Family violence is defined as “when someone tries to control their partner or other family members in ways that intimidate or oppress them. Controlling behaviors can include threats, humiliation, emotional abuse, physical assault, sexual abuse, financial exploitation and social isolations, such as not allowing contact with family or friends (Trisha. (2011, March 14)”. One in every three women and one in every four males have experienced some form of violence with an intimate partner (NCADV | National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. (n.d.). As far as child abuse goes, “the United States has one of the worst records among industrialized nations- losing on average between four and seven children every day to child abuse and neglect (Child Abuse Statistics. (n.d.)”.
When people think of abuse, physical abuse is often what comes to mind. Family violence can occur in several different forms, such as physical, psychological, sexual, financial, and even medical negligence. Physical abuse is causing physical injury to a person but can often be hidden. Psychological abuse is putting someone down, harassing them, screaming, intimidating, and manipulation along with many other ways. Sexual abuse happens more to children and can impact the emotional wellbeing as well. This is most hidden form of abuse. Financial abuse is controlling someone by the idea of dominance from money. Preventing someone from getting a job and having their own money so they will be dependent upon them is an example of this. Medical negligence is not getting the proper medical attention or medical care when needed. This can eventually cause severe damage to the victim. Negligence in general can be very harmful to the victim and cause further emotional damage as well as deteriorate the physical well-being Family Violence. (n.d.).
Family violence has been a huge problem in society for centuries and will inevitably continue if there is not something done to stop it. Social workers play a huge role in ending this horrendous act, mainly by advocating for the victims. Seeking them help when they are hopeless, leading them to resources that they may have never knew about otherwise, listening to and advising them in the right direction, strengthening relationships, ensuring safety of the client, trying to educate society of the signs of abuse, along with many other responsibilities. Social workers interact with the family and try to fix broken relationships, to see where things went wrong and what should be done to fix the problems. Social workers must use the strength-based technique and focus more on the family’s strengths and capabilities instead of their downfalls. Clients trust in their social worker and depend on them for encouragement and a push in the right direction. Social workers must help link and connect the families with the appropriate agencies that will help them with the specific problems they are having. Besides that, social workers do many things behind the scenes to help with this problem. Such as helping to create programs and policies to help reduce and eliminate the problem.
This particular situation could address anyone that has a family. A mother, a father, a child, grandparent, anyone could be affected by this. The main victims, however, include mothers and children. Family violence is a result from the imbalance of power in a relationship, meaning that one person in the relationship feels superior and dominate over the other. Although this could happen to anyone, there are some people that are at a higher risk of being a victim. This includes indigenous, young, pregnant, or disabled women. Family violence seems to be a cycle, with children that experienced violence as a child turning out to be a violent adult. People who live in poverty or in rural areas seem to have a higher risk of experiencing family violence for the reason that money troubles oftentimes triggers anger and violence. However, the people that are significantly wealthy still have a chance of being a victim. Family violence does not discriminate and could happen to absolutely anybody.
Even though there are statistics about the amount of family violence that occurs, it is really hard to tell exactly how many people experience this because many times cases are never brought outside of the home. There are many victims that are too afraid to seek help or involve the police, so they are not accounted for in those statistics. The challenge of ending family violence was not always classified as a social problem because of this. It was viewed as a personal, family problem and not necessarily a crime. It became noticeable that it was, in fact, a social problem when the effects of being a victim of this became visible. This includes health issues due to the amount of stress that comes along with always being in the state of fear, mental health issues and physical issues. Depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts could all be the result of witnessing this abuse or being the victim of it. Many times, physical evidence of abuse are hid either by the victim or the abuser. The social problem is ultimately that this abuse effects healthcare issues in many ways and it needs to be addressed.
The family violence situation may seem like it is just a micro level issue, affecting individual families. However, it is also a macro level while it needs to be addressed at the community level as well. Social workers are called to advocate for individual families that are experiencing the abuse, so in that situation it should be addressed in a micro level fashion. On top of that, social workers must be working at the macro level to install policies and programs for interventions. For example, realizing that many women never seek help because they have no transportation to get to a shelter. A social worker should then operate at the macro level and try to create a way of free transportation to and from the shelter, instead of working at the micro level and individually bringing each woman in need of transportation to the shelter herself. Social workers should be trying to limit the number of boundaries that prohibit the help needed for these families and also be advocating for individual families.
