It is important to talk and raise awareness about the topic of domestic violence. Often, the victims of violence are women and children, therefore mothers are in a vulnerable position because they must protect their children as well as themselves. If women decide to leave an abusive relationship, most of the time they are the ones who must leave and find a safe place to live for themselves and their children. Safe houses are often the place where women and children, who experience violence, can go to for shelter. A safe house provides women and children with a secure place to live and start the process of recovery from the violence they have experienced. The professional workers at the safe house offer women and children support and a variety of assistance, which allows mothers and children to start the healing process. Mothers and children who have experienced violence face different consequences of violence. For mothers, it is stressful and burdensome because they must deal with the effects of violence on their own as well as on their children. Both mothers and children must also adjust to a new environment when they arrive at the safe house, and they face long procedures in different institutions. In our master's thesis, we researched the needs of mothers and children who live in a safe house for women and children victims of violence, what helps them the most in their recovery, what the safe house offers and provides for them, what challenges and problems professional workers in the safe house face, and what they would need to provide better recovery for both mothers and children. In our study, we interviewed both mothers and professional workers, which allowed us to obtain more in-depth results and perspectives from two different groups.
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