Turkish Mental Health Professionals' Experiences and Perspectives toward Family and Sexual Violence

The aim of this study was to learn about Turkish mental health professionals' professional experiences, perspectives, and training needs related to family and sexual violence. An additional goal of this study was to identify important areas in which further training and other resources for mental health professionals and client populations are needed. The researchers developed a new instrument, the Survey of Turkish Mental Health Professionals' Experiences and Perspectives toward Family and Sexual Violence,for this study. This article presents the results of a study involving 121 mental health professionals in Turkey. The mental health professionals invited to participate in this study included counselors, psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers. For data analyses, descriptive statistics were conducted in order to calculate the frequencies and percentages of participants' responses. Results revealed that resources and availability of services to serve survivors of family and/or sexual violence in Turkey are available but insufficient to meet the needs of clients. The results further indicated a need for Turkish mental healthprofessionals to receive more training on how to work with clients impacted by family and/or sexual violence. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.