I'm gonna say this....
Disclaimer: Not to sound heartless, and I guess it depends on where/how you meet them and the nature of their problems.
But for the sake of dating, when a new chick you go on a date with start immediately talking about her problems, DO NOT assist her. If you, by nature, have a good heart(which isnt a flaw)....bush her immediately. Do not help these women b/c chances are you'll end up getting the short end of the stick, you'll be stressing yourself out trying to "help" her be it emotionally or whatever...she'll like hanging out with you, but she'll ruin the mood most of the time complaining about shyt, and you'll get nowhere.
Women really do like dudes who take them on emotional roller coasters, they'll talk shyt about him and tell you how bad he is, but be quick to answer his calls/texts and he's always on their mind in some fashion bc of this.
Women aren't interested in changing as much as they want to keep doing whatever they're doing and having it workout for them.