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Posts Tagged ‘
domestic violence ’
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Domestic Violence and Latina Immigrants:
Seven Reasons Why Some Are Reluctant to Seek Help
Q&A with Monica C. Roldan, MSW
Manager of Community Outreach and Supervising Supervisor
Sanctuary for Families
New York, New York
Ms. Monica C. Roldan, MSW, who is originally from Colombia, is the Manager of Community Outreach for the organization Sanctuary for Families the largest nonprofit in New York State dedicated exclusively to serving domestic violence victims and their children. Each year, the organization helps thousands of victims and their children build safe lives through a range of high quality services. Services include clinical, legal, shelter, children’s and economic stability services. Sanctuary also works to end domestic violence and its far-reaching impact through outreach, education, and advocacy
Q. Ms. Roldan, your organizations help Latinas who have suffered partner violence. How does Hispanic culture impact the way they may react to their situation? For example, does religion play a part?I think our culture impacts in a lot of ways victims of domestic violence:ONE — Religion plays a major role. The majority of Latinas are religious. Most of the clients that we see are either Christian or Catholics. For these clients divorce is not an option. Although, they might be suffering or they might be abused they feel that is their duty to stay in the marriage. Sometimes, we see women going to ask for advice from their priest or other religious leader who often tells them, that as women they have a duty to stay in the marriage because with God’s help things will get better. In reality, as we know, things get worse, as sometimes violence can end up in death. So, they can be killed by their husbands.TWO — “What people would say?” (El que diran…). This is still a strong component of our culture. People stay married or in relationships just because they are afraid of what people would say if they know that they are victims of violence, or what they would say about them if they got divorce. Divorce, I think is a huge issue for a lot of people in our culture Many people will stay married just because they don’t want to go through the shame of having being divorced and far less the shame of being victims of domestic violence.THREE — “Marianismo” is a characteristic that I have seen in many Latinas. It is the belief that women as wives have to suffer. Marianismo is an aspect of the female gender role in the machismo folk culture of Latin American. It is the veneration for feminine virtues like purity, moral strength, etc. It represents the “virgin” aspect of the virgin-whore dichotomy. In a lot of our communities women are expected to suffer their husband’s abusive treatment in silence and are expected to bear the suffering with dignity.FOUR — A Lack of English: A lot of Latinas do not know English so it is really difficult for them to ask for help or to know where to go when they are being abused.
FIVE — A Fear of authorities and some agencies: (ACS/Immigration/Police): When women come to this country, the first fear that abusers place in women is deportation or the removal of their kids.SIX — A lack of understanding about the culture here in the United States and knowing that partner violence is taken seriously here: For some Latinas who are new to this country the little information that they do have about this country and how it works is through their abusers. A lot of times abusers will know more English and they are the ones giving the information to the women about the police or other systems. They use this as another form of control, so, they will control all the information their partners have.
SEVEN — A lack of knowledge about the systems here in the United States: Some of the Latinas do not know how the systems work here. The experience that Latinas have about the police in their countries, for example, is completely different than the systems here in the US.
Q. How willing are Latinas to go to the police for help?
Often they are very reluctant to call the police. For two reasons specifically fear and lack of knowledge.
It may be that they are undocumented, or do not understand that they are documented (because of misinformation by the batterer), so they fear deportation. Also, Latina mothers often fear that their kids will be removed by the authorities because of domestic violence. The second reason is the lack of knowledge and information: they do not know that actually the police are here to help them. In a lot of cases, as I mentioned before, the police in our countries don’t work the same way that they do here and batterers work hard to keep victims in the dark, so they don’t know police will help them. Most of them do not even know that domestic violence is a crime. Women, do not know their rights or the resources they have available when they are victims of domestic violence.
Q. Have you noticed, for example, that some of the male partners of abused women have more English skills than their girlfriends and wives and therefore may mislead the women about their chances of getting any help?
Yes, that usually happens. Women, will have all the information through their partners who often have more English skills. Therefore, they use this as an opportunity to exert more power and control over their victims. I had a case in which the woman didn’t know a word in English and her partner always threatened her by saying that the police will deport her at any time if she talks with them about what is going on. He even said, that he can ask the police to deport her at any time. One time, he approached one police officer to talk with him (I am sure, to talk about things that were not important) and said to my client: See, I can talk with the police and I can tell them that you are lying and that you are illegal here, so, they can deport you. To this day, she has never talked with the police and is still always afraid to even look at them.
Q. What are some of the issues that prevent abused women from getting help? Is there a trust in the system or lack of awareness of the services that are available?
