Ethical and safety considerations in the use of virtual intimate partner violence (IPV) supports

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a major public health and societal issue that has been further intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic. IPV impacts individuals, families, and communities worldwide, with women-identified people at highest risk. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the need for virtual supports for those experiencing IPV, with service providers adjusting service delivery methods to allow for physical distancing. Virtual or online supports (email, text, videoconferencing, apps) can reduce isolation and provide remote IPV social support, advice, and counselling services, yet they remain an area for further study in practice. In particular, little is known about ethical and safety issues that can arise in providing virtual IPV services. Combining recent research and social work experience with people impacted by IPV, the authors present a commentary paper that summarises ethical considerations when using virtual IPV services. After overviewing recent research on virtual IPV services, the paper outlines five key concerns to consider in providing virtual IPV interventions: 1) service provider training and protocols for assessing safety; 2) protecting privacy and identities; 3) maintaining professional boundaries; 4) financial and access barriers; and 5) cultural and service preferences. The paper concludes with policy and practice recommendations for providing virtual IPV services

Unprotected, Unrecognized: Canadian Immigration Policy and Violence Against Women, 2008-2013

The Migrant Mothers Project (MMP) was launched in 2011, as a collaborative research project led by Rupaleem Bhuyan at the University of Toronto in partnership with a network of community stakeholders, legal clinics, community health centres, and grassroots women. The MMP examines how immigration policies contribute to the production of violence against women and creates barriers for women seeking safety and support. In 2013, The Migrant Mothers Project conducted research to understand how immigration and refugee policies impact the safety of immigrants who have a precarious status. Since 2008, the Canadian government has introduced an unprecedented number of legislative and regulatory changes that have impacted immigrants’ and refugees’ access to legal representation, access to social and health services, and pathways to permanent residence. We wanted to understand how immigration policy changes are impacting how community based organizations work with women with precarious immigration status, especially in cases where women are seeking safety from violence. Over the past two decades, anti-violence against women advocates have grappled with intersecting oppressions that impact women’s efforts to flee or recover from violence. When Linda MacLeod and Maria Shin were commissioned by Health Canada to study the service delivery needs of immigrant and refugee women, they emphasized that many immigrants and refugees who are abused are isolated due to language and cultural barriers, racism, the ‘strangeness’ of their environment and the power that their immigration sponsors held over them. Supporting refugee claimants, immigrants who were facing sponsorship breakdown, and developing programs to address language barriers, ethno-cultural differences, and queer and trans people in immigrant communities emerged as key concerns in anti-violence against women programs and services. More recently, organizations have identified immigration status as a pivotal factor that increases vulnerability to abuse and neglect

Exploring Shared Trauma in the Time of COVID: A Simulation-Based Survey Study of Mental Health Clinicians

From fear of contracting the virus, isolation from physical distancing, to navigating lifework balance, the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to leave long-lasting psychosocial impacts on many. Shared trauma refers to similar psychological reactions to an extraordinary community event when experienced by both the clinicians and clients. We examined the experiences mong mental health clinicians in Canada and the United States (n = 196) in this online survey study during the second phase of the pandemic (Spring 2021). In addition to using traditional survey items (e.g., demographics, scales, and short answers), we also used video-recorded Simulated Clients (SC; i.e., professional actors) as a novel method to elicit the participants’ assessment of the SCs and the psychosocial impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using shared trauma as a theoretical framework, we analyzed both quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative results suggested that although these mental health clinicians certainly reported experiencing psychosocial impacts of the pandemic themselves, these shared experiences with client and general populations did not greatly impact how they understood the SCs. Qualitative results helped further contextualize the clinicians’ own personal and professional lives. Implications for clinical practice and further research related to shared trauma are discussed

Counseline: Onsite & Online Counselling, 2013-2014 Report

Between 2008 and 2012, the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work (FIFSW) partnered with St. Michael’s College and Victoria College at the University of Toronto to develop, deliver and evaluate a four-year pilot counselling initiative for undergraduate university students. This initiative, entitled the Cyber Practicum, involved six MSW interns providing timely and accessible services to undergraduate students at St. Michael’s College and Victoria College. The service comprised traditional face-to-face counselling and cyber counselling (i.e., asynchronous email). The students were supervised by a social worker with over 20 years of experience who was seconded from the University of Toronto Counselling and Psychological Services (CAPS). The service was successful and considered valuable by the Registrars and Dons of St. Michael’s College and Victoria College. Aspects of the Cyber Practicum identified as particularly helpful included: a) shorter waiting periods to access service, b) less stigma associated with seeing a social worker, and 3) lack of judgment and feeling of acceptance by the MSW interns. In response, a partnership was created among the University of Toronto, Faculty of Arts and Science and its undergraduate Colleges, Health and Wellness, and the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, to collaborate in offering such a service with some modifications, initially for a three year period beginning in September 2012. This service was named Counseline. We have completed year 2 of the Counseline partnership. Results of the Year one Counseline evaluation report indicated that the service was effective

An Analysis of Comparative Perspectives on Economic Empowerment among Employment-Seeking Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) and Service Providers

