Barriers to Cooperation between Domestic-Violence and Substance-Abuse Programs

Staff and administrators drawn from a statewide random sample of 74 chemical-dependency and domestic-violence programs completed a questionnaire on linkage, referral, impairments to interagency cooperation, and beliefs about cross-problem incidence. Survey participants estimated that 46% of the male substance abusers currently in their care were batterers, 60% of the female substance abusers were victims, and 42% of the women now in domestic violence programs were substance abusers. Four of five survey participants believed that these clients would benefit from increased cooperation between chemical-dependence and domestic-violence programs. Implications of these findings are discussed.