I think both. They really don’t know how the systems work here in the US. They do not know that there are shelters available for them, or that the police can help and that the abusers can be arrested for this crime, or that actually domestic violence is a crime. They do not know how public assistance works or ACS. In some of our countries, we do not have shelters or the help that women can get when they report abuse is minimal, so, they just don’t know what they can do or how to ask for help. Although, more recently there have been talks about building domestic violence shelters in countries such as Colombia.
Q. Have you found abuse in women who have been “trafficked” to this country? Or have you found that women who have arrived in the U.S. have been abused before they came here?
BOTH! I have cases, in which women have been abused even before they came to this country, or they were abused when they were crossing the border and after they’ve been here. We are seeing more and more cases of women being trafficked to this country and actually being trafficked from state to state, some in forced labor, others forced into sex trafficking.
When women are victims of human trafficking, most of them are subject to domestic violence. The psychological consequences of trafficking and domestic violence are very similar. These women have high levels of anxiety, they use minimization or denial, some of them have a flattened affect, memory loss, depression, dissociation, post traumatic stress disorder, it is hard for them to trust service providers or authorities, or trust anyone, they feel ashamed and sometimes they use drugs or alcohol to cope with the emotional of physical pain they have.
Q. What can social workers like you do to help these women?
As social workers, we must be aware of domestic violence and its far-reaching consequences. As Latina social workers, we must always keep in mind that domestic violence is a reality that affects our community. A lot of Latinas are ashamed to even talk about this, so, as social workers we need to be able to assess each particular situation, each woman’s story and ask question and give information. Information, as we say here at Sanctuary is power. If we give power to women, they will be able to make their own decisions.
Another thing that we social workers can do, is do outreach, talk about this issue in our communities, with our people. With women, but also with men. We must raise awareness. We need to let them know that there are laws, services that are available for victims and that the law will punish abusers. Even if their partners are undocumented or they don’t know English, they can ask for help. In NYC they need to know, that the police are not immigration services. So, again, even if they are undocumented, they can talk with the police, they can ask for help and they are not going to be deported. We also need to teach men and women how to have healthy relationships, free of violence.
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The National Association of Social Workers (NASW), in Washington, D.C., is the largest membership organization of professional social workers in the world with nearly 150,000 members in 56 chapters throughout the United States and its territories. It promotes, develops, and protects the practice of social work and social workers. NASW also seeks to enhance the well-being of individuals, families, and communities through its advocacy. |
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Tags: domestic violence, Hispanics, Latinas and domestic violence, Monica Roldan
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Introduction
Domestic violence (also known as interpersonal partner abuse) is a pattern of assaultive and coercive behaviors, including physical, sexual, and psychological attacks, as well as economic coercion, that adults or adolescents use against their intimate partners.
Domestic violence is not an isolated, individual event, but rather a pattern of multiple tactics and repeated events. Unlike stranger-to-stranger violence, in domestic violence the assaults are repeated against the same victim by the same perpetrator. These assaults occur in different forms: physical, sexual, and psychological. The pattern may include economic control as well. While physical assault may occur infrequently, other parts of the pattern may occur daily. One battering episode builds on past episodes and sets the stage for future episodes. All tactics of the pattern interact with each other and have profound effects on the victims.
Domestic violence includes a wide range of coercive behaviors with a wide range of consequences, some causing physical injuries and some not. However, all are psychologically damaging. Some acts are crimes in most states (such as physical assault, sexual assault, menacing, arson, kidnapping, harassment), while other battering episodes are not illegal (such as name-calling, denying access to the family automobile, control of financial resources). While the intervening professional sometimes must attempt to make sense of one specific incident that resulted in an injury, the victim is dealing with that one episode in the context of a pattern of both obvious and subtle episodes of coercion.
How Social Workers Help
Social workers provide myriad services to victims and perpetrators of domestic violence. Direct services to victims of domestic violence include counseling and support through shelter programs across the country, individual counseling through private practice settings, court advocacy through county victim service agencies, and social justice community organizing efforts to prevent domestic violence from occurring in the first place. Social workers provide services to perpetrators through voluntary and court mandated batterer intervention programs. As professional committed to social justice, domestic violence is a social justice issue.
Direct Service Providers (Women’s Advocate, Shelter Program). Social workers provide services to victims of domestic violence through shelter programs across the country. The context in which services are provided is empowerment and advocacy oriented.
Community Education Coordinator. Many shelters across the country have a Community Education Coordinator on staff who may be a social worker. This person is accountable for managing all types of community education from professional development and training to providing speakers for civic or social groups.