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to compare perspectives on economic empowerment in the context of employment seeking among intimate partner violence (IPV) survivors and service providers specializing in IPV-related trauma. This study addressed the following question is: How do employment-seeking IPV survivors and service providers conceptualize and understand empowerment? Insights into how each group conceives of economic empowerment and its attainment following IPV experiences can help to inform an effective service curriculum that can be used to facilitate optimal employment outcomes among survivors. Methods: A constructivist grounded theory method was used to develop a theoretical framework for conceptualizing how economic empowerment is understood by employment-seeking survivors of IPV, and IPV service providers. Twenty-six participants were recruited (survivors, n = 16; service providers, n = 10) in a large northeastern U.S. city. Interview questions focused on how IPV survivors and service providers identify and conceptualize economic empowerment, and how support services respond to survivors’ needs around empowerment, particularly through help with employment seeking. Results: Data were coded and analyzed following data analysis stages: (a) initial coding; (b) constant comparison; and, (c) focused coding. Three main themes emerged from the narrative data: (1) structural characteristics shape individual experiences and perspectives of empowerment; (2) peer support as an integral component to empowerment; and (3) employment attainment as economic empowerment. Though perspectives on economic empowerment were often aligned, some key differences emerged. Whereas providers tended toward a more restricted, micro-level view of empowerment as primarily an attribute of the individual, survivors were inclined toward a structuralist perspective that considers how individuals’ experiences of empowerment are shaped by broader, institutional-level factors. Conclusions: Findings from this study build on prior research on the experiences of IPV survivors. The focus on experiences of empowerment in the context of employment-seeking can inform work on building more effective support services for survivors that avoid reductionist approaches that could be perceived by survivors as “victim-blaming” by incorporating a sensitivity to empowerment as derived from structural factors that shape individual experience

An Analysis of Comparative Perspectives on Economic Empowerment among Employment-Seeking Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) and Service Providers

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to compare perspectives on economic empowerment in the context of employment seeking among intimate partner violence (IPV) survivors and service providers specializing in IPV-related trauma. This study addressed the following question is: How do employment-seeking IPV survivors and service providers conceptualize and understand empowerment? Insights into how each group conceives of economic empowerment and its attainment following IPV experiences can help to inform an effective service curriculum that can be used to facilitate optimal employment outcomes among survivors. Methods: A constructivist grounded theory method was used to develop a theoretical framework for conceptualizing how economic empowerment is understood by employment-seeking survivors of IPV, and IPV service providers. Twenty-six participants were recruited (survivors, n = 16; service providers, n = 10) in a large northeastern U.S. city. Interview questions focused on how IPV survivors and service providers identify and conceptualize economic empowerment, and how support services respond to survivors’ needs around empowerment, particularly through help with employment seeking. Results: Data were coded and analyzed following data analysis stages: (a) initial coding; (b) constant comparison; and, (c) focused coding. Three main themes emerged from the narrative data: (1) structural characteristics shape individual experiences and perspectives of empowerment; (2) peer support as an integral component to empowerment; and (3) employment attainment as economic empowerment. Though perspectives on economic empowerment were often aligned, some key differences emerged. Whereas providers tended toward a more restricted, micro-level view of empowerment as primarily an attribute of the individual, survivors were inclined toward a structuralist perspective that considers how individuals’ experiences of empowerment are shaped by broader, institutional-level factors. Conclusions: Findings from this study build on prior research on the experiences of IPV survivors. The focus on experiences of empowerment in the context of employment-seeking can inform work on building more effective support services for survivors that avoid reductionist approaches that could be perceived by survivors as “victim-blaming” by incorporating a sensitivity to empowerment as derived from structural factors that shape individual experience

Child welfare investigations involving exposure to intimate partner violence: Case and worker characteristics

Objectives: This paper explores child welfare investigations involving three forms of children’s exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV): direct witness to physical violence, indirect exposure to physical violence, and exposure to emotional violence, and the characteristics associated with these subtypes. These data allow the exposure to IPV typology to be more precisely examined as the subtypes define the specific event(s) investigated. Methods: Using a large representative dataset of an estimated 22,373 investigations, clinical and case characteristics are examined. Bivariate analyses are conducted in order to assess differences for the three forms of IPV. Results: Investigations involving children’s direct witnessing of physical violence was most frequently substantiated and kept open for ongoing child welfare services compared to other forms of exposure. Caregiver risk factors differed significantly between the three subtypes of exposure to IPV. Some worker characteristics were also significantly different (e.g., social work degree, and domestic violence training) depending on the type of exposure IPV being investigated. Conclusions and Implications: These results have important policy and practice implications in that they show that a differential systems response is needed for exposure to IPV, depending on the type of exposure and the child, family, and household risk factors present. The results also suggest that some workers may require additional domestic violence training.The 2008 Ontario Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect was funded by the Ministry of Children and Youth Services (MCYS) as well as the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC). Secondary data analysis of the OIS-2008 is partially funded by the Chair in Child Welfare held by Professor Fallon

Examining the Response to Different Types of Exposure to Intimate Partner Violence

Objectives: The objective of this study is to examine the differences and similarities in child, family, and case characteristics between different types of exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV), and to determine if type of exposure to IPV influences the decision to provide ongoing child protection services. Methods: Using data from the 2008 Ontario Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (OIS-2008), cases were selected if the investigation was substantiated for exposure to IPV, either as the primary or secondary maltreatment type, resulting in an estimated 17,006 cases. First, bivariate analyses were conducted to compare six different combinations of exposure to IPV and differences in child, family, household, and case characteristics. A logistic regression was used to determine whether the type of exposure was predictive of case opening when controlling for child, parent, and case characteristics. Results: There were significant differences in child and family characteristics between types of exposure to IPV. For cases where exposure to IPV co-occurred with at least one other form of maltreatment, workers noted higher proportions of child and caregiver risk factors than exposure to IPV alone. Conclusions: Cases involving children exposed to emotional violence and another form of maltreatment were most likely to result in case opening, when controlling for all other factors. Implications: The results indicate several important differences in clinical characteristics between types of exposure to IPV in child maltreatment cases. These differences in child, family, and case characteristics can be used to tailor service responses to better help these families.The 2008 Ontario Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect was funded by the Ministry of Children and Youth Services as well as the Public Health Agency of Canada. Secondary data analysis of the OIS-2008 is partially funded by the Chair in Child Welfare held by Professor Fallon