One of the reasons why victims do not remove themselves from the situation is because of money problems. If they leave, they could become homeless and lose everything they have. They could not have a car to help them leave the situation in a way that is actually effective. Most of the time, in domestic violence situations, the person doing the abusing has the majority of money. A lot of victims never speak up or seek help out of fear that their abuser will find out and make their life even worse. To help these reasons, homes and shelters should be made much more accessible to the ones that need it most. A safe place that victims feel more than comfortable going to without fear that they will be turned away and sent back is very necessary. Family violence is not just domestic violence, however. In the situation of elder abuse, resources are not as broad as they are for domestic violence. Elders also need a safe place they feel they can go to with their problems of their family members abusing them. Elders are commonly abused over their will and who will get what when they pass away, and they are abused either physically, emotionally or both.
The program I created to end family violence is mandatory psychological check-ups. Many victims never leave the situation because they do not realize that they are in a situation or they feel they have no body to turn to. If everyone had to go to at least a yearly psychological check-up, more people would get the help they need that they might not have otherwise gotten. Like a doctor’s appointment, the main aspects will be assessed and if there are issues they will be addressed. Stress levels, anxiety, depression, personal issues and anything that the patient feels they need to talk about. This way, everyone has to talk to someone yearly and there will not be any more stigmatism about doing so. Also, if a patient is in trouble, their doctor can lead in them in the right direction and get them the help they need.
The yearly checkups would be mandatory and covered by insurance. If the patient comes in and discloses family abuse, it would be mandatory for the doctor to involve police and to do all that they can to remove the patient from the situation. For things that they were not able to do, they should direct them to people that could give them further help. For victims that do not realize the severity of the abuse that they are in, this would help them understand that the things they have been experiencing is not okay. Children would be deeply assessed with topics such as their eating schedule, sleep schedule, relationships with family members, and their happiness levels on top of their stress levels, depression and anxiety. It would be necessary for the doctor to look further in depth to the child’s answers to see if they seem to be scared of any of their family members. Children show fear more recognizably and more often than most adults. If the child mentioned that they rarely eat, that could be a sign of negligence and should be addressed. In the aspect of elder violence, a doctor might have to go to the patient themselves to assess them. The doctor could go to nursing homes and assess multiple patients in a day every so often. The assessments for elder abuse would include relationships with family, their depression and stress levels, and their typical moods. If elders were experiencing family abuse, they should disclose this when asked about their relationships with family.
Following the mandatory check-ups, patients would continue the care the doctor felt necessary. This may not necessarily mean actual medication, but rather advice or lifestyle changes given by the doctor if the patient did not need further treatment. Patients could see the doctors on a regular basis if needed, but everyone is mandated to regularly. This could form a strong trusting relationship with the doctor that the patient might have needed. Seeing a therapist regularly can increase the victim’s confidence and motivation to leave their situation.
The reason why I chose to create this program is the main way to end family violence is to break the cycle. Although mandatory psychological check-ups could benefit everyone, it would especially help victims of family abuse get help. If family violence is caught early enough in these checkups, it could be easier stopped. Family relationships might not have fully broken at this point, the psychological effects have yet to consume the victims, and there is still a lot of hope left for the broken family. Abuse could turn into a habit from the abuser and if it is caught earlier, it would be easier to break. It would be easier to convince all members of the family to come together as a whole and talk out their issues.
Looking at the bigger picture, a child that grew up in an abusive home will begin to adapt and learn from that behavior. They could eventually carry that kind of lifestyle into their families of their own later in their life. They could end up being a violent member of society after growing up with the idea that violence is okay, no matter who it is towards. Being around violence in their adolescent years could also affect their mental health for the rest of their lives. They could live with chronic depression after growing up being beaten and scolded for everything they did. If family violence is caught early enough in a child’s life, all of this could be prevented.
Family violence is an epidemic and will continue to prohibit the growth of society unless it is stopped. With my new program of mandatory psychological check-ups, I believe this will help victims of family violence get the help they need without the fear of seeking help and upsetting their abuser. It will contribute to ending the cycle of family violence and hopefully bring families back together. It will open the eyes of those that did not realize that they are in a dangerous situation and help them realize what is best for them and their situation. Besides just helping those who are victims, it will also help everyone in society because mental health is just as important as physical health and should be examined regularly.