Social workers provide therapy to victims of domestic violence while they are in a shelter or living in their community. Social workers also serve as executive directors of domestic violence organizations.
On the state level, social workers staff domestic violence coalitions and provide training and technical assistance to shelter programs across their respective states.
Source: Some of this information is taken from Understanding Domestic Violence: Preparatory Reading for Trainers by Anne L. Ganley, Ph.D. in Domestic Violence-Child Protection Curriculum by Susan Schechter, M.S.W., 1995.
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The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect those of the National Association of Social Workers or its members.
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Tags: abuse, Direct Service Providers, domestic violence, help, interpersonal partner abuse, physical abuse, social workers
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Family Safety, How Social Workers Help |
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Warning: perils ahead. That’s life: lightning strikes, fires, accidents and injuries, family crises, food poisoning and falls, cancer and heart attacks. Risk is inherent in life, and we learn to protect ourselves and control what we can.
When tragedy strikes and we fall victim to forces outside of our control or from lifestyle choices, we can find comfort from the support of others. Social workers are specifically trained to help people regain their equilibrium following an illness, family challenges, and accidents.
Keeping yourself and your family safe and healthy should be a high priority. And when disaster happens, seeking help just makes good sense.
Violence in the home touches the lives of people from all races, educational backgrounds, and socioeconomic groups, often causing devastating consequences for women, children, and families. Domestic violence, also known interpersonal partner violence or family violence, is the single largest cause of injury to women between the ages of 15 and 44, more than muggings, car accidents, and rapes combined.
As many as 4 million women are abused and 2,000 die from their injuries every year, according to the American College of Emergency Physicians.
Studies have found that batterers are most commonly males who use violence to control a wife or girlfriend. They may use physical violence, such as punching, kicking, slapping, or strangulation, or sexual violence. Another form of abuse is psychological; the abuser may threaten to hurt other family members or pets, may use insults, criticism and name-calling, and intimidation. Domestic violence also includes abuse against older adults (elder abuse), and dating violence against teenagers.
The damaging effects of violence in the home can be far-reaching and long-term. Women with a history of domestic violence have higher rates of all health problems than other women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). They also report long-lasting health conditions, such as chronic pain and gastrointestinal disorders. Abused women are often depressed and anxious.
Growing up in a violent home can be traumatic for children, even if they are not the victims. Children who witness their parents’ domestic violence are more likely than their peers to experience depression and anxiety, to abuse drugs and alcohol, run away from home, commit sexual assault crimes, and attempt suicide.
Children exposed to domestic violence are more likely to exhibit increased levels of aggression and anti-social behavior, unhealthy peer relationships, and poor school performance.
Victims of domestic abuse often fear their partner’s retribution if they try to get help. Still, community services are available to protect women and children from abuse. Social workers can refer clients to residential shelters, support groups, assertiveness classes, and services that provide legal assistance. The National Domestic Violence Hotline (800-799-7233) provides crisis intervention and is available 24 hours a day.
Like domestic abuse, child abuse can be a dangerous family secret that is underreported to authorities. In 2002, 906,000 U.S. children had been abused, according to child protective service agencies. Of these, 61 percent had been neglected, 19 percent were physically abused, 10 percent were sexually abused, and 5 percent were psychologically abused. An estimated 1,500 children died from abuse that year, according to CDC.
The effects of child maltreatment can last a lifetime. The stress of chronic abuse in infancy or early childhood can slow or alter brain development, leading to sleep disturbances, panic disorder, attention-deficit disorder, and other problems later in life. Child abuse has also been linked to long-term health problems, such as heart disease, cancer, and lung and liver disease.
Children who have been abused by a parent often do not form an emotional bond with them, which can later lead to difficulties in forming attachments with other adults and with peers. Abused teenagers have a higher risk of experiencing teen pregnancy, low academic achievement, and mental health problems.
Social workers play an active role in protecting children through the child welfare system and they are in a position to provide early intervention. The child welfare system is comprised of many community organizations that collaborate to promote child safety. These organizations include public agencies, such as departments of social services, and private child welfare agencies and organizations. They often collaborate with the schools, health and mental health agencies, and other community-based organizations to meet the needs of children and families.
This network investigates reports of possible child abuse, provides services to families to assist with protecting children, and arranges for foster care or permanent adoptive homes for children who are not safe at home. Child protective service workers follow up on child abuse reports if the report meets the state’s legal definition of abuse or neglect.
