Domestic Violence, Poverty, and Social Services, Essay Example

Much progress has already been made towards the end of integrating institutional responses to domestic violence. From the days when health professionals regularly misidentified and mischaracterized victims of domestic violence, there have been considerable improvements: in more recent decades, initiatives within the health professions have focused on identifying domestic violence and working with such social services as battered women’s shelters to help provide for the victims. Screening for domestic violence is a very important step in the right direction for the health professions, since professionals in the field of medicine are likely to come into contact with many victims of domestic violence in contexts in which they might be able to do good.

However, there are ways in which policy could be improved in this area. I agree with the necessity of mandatory reporting of at least the more severe domestic violence cases by health professionals: I believe that this offers a potentially dramatic way to greatly improve the lives of the victims (Buzawa, Buzawa, & Stark, 2012, p. 392). Hospitals and doctors’ offices should also try to work more closely with social services at need, and policies should favor the sharing of information (patient confidentiality permitting, of course), and close ties. Also, it seems to me that health professionals should carefully document all relevant information: should the case go to court, it may be of interest in the attempt to convict the perpetrator.

And ideally, a victim of domestic violence identified by a doctor or nurse in a clinic should be given all the information that they need to be able to access a shelter for domestic violence, and the help of benefits workers. If the individual wishes, they should be given some sort of referral: the introduction should be facilitated by the health care professionals whenever and wherever possible, in order to provide support.

Benefits workers, too, need to be active participants on the front line in identifying domestic violence. The relationship between poverty and domestic violence is a complex one, but there is some evidence that it is quite significant (Hetling & Zhang, 2010, pp. 1144-1145). Benefits workers need to be trained not only to identify domestic violence, but to provide the victims with the essential services they require: everything from access to shelters to short-term financial assistance to job training (p. 1145). Integrating this social services approach with the criminal justice system and with the healthcare system should, again, involve close collaboration and the sharing of information wherever possible. From the social services side as with the healthcare side, it is essential that careful documentation procedures be observed: if the case goes to court, such information might help to convict the perpetrator of the abuse.

For law enforcement professionals, too, the emphasis needs to start with identifying victims of domestic violence. Police officers and other personnel should have training that is designed to help them not only identify victims of domestic violence, but also integrate their responses with health services and with social services, i.e. by providing information to the victims, and generally facilitating the institutional process. The appropriate standards for officer behavior need to be in place, and they need to emphasize treating victims of domestic violence as victims, rather than as potential suspects. And of course, again, officers need to be able to recognize domestic violence when they do see it.

I also firmly agree with the joint task force approach, integrating legal standards with medical and mental health care responses. Accountability, oversight, and the sharing of information are all very, very important in this vein. For all professional responses, it is important that they be guided by the proper protocol, a shared system of standards and expectations, in order to facilitate inter-institutional responses.

References

Buzawa, E. Buzawa, C. and Stark, E. (2012). Responding to Domestic Violence: The Integration of Criminal Justice & Human Services (4th Edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Hetling, A., & Zhang, H. (2010). Domestic violence, poverty, and social services: Does location matter? Social Science Quarterly, 91(5), pp. 1144-1163. Retrieved from http://www.search.ebscohost.com/