Family Domestic Violence Assessment Social Work Essay

Mrs. Chan has a family of four including a son and a daughter. She first came for help because of the bad father-son relationship in her family. During the interview, she disclosed the fact that she has been suffered from domestic violent for about one year.

Four interviews were conducted by the worker. The purpose was to help assess the situation and set up an intervention plan to dismiss domestic violent in the family and create a harmony family atmosphere.

Background information

The client, Mrs. Chan, is a housewife and her husband runs a grocery store. They have an 11-year-old son and an 8-year-old daughter. The financial status of the family is adequate.

Problem assessment

Client’s perception of the problems

During the interview sessions, Mrs. Chan explained her views on the problem.

Mrs. Chan worried about the bad father-son relationship in the family. For example, they seldom talk to each other. The son’s school work was getting work and had strange behaviors.

Mrs. Chan told the worker that she was abused by her husband and tolerated it for about one year. She had mentioned if her husband took out a knife, she could not stand it. When this happened, the client worried about she and her two children’s safety.

Work’s perception of the problems

According to Family-Centre Approach (Waldegrave , 2005), the family system would be disturb if there is one problem in the family. It suggest to focus on one problem and to regain the balance step by step. The worker observed that the family have several problems . The family members tolerated them but not tried to solve them, they lacked of focus on the problems.

Domestic violent

Mrs. Chan suffered from domestic violent since last year. Mr. Chan abused Mrs. Chan and even took out a knife to threat. The worker observed that the client and her children’s safety were at risk.

Spousal relationship

The unsolved domestic violent would trigger the other problem in the family (Waldegrave , 2005). The worker found that Mr. Chan was not respectful enough towards Mrs. Chan. He abused his wife and did not consider her physical hurt and trauma. Mrs. Chan tolerated it for a long time and never asked for help. Tolerate is not help for problem solving.

Father-son relationship

The family is the fundamental resource for the nurturing of children and parents should be supported in their efforts to care for their children (Waldegrave , 2005).

The domestic violent affected the father-son relationship. The children witnessed the father beat the mother, this arouse the hatred of them towards the father.

During the interviews, the worker found the client had suffered from domestic violence for a long time. She had many worries and hard to decide the arrangements, for example, financial concern and children’s school issue.

Agreed view of the clients and the worker

The client and the worker agreed that safety is the first concern. We thought that Mrs. Chan and her two children’s were in a dangerous situation. The domestic violent led to other problem in the family, such as the father-son relationship and the son’s behavior problem. Based on Mrs. Chan determination to change, it was hope that the domestic violent could be dismiss and a more harmonious atmosphere would be create in the family.

Priorities of problems

Domestic violent

Spousal relationship

Relationship of father and son

Intervention phase

The Inter-Agency Committee on Collaboration of Services for Families Where Wife Assault Occurs (1990) suggest that unless the batterer acknowledged his violent behavior and finished his own intervention plan, the worker should not bring the couple together for counseling. In this case, the client and her family member were separate for different individual intervention.

Objectives

Short-term:

Ensure safety

To dismiss violence in the family

Improve spousal relationship

Improve father son relationship

Long-term:

Create harmony and supportive atmosphere in the family

Strategies and rationales

Residential Services for Abused Women

Lowenberg and Dolgoff (1996) developed an Ethical Rules Screen which place the protection of safety as the most important principle. So the worker’s first concern was the client’s safety. Refuge centers provide temporary accommodation to females and their children in face of domestic violence or family crisis. The social worker would refer the client for the Harmony House for safety concern. She can have a safe place to stay and think about what to do next.

Domestic violence support group

Many women think that telling others or reporting to the police of the violence is betrayal and disloyal to the husband, she is also breaking the trust and friendship between the two (Towns, Adams and Gavey, 2003). According to the case, Mrs.Chan was reluctant about telling the abusing problem at first and informed that she had never told others before. So it is good for her to communicate with others in the same situation and face the problem not tolerate it. This interaction would benefit her decision making.

Emotional management and interpersonal relationship workshops

Mrs. Chan indicated that Mr. Chan was not good at controling his emotion and got hot temper. These workshops are conflict resolution trainings that help abusing men deal with their emotions in a healthy manner. The workshops emphasize empathy, forgiveness, and understanding. Through the course of the workshops he will be able to control anger .

Counseling with the children

Kolbo(1996) suggest the negative effects of witnessing domestic violence on children’s emotional and behavioral development. The domestic violent behaviors had bad effect on the children. The son worse in study and hate his father. It is necessary counsel the children for further intervention.

Apply family therapy

Use risk assessment to evaluate two of the couple are ready for the family therapy, and the safety monitoring is ongoing. In the condition that the husband was conscious that his violence was irrational and the wife was willing to counsel with the husband. The family-centre approach believe that families who seem hopeless can grow and change (Boone, 2002). All family member is responsible to the harmony of the family.