Accessing Healthcare

Name

HCA430: Special Populations

Instructor

Date

In this paper I will describe the vulnerable population Abusing Families and the community-based program, Gulf Coast Women’s Center for Nonviolence, that is intended to assist that vulnerable population. I will also discuss organizational barriers that limit Abusing Families access to the program and suggest strategies to overcome those barriers.

Domestic violence is the willful intimidation, physical assault, battery, sexual assault, and/or other abusive behavior perpetrated by an intimate partner against another. It is an epidemic affecting individuals in every community, regardless of age, economic status, race, religion, nationality or educational background. Violence against women is often accompanied by emotionally abusive and controlling behavior, and thus is part of a systematic pattern of dominance and control. Domestic violence results in physical injury, psychological trauma, and sometimes death. The consequences of domestic violence can cross generations and last a lifetime.(National Coalition Against Domestic Violence)

Statistics on domestic violence include:

One in every four women will experience domestic violence in their lifetime
An estimated 1.3 million women are victims of physical assault by an intimate partner each year
85% of domestic violence victims are women
Historically, females have been most often victimized by someone they knew
Females who are 20-24 years of age are at the greatest risk of nonfatal intimate partner violence
Most cases of domestic violence are not reported to the police
Witnessing violence between one’s parents or caretakers is the strongest risk factor of transmitting violent behavior from one generation to the next
Boys who witness domestic violence are twice as likely to abuse their own partners and children when they become adults
30% to 60% of perpetrators of intimate partner violence also abuse children in the household
Almost one-third of female homicide victims that are reported in police records are killed by an intimate partner(National Coalition Against Domestic Violence)

Kirkwood (1993) offers a typology of six inter-related coercive and controlling strategies which serve to trap a victim in a violent relationship: threats, degradation, objectification, deprivation, an overburden of responsibility and a distortion of subject reality so that some women may begin to lose confidence and belief in themselves. (Radford J. H., 2008)

The Gulf Coast Women’s Center for Nonviolence is located in an urban setting with centers located in several counties throughout Mississippi. The Gulf Coast Women’s Center for Nonviolence began as a safe house in 1977 bringing service to victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. Since its inception, the Center has grown to be the oldest and largest domestic violence shelter within the state of Mississippi and offers the most comprehensive program to all members of families who have been affected by domestic violence.(Gulf Coast Women’s Center for Nonviolence)

The Gulf Coast Women’s Center for Nonviolence is a non-profit organization thatprovides a range of services for victims and their families including food, shelter, assistance, counseling, a court advocacy program, a legal clinic, and an education program.
The intended population served by this community-based program is mostly women and their children who are at risk or have become victims of domestic violence but also offers an intervention program for offenders/batterers.
The Center’s domestic violence program provides 24-hour, 7 day per week crisis intervention services to women and children who are victims of domestic violence. The crisis line is staffed by trained personnel who can assist women who call in with accessing our domestic violence shelter if needed or other community resources. Residents of the domestic violence shelter are provided with food, clothing, childcare, some transportation, and personal hygiene items. Crisis intervention, individual and group counseling and case management services are provided for residents of the shelter. During their stay in the shelter, they gain access to community resources such as legal, medical, housing, education, training programs, and employment.(Gulf Coast Women’s Center for Nonviolence)

The Center’s children’s program provides therapeutic and case management services to children who have been directly or indirectly affected by sexual assault and domestic violence. The program uses an innovative approach to working with the child victims of domestic violence through the therapeutic preschool modality targeting our youngest, and often most vulnerable, victims to provide early intervention and prevention services. (Gulf Coast Women’s Center for Nonviolence)

The Gulf Coast Women’s Center for Nonviolence also offer a Domestic Violence Intervention Program designed for domestic violence offenders/batterers. DVIP is more than an anger management program. It offers a cognitive behavioral approach to domestic violence that helps offenders to understand the effects of their behaviors on those closest to them. It specifically is designed to offer understanding in how the socialization of male dominance hinders intimacy; that violence is intentional and a choice designed to control their intimate partner; that the effects of abusive behavior damages the family; and offers a roadmap to change. (Gulf Coast Women’s Center for Nonviolence)

Concern about the well being of children plays a major part in women’s decisions to stay or leave an abusive partner. Fear of losing the children should they leave keeps many women tied to violent men, particularly if they feel vulnerable to accusations about their mothering due to low self-esteem, depression, alcohol or substance dependency. (Radford L. H., 2006)
If women leave they may also lose their jobs, or fear losing their only means of financial support, their home and possessions. They may also fear having to move away from family, friends and their own communities and social networks in order to find safety. The assumption that it is women and children who should leave the family home, and experience deprivation as a result of this, rather than the perpetrator is itself problematic. Nevertheless, it is women and children who are often driven to move because agencies, including criminal justice agencies, are frequently unable to provide sufficient protection.(Radford J. H., 2008)
Barriers women face includea lack of resources needed to provide individual housing for the women and families that are at risk for domestic violence and a lack of available therapist needed for each individual shelter. One therapist travels to all the shelters located throughout six counties of Southern Mississippi.
One strategy that could be implemented for the lack of individual housing for the women and families would be to work with local hotels in which they could donate a room which would provide individual temporary housing for the women and their families. This would help to reduce the stress involved with staying in a shelter for both the women and their children.
A strategy for the barrier of a lack of therapists would be to work with local therapist in each county and see if any of them would be willing to donate some of their time for these women and children.
“The average victim leaves her abuser seven times before she leaves for good.” (Berlinger, 1998)
References

Gulf Coast Women’s Center for Nonviolence. (n.d.). Programs and Services. Retrieved August 22, 2011, from GCWCFN: http://www.gcwcfn.org/

National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. (n.d.). Domestic Violence Fact Sheet. Retrieved August 22, 2011, from National Coalition Against Domestic Violence: http://www.ncadv.org/files/DomesticViolenceFactSheet(National).pdf

Radford, J. H. (2008). Tackling Domestic Violence : Theories, Policies and Practice. Berkshire: Open University Press .

Radford, L. H. (2006). Mothering Through Domestic Violence. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers .