Season 3 Episode 5: Minisode on Worker Safety & Well-Being: Managing Your Own Fears About the Safety of the Family
About This Episode
In this final installment of the minisode series on worker safety and well-being, Ruth and David discuss the importance of best practices around the question of practitioners’ own fears about the safety of the family. Anyone who has worked with domestic violence cases has felt fear and worry for the safety of the adult and child survivors. Sometimes these fears are directly related to the facts of the perpetrator’s pattern. In other instances, they are artifacts of prior cases, overwhelm from crushing workloads, or lack of training in working with perpetrators.
Ruth and David explore the factors that can influence professionals’ fears and some support strategies. These factors include:
Fears that the professionals’ actions might make the situation worse
Being influenced by other cases where the adult or child survivors were seriously abused or murdered
Being overwhelmed with a heavy caseload makes it more difficult to focus on the specifics of a case
Feeling like the survivor is not acting as they “should”
Being hampered by a lack of skill and confidence working with perpetrators
Strategies to help can include:
Assessing perpetrators’ patterns. While it is no guarantee, getting the history of patterns is one of the best ways to predict future behaviors.
Partner with the survivor, who is the best source of information about the perpetrator’s pattern and their current protection efforts.
Get supervision from your supervisor or from peers.
Bring the case to a Safe & Together Intersections Meeting or another collaborative meeting to discuss it.
Use the Safe & Together Institute’s Ally Guide to increase family and friend support for the survivor.
Use the Safe & Together Institute’s Choose To Change Toolkit to increase positive support for the perpetrator.
Agencies should work to create an environment where workers feel comfortable talking about their worries about their case.