After talking with the parents, teachers, childcare providers, and others, child protective service workers may move a child who is believed to be in immediate danger to a shelter, foster care home, or to the home of a relative. In some states, when the risk to a child appears to be minimal, the child protective service worker may identify family problems and offer needed services. For example, he or she might counsel the family. The parents’ attendance at a mental health or alcohol abuse treatment program may be recommended. The child protective service worker can also make regular visits to the family where there is a risk of child abuse or neglect.
In abuse cases that meet the state’s definition of child abuse or neglect, child protective service workers will offer voluntary, in-home services to help the family resolve the conflicts that led to the abuse. If services are refused, court intervention may be necessary.
The child welfare system provides an array of prevention and intervention services to children and families; particularly to children who have been or are at risk of abuse or neglect.
This system’s role is to promote the safety and well being of children. Part of this role is to teach adults parenting skills and offer services that will help to minimize future risk to children.
Caring for another person is a rewarding and challenging job. Often caregivers take care of others while neglecting themselves. Stress can build leading to actions that would not normally occur.
Abuse refers to any willful act or omission of a caregiver or any other person which results in physical injury, mental anguish, unreasonable confinement, sexual abuse or exploitation, or financial exploitation to or of a vulnerable adult.
Signs of Physical Abuse:
- Multiple bruising, not consistent with a fall
- Black eyes, slap marks, kick marks, grasp marks, finger tip bruising and other bruises
- Burns such as cigarette burns, dunking burns (hands/feet being immersed in boiling hot water)
- Fractures not consistent with falls
- Stench of urine or feces
- Indications of malnutrition or over-feeding
- Administration of inappropriate drugs
Neglect is failure of a caregiver to provide essential services necessary to maintain the physical and/or mental health of a vulnerable adult.
Signs of Neglect:
- Lack of basic care
- Abandonment
- Not providing proper food or fluids
- Failure to provide proper health care
- Lack of personal care
- Not dressing someone (for example, from the waist down because the person is incontinent
- Not dressing someone appropriately (such as wearing thin clothes in the winter)
- Refusing to buy new clothes for someone who has gained or lost weight
- Being left to sit in urine/feces
- Absence of mobility aids so the person’s movements are restricted
- Absence of necessary medication
- Improperly fitting or damaged dentures
- Nonfunctioning hearing aids, including lack of batteries
- Isolation (for example, the person may be locked in a room or confined space with only basic necessities
- No social contact or stimulation
Highly trained social workers are available to help you identify options to alleviate elder abuse. Social workers can identify state and local human service centers that offer mental health services. These services are often available on a sliding fee scale that is affordable to everyone. Also, social workers can refer you to crisis centers, private counselors, and others who can help.
Home may be where the heart is, but there are also potential hazards that threaten the safety and welfare of children. Unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death among children ages 14 and under in the United States. Each year, more than 4.5 million children are treated in hospital emergency centers for injuries incurred specifically in the home, according to the National Safe Kids Campaign.
Children most at risk are those age 4 and under, males, minorities, and children living in poverty. Low-income families often must live in a hazardous environment where there is overcrowded housing, inadequate supervision, and a lack of safe play areas for children.
Parents can’t protect children from every hazard, but they can consider safety an important issue and take precautions. An estimated 90 percent of unintentional injuries can be prevented. Never leave your toddler unattended.
Preventing Drownings, Falls, and Lead Poisoning
- Drowning is the leading cause of injury-related death among children ages 1 to 4. Prevention is a matter of carefully watching children while they are in the bathtub and around swimming pools and ponds. Flotation devices in swimming pools should not be a substitute for supervision. Empty large buckets when they are not in use. Also, learn child first aid and CPR. In many places, the local Red Cross will offer CPR training sessions.
- Falls can be prevented by keeping young children away from heights, such as high porches or balconies; strapping children into high chairs and strollers; securing rugs with double-sided tape or a rubber pad; using a rubber mat in the bathtub; and keeping windows closed and locked when children are around. Insect screens are not sturdy enough to protect children from falling out of windows.
- Lead poisoning can cause irreversible brain damage and may impair mental functioning. Infants and young children are especially vulnerable to the effects of lead. Homes built before 1960 may contain lead-based paint that can be either removed or covered. Take advantage of community lead screening programs to have children tested for lead poisoning.
- Safety proof your home.
- Store medicines and cleaning products on high shelves.
- Make sure toys are age appropriate to avoid choking.
- Make sure your child’s car safety seat is age and weight appropriate.
For more safety information, contact local health agencies and social services organizations. Discuss health, safety, and family issues with helping professionals in your community.
Related Articles:
Tags: abuse, caregiver abuse, child protective services, domestic violence, environment, home, neglect, physical, signs, social workers
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