The Pave Project Report - Queen's University Belfast

The PAVE Project Report 11
Preface
T
he idea for the PAVE (People Affected by ViolencE) project was born over
20 years ago, when I conducted the first study of violently bereaved widows
in Northern Ireland in the mid-1980s. These women had lost their husbands in
horrendous circumstances as a direct result of the Troubles. While the study showed
the magnitude and longevity of the suffering of these women, there was little in the
line of support for them and reports of their torment seemed to fall on deaf ears
(Dillenburger, 1992). It was not until the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, that
victims’ issues were more openly addressed and services became more widely
available. I conducted a replication of the original study, only to find that the pain for
many of the widows had not eased, even 30 years after the loss of their husband
(Dillenburger, 2002). Why were these widows not feeling better after such a long
time? In 2003, the new Victims Minister, Ms Angela Smyth, asked for views
regarding the needs of victims. I wrote to her outlining the urgent need to collect
evidence of the effectiveness of services offered to the victims and the development
of effective treatment methods. Her positive response led to the research reported
here.
The two main research questions addressed in this report relate to a detailed
description and categorisation of core-funded voluntary sector services presently
available to victims of the Troubles and to an exploration of the effectiveness of these
services in relation to improvements in the general psychological health of service
users.