Abstract
This chapter focuses on the ways in which disasters affect social service agencies and their employees and clients experiencing domestic violence (In Australia, ‘domestic violence’ (DV) is the preferred term. However, in the USA, ‘intimate partner violence’ or IPV is preferred. In this chapter, colloquial ‘DV’ is used). It reports on interviews conducted with workers from domestic violence services and first responder organisations in Townsville, a regional centre in Queensland, Australia, that was hit by Cyclone Yasi in 2010 and on a survey conducted with 67 workers across Australia who had experienced a natural or technological disaster. Workers described how services were reduced as work premises were damaged or destroyed and how they themselves were affected by the disasters. Many workers felt torn between having to attend to their own situation and that of their clients. This chapter reports on some managers’ strategies for supporting both workers and clients during disasters.
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Notes
- 1.
The survey entailed a national on-line, mixed methods questionnaire, which explored practitioners’/workers’ experiences of disasters and perceptions of their organisations’ preparedness and response to a range of disasters. Basic descriptive statistics were used to identify key features of the data, and qualitative, thematic analysis was used to identify main themes and patterns of the qualitative responses. Sixty-six workers responded to the survey, though not all responded to every question. Respondents had experienced a range of disasters with the majority experiencing bush fires (26, 38 %) and floods (26, 38 %). Smaller numbers experienced cyclones (13 %), drought, a bomb threat, the Bali bombings, the Beaconfield’s mine disaster, ‘murders of women’ and riots. The qualitative case study focused on a regional town in the northeast of Australia, Townsville, which, in 2011 was hit by Cyclone ‘Yasi’, causing widespread destruction and flooding and 1 year later, in 2012, a smaller but still destructive tornado. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 workers immediately after the tornado aiming to understand the effect of these events on clients, workers and services. Participants were from both DV specialist services and generalist services, including a multicultural agency, a family support and counselling agency, women’s services, an aboriginal service, and first responders—police and a large emergency organisation. Thematic analysis was used to identify core themes in the data collected and conceptualise workers’ experiences in relation to existing literature. Worker’s responses are presented in italics to ensure their direct experience is recognised in the discussion of the data.
Reference
Hines, P., Mills, j., Bonner, R., Sutton, C., & Castellano, C. (2007). Healing and recovery after trauma: A disaster response program for first responders in systemic responses to disaster in stories of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. American Family Therapy Association (AFTA), Monograph, ISSN 1556-1364, Winter (pp. 63–68).
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Meyering, I., Braaf, R., Breckenridge, J., James, K. (2014). Responding to Domestic Violence in the Wake of Disasters: Exploring the Effects on Services and Workers. In: Roeder, L. (eds) Issues of Gender and Sexual Orientation in Humanitarian Emergencies. Humanitarian Solutions in the 21st Century. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05882-5_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05882-5_7
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