A. Neculau says that interfamily violence, in comparison with other types of ...
psihologie socială, coordinator Adrian Neculau, Ed. Polirom, Iaşi – 2004, pag. 42
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Economy Transdisciplinarity Cognition www.ugb.ro/etc
Vol. XIV, Issue 1/2011
121-132
The Specificity Of Intervention In Domestic Violence - Study Case In Domestic Violence OTILIA ALINA LUPU George Bacovia University from Bacau, ROMANIA
[email protected] Abstract: The social reality evaluate permanently generating changes which the social worker should identify and act in a functional human direction, over passing the eventual crises, tension estates, violent transitions and resistance phenomena against all kind of change. The social worker intervention is efficient if the latter will clearly understand the aimed objective, being it an individual, a collective humanity or social environment. At the same time, the social work should develop according to the modern social work standards, value systems, to the exigencies and deontological principles recognized and accepted. Keywords: domestic violence, social methodology, social protection, children in need or difficulty
Introduction Domestic violence has already become a social problem. Family violence is a universal problem affecting all countries, regardless of their level of development, being present in all segments of society. It is a serious phenomenon affecting the human’s right to life, safety, freedom, dignity, physical and psychical integration. The Romanian Encyclopedic Dictionary defines violence as “a vice of consent, which consists in the physical coercion exercised upon a person in order to determine him/her to do a certain legal act.” In addition, a theory of violence is also mentioned – sociologic theory of violence – according to which social inequality has its origin in the use of violence by some people against others, in a certain stage of social development. A. Neculau says that interfamily violence, in comparison with other types of violence, has its specific aspects, established by law. These are: 1. The permanent access of the aggressor to the victim; 2. The predictable development of violence events, cyclically, with multiple, inevitable and more frequent and severe episodes; 3. The engagement of the entire family system; 4. In the cases of family violence there appears structure changes of the personality of persons involved; 5. The emotional relationships between the two poles of the conflict represent another characteristic of domestic violence; 6. The secret, private character which makes the victim have limited access to support resources invariably appears in the case of family violence. 7. Non-interventionism; 8. The torture aspects of the woman-victim are omnipresent in the domestic violence; 9. Domestic violence has a wide range of psychical, physical, sexual and social manifestations. They can be combined in a hellish amalgamation, with both evident, surface and deep consequences on the victims. Through its measures and actions in family violence, social work meets the individual, family or group social needs with a view to overcome some crisis situations, including family violence cases. At the community level, social work has attributions concerning the preservation of the person’s autonomy and protection, the prevention of marginalisation and social exclusion and the 1
promotion of social inclusion. Also, social work supports and identifies local networks of formal and informal relationships and facilitates services in the field of family violence. As a recipient of family daily problems, social work has the obligation to intervene to recover the victims of social violence. Social work needs to remove the cultural barriers found in the form of myths, mindsets and prejudices that still persist in the common consciousness concerning the domestic violence phenomenon. The awareness of victims on the forms and types of violence present in the behaviours and attitudes of family members is the key factor in the identification of intervention modalities by providing specialised services. The method is a standardised set of rules, operations and technical means used for the achievement of a pre-determined purpose in scientific research. The scientific research in social work has as main purposes the observance and explanation of individual and collective behaviours, as well as the finding of specific solutions. The survey, questionnaire, interview, experiment, observation, documentation, case study are research methods and techniques used in social work. Survey The survey is a psycho-sociological research method which is based on the collection of data from a sample of a larger population, in order to process them and generalise the results (Manual de psihologie socială, coordinator Adrian Neculau, Ed. Polirom, Iaşi – 2004, pag. 42). It requires the use of some standardised instruments of investigation. The main modalities of data collection are the questionnaire and interview. A particular form of the survey is the Gallup poll. The survey is a complex approach which develops in more phases, from 4-5 to several tens. The most representative phases of survey are the following: Identification of the problem and the formulation of the research hypothesis; Operationalization of concepts. The final products of operationalization are the questionnaires, interview