Gender violence, trauma, and its impact on women's mental health

Psychological trauma arising from gender violence is a significant life situation in Indian women's lives. This dimension of trauma has rarely been studied through mental health research, and remains within the ambit of law reform and enforcement, and prevention. A statistical correlation between trauma and mental illness has not been achieved yet, but a close relationship is extrapolated from significantly high rates of violence and mental illness in specific cases, as the recent study by Interventions For Support Healing and Awareness (1994) has shown. The perceptions and practice of mainstream mental health professionals about gender violence fails to recognise the psychological trauma women are exposed to. Post-traumatic Stress Disorder is a useful diagnosis to be used in the measurement, assessment, and management of trauma from gender violence. It is rarely used in cases of sexual and physical violence.