中華心理衛生協會

Purpose: This article explores differences in social work services for Mainland spouses as compared to Taiwanese spouses who are victims of marital violence by Taiwanese men. The goals are to discover the practice barriers as well as to compare experiences with Taiwanese victims. Methods: Semi-structured interviews in focus groups were conducted 4 times with 15 female social workers who work with marital violence victims. Results: The findings showed that the Mainland spouses required more complicated treatment, lacked informal support systems, and had mo re difficulty getting connected to resources than Taiwanese victims. In addition, the motivation for marriage and the role of the victim were suspected by the social workers. Conflict mediation was necessary. The social workers recognized that the Mainland victims had a strong character to fight for their rights. In the process of providing services, the social workers faced many challenges, including hiding the identity of the clients, determining the treatment plan, resource distribution, and handling their responsibility to report abuse to authorities. Conclusions: The analysis indicated important considerations and barriers for social workers in marital violence services of mainland spouses.