guides, tests, observation grids etc; Sampling ; The proper development of research (collection of data). The research instrument is applied to all sample subjects, the possible errors of research are taken into account, great attention is paid to the collection and preservation of data (this is very important for the field operators). The analysis and interpretation of data; The drawing-up of the research report. Questionnaire The questionnaire is a set of questions, structured and standardised, and by its application we obtain data useful for research (Metodologia cercetării sociologice, metode cantitative şi calitative, Septimiu Chelcea, Ed. Economică Bucureşti – 2004, pag. 212). According to S. Chelcea, the questionnaire “represents a technique and correspondingly, an instrument of investigation consisting in a set of written questions and eventually graphic images, logically and psychologically ordered, which, through the administration by the survey operators or self administration, determines, from the inquired persons, answers that will be recorded in writing.” The questioning is the most useful technique used in survey. Types of questionnaires According to the way of administration, questionnaires are divided into two main categories: self administrated and administrated by the survey operators. In the case of self administrated questionnaires, subjects register the answers to questions, but there has been noticed that subjects inspire from the other questions and do not respect their succession in the questionnaire. Self administrated questionnaires are of three types: postal, published in the press or in the products’ leaflet and collectively administrated. This last category is quite used in small or weakly represented researches. The questionnaires administrated by the survey operators, in their face to face variant, is the most often used modality of psychological data collection, allows the application of longer questionnaires, detailed observations on the subject, the use of filter questions, the possibility of 2
mentioning the answer etc. The telephonically administrated questionnaire gains ground towards the classic research due to its application facility. Interview The interview is a survey technique based on questions and answers which helps obtaining verbal information from the research subjects, in order to verify hypotheses or for the scientific description of socio-human phenomena (Tratat de Asistenţă Socială, coordinator George Neamţu, Polirom Publishing House, Iaşi- 2003, pag. 299). It assumes the formulation and drawing-up of a thematic guide as well as the planning of listening and intervention strategies. Types of interviews According to their depth and freedom degree, we distinguish among three categories of interviews: unstructured or non-standardised interviews; semi structured interviews; structured interviews. The category of non-standardised interviews include: the clinical interview (used in psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, but also in social work); the in-depth interview (used in motivation studies – social diagnostic). The category of semi-structured interviews includes: the centred interview with free answers has a lower degree of freedom, by imposing certain discussion themes; the open-question interview has a limited degree of freedom by the explicit formulation of questions, the answers are not precodified; the structured or close-questions interview has an extremely reduced degree of freedom, the questions being formulated at the beginning of the questionnaire, used in various surveys. Another classification of interviews is done according to the number of interviewed persons, as follows: the intensive interview when the interview is centred on only one interlocutor; the extensive interview supposes the investigation of more persons on the same theme. Other typologies realised in accordance of various classifications are: the opinion interview and the documentary interview (according to the communication content); unique interviews, repeated/panel interviews (according to the repeatability of conversations); interviews made with adults, children or young people (according to the socio-demographic status of the interviewed persons); the face-to-face interview, the telephone interview (according to the way of communication); exploration interviews, main function interviews, complementary function interviews (according to the function in the investigation process). Interview stages The realisation of the interview has three stages: interview preparation, interview development, analysis of discourses and the drawing up of the interview report. Experiment The experiment is a scientific research method of the relations existing between various phenomena in a strictly controlled framework, based on the modification of some factors and the constant maintenance of others (Metodologia cercetării sociologice, metode cantitative şi calitative, Septimiu Chelcea, Ed. Economică Bucureşti – 2004, pag. 426). Due to its exactness, the experiment is considered the prototype of scientific research methods, being a predictive method. The prediction has to be testable, meaning it has the practical possibility of manipulation of the studied phenomena development conditions and their observation. The psychological experiment supposes the measuring of the human behaviour in at least two situations where