control, negative feelings, retraumatization and in addition quantitative studies were obtained in parallel with the categories determined in qualitative analysis. Conclusion: Shelters models and dynamics have both positive (empowerment, self-confidence independency and recovery of the sense of control) and negative (feelings of oppression and pressure, fear and anxiety, retraumatization, etc.) effects on the empowerment process which are the most important components of mental health of survivors. Especially; it is found that the feminist approach is related to these positive effects