Patterns and Predictors of Service Use Among Women Who Have Separated from an Abusive Partner

# The Author(s) 2015. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract Using baseline data from a survey of 309 Canadian women recently separated from an abusive partner, we inves-tigated patterns of access to health, social, legal, and violence-specific services and whether abuse history and social and health variables predict service use. We compared rates of service use to population rates, and used logistic regression to identify determinants of use. Service use rates were sub-stantially higher than population estimates in every category, particularly in general and mental health sectors. Although women were confident in their ability to access services, they reported substantial unmet need, difficulty accessing services, and multiple barriers. The strongest unique predictors of use varied across service type. Health variables (high disability chronic pain, symptoms of depression and PTSD), low in