Supporting domestic violence victims: Part 2
Domestic violence-focused services can help a victim gain knowledge of abuse and abuser behaviour that may prevent a person from beginning a potentially abusive relationship. or help them leave early into a relationship. The earlier you leave, the less entrenched the trauma from being in a long-term partnership.
Such services will inform a victim that leaving an abuser may put you at greater risk of harm, so take appropriate steps to make a plan to leave, and engage trusted support before, during and after leaving.
Funding uncertainty affects people who rely on these services by causing them to consider staying with an abuser and having a roof over their heads as opposed to leaving and becoming homeless due to the lack of properly funded services to support them. Availability of services is restricted when they aren’t properly funded.
Service staff too are greatly affected when funding is inconsistent or reduced. They feel less able to refer clients knowing that help is scarce. When funding is unfairly scarce, staff spend their time applying for grants instead of doing the essential work of supporting victims. Strong community support shows Tasmania as progressive and a state that doesn’t ignore the major issue communities are experiencing. It shows that the government is listening and that ordinary people’s voices are being heard.
Strong support encourages victims to disclose their abuse knowing they can find support in a timely and consistent way. For workers or volunteers to do their work well, emotionally and practically, involves staff knowing their positions are secure and reassured their service has adequate funding to continue giving consistent support to the ever-growing number of victims coming forward seeking help.
When staff do not have to allocate so much time to submitting for funding, they can devote working hours to the more pressing matter of supporting victims.
Currently, services are struggling to assist even those in crisis – priority victims who are being turned away. This leads to staff frustration, burnout and numbers of staff quitting.
What happens when there aren’t enough resources or staff? Staff can’t give victims a definitive pathway to further support because they know it’s unavailable, support isn’t immediate but involves waiting for something many victims can’t do. Burnout is greater for staff when they have so many asking for support and being turned away because support is simply not there. Who wouldn’t suffer under these circumstances?
Stable, guaranteed funding matters for the people delivering care and support services enables the delivery of the four pillars of support to victims-prevention, intervention, response and recovery.
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Response and recovery are particularly important for victims after leaving an abuser. Victims need to access a variety of services at that point. If stable funding is assured, more services will be available to respond to the immediate and critical needs of one who has left the abuser.
Recovery goes further than response. Recovery involves longer-term support for victims beyond the crisis point and is equally important as an available resource to support victims with trauma, mental and physical needs that continue beyond first leaving an abuser.
I remain committed to my work despite the pressures through stubbornness and an understanding that there is quite a way to go before violence against women and children is reduced.
The level of violence by mainly men is unacceptable and is costing individuals, communities and governments a fortune. As a volunteer I continue to advocate for government policy change and law reform that assists social services to work properly for victims. And I advocate for victims themselves to access the support they require. I speak out in direct messages and calls to action to decision makers whether in the local community, state legislators or federal government.
Speaking directly to decision makers, I have found that the bottom line with governments is cost of services – the initial financial outlay required to properly fund services. What they fail to acknowledge is that for every initial dollar spent to assist domestic family and sexual violence (DFSV) victims, there is a return on that spending in that victims can return to work quicker, can resolve trauma quicker, have fewer health issues and reliance on medical facilities, avoid criminality and prison, and contribute to society positively.
What’s at stake if community services continue to be underfunded?
The immediate consequence of inadequate funding is that available and rapid support is so limited to victims that they must choose between staying with their abuser or leaving and risking homelessness because there is nowhere to go. The fastest growing cohort of the homeless are women and older women, living in cars or couch surfing because there are no refuges or crisis housing when they leave the abuser.
Waiting lists become more unviable, extending to lengths of time waiting for a place of support that is unrealistic and dangerous for victims.
I say to people who think this issue doesn’t affect them, DFSV affects everyone.
Many in society think this issue doesn’t concern them either because they aren’t being abused or don’t know anyone being abused or an abuser. Given that one in four are abusers and one in five of our population has been abused, it stands to reason that you do know someone who falls into these categories, unknowingly perhaps but nonetheless in the sphere of people you interact with. Interactions between people are negatively affected by DFSV whether a victim discloses their abuse or remains silent.
Medical facilities deal with many victims of partner abuse, which means hospital beds, specialists and GPs are devoting time to these individuals instead of focusing on other mainstream health issues within society. Those other than victims of domestic violence are thus affected by this.
The Tasmania I’d like to see in the future is a state that is responsive in ways that truly support victims, their families and friends is a state moving forward both financially and socially. In practical terms this means ongoing trauma-informed training for organisations dealing with victims of DFSV, particularly within the police force, judicial systems and Governmental systems including Centrelink.
I will leave you with the powerful words of Carmel Hobbs, director of the Trauma-Informed Practice Lab in the School of Education UTAS, “[We need] a legislative framework that better reflects the lived realities of victim-survivors, expands protection to those currently falling through gaps, improves access to justice through open doors to legal services and strengthens accountability for those using violence.
“Reform should be ambitious, practical, and properly resourced.”
Part 1 of this article is here.
