Middle-aged women who have experienced or know someone who has experienced recent domestic violence can take part in the AIM study.
The study was created by Maritime universities and the Muriel McQueen Fergusson Centre to test the effectiveness of an advocacy intervention to support the needs of older women who experience intimate partner violence (IPV).
It uses the term IPV to refer to any type of abusive behaviour (e.g. emotional, verbal, physical, sexual) that occurs between intimate partners, such as spouses, those living in a common-law relationship, or in a dating relationship.
AIM officials also said participants will be randomly assigned to either the program or the comparison group.
Those in the AIM program will receive a virtual social support program for 12 weeks, and participants in the comparison group will receive information about local and virtual IPV resources.
Dr. Lori Weeks, Dalhousie University professor and co-principal investigator of the study, said all participants will complete surveys at three time points over the study period.
“We’ll be collecting data from the participants before they began then after three months and after six months,” said Weeks.
Weeks also said women who take part in both the AIM and the comparison group will be interviewed about the effects on their physical and mental health.
Women who are in midlife or older, currently living with and/or in the process of leaving an abusive partner and living in the Maritimes can participate.
More information can be found by calling 1-833-854-9563 or emailing aimstudy@unb.ca.