different development conditions were set, the difference between the two measures being the basis of the confirmation or information of information of the formulated hypothesis. The notions “variable” and “experimental plan”, as well as the distinction experiment – quasi experiment are fundamental in this type of research. Experimental variables The term “variable” designates a certain measurable characteristic (physical or social) of an object or phenomena which can take two or more values situated on a psychological continuum. Generally, three types of variables are mentioned in scientific research: independent, dependent and control variables. The independent variable is an experimental factor considered responsible for the variations of behaviour and which is manipulated by the experimenter. The manipulation of the independent 3
variable allows the study of its impact on various behaviours of subjects; the experimenter gives a value to this variable which gives the variable level. The dependent variable is the result of the independent variable manipulation. From the perspective of the stimulus – response relation, the independent variable is the stimulus, and the dependent variable – the answer. This dependent variable is observed and measured by researcher and, the subjects’ behaviours are expressed mathematically. From the perspective of the measuring levels, there are two types of dependent variables: qualitative (categorical) and quantitative (numeric). Qualitative variables – correspond to the nominal measuring level and vary as type: sex (male, female), religion (orthodox, catholic, and protestant), the environment of origin (rural, urban) etc. Quantitative variables – belong to the ordinal and measuring interval levels such as the attitude towards a political party (the measuring on a multiple levels scale, from total agreement to total disagreement), latency time, the number of reproduced syllables, temperature etc. By means of the control variable, there can be verified the certainty between the independent variable and the dependent one. The obtained result should not be explained through the presence of another variable, other than the independent one, the cause-effect relation should be a true one. A distinction is made between the discreet and the continuous variables. The discreet variables are presented in units and categories (sex, number of children in the family, the presence or absence of a stimulus etc). The continuous variables are those whose values are expressed in a continuum of round and fractioned numbers, theoretically without the possibility of stopping the fractioning (the measuring of the latency time in seconds, tenths of seconds etc) From the perspective of measuring levels, there are two types of dependent variables: qualitative (categorical) and quantitative (numeric). Punch (1998) considers that, in the methodological terminology, there are often met substitutes for the names of the two types of variables. For the independent variable, the term factor, cause, explicative or predictive variable is used. For the dependent variable, other terms are used, such as: effect, measuring or experimental result, but the most widespread variable names are independent and dependent, variables for any type of research, experimental or non-experimental. Experiments and quasi experiment A distinction is made between experiments and quasi experiments form the perspective of the variables control and the precision of the obtained data. Experiments are research procedures where the experimenter has strong control on the aspects involved and the possibility of drawing some indubitable conclusions on the causes of a psychological phenomenon. Quasi experiments are scientific procedures where the researcher has a weaker control on the research development. If, in experiments, the variable is manipulated, in quasi experiments the variable manifestation is observed, we do with whatever nature offers us. For the quasi experiment, the subjects from pre-existent groups are selected. Research Ethics One of the main concerns of the researcher is of not inducing an excessive psychological stress to the subject. In order to better understand social phenomena, the researcher aims at studying in as real a context as possible. Another ethical aspect is the deceit of subjects, a current and debatable practice. Often, the subjects must not know from the beginning the experiment purposes, as their knowledge would compromise the whole research. A strategy used to counter-balance this influence on the development of the study is to present the research in such a way as to hide its real purpose. The researcher fails to offer some information to the subject or even present another purpose, evidently false, of the respective study. The research ethics requires the subjects taking part in the experiment to be sufficiently informed in order to choose between participating or not participating to it; the subjects must have the right to stop participating to the experiment when they think the situation requires it. All these are 4
specified at the beginning of the experiment by mutual written agreement. Another obligation of the experimenter is to organise a debriefing. This term refers to a series of post experimental procedures such as the relaxation of subjects, the psychical comfort of participants, the explanation of the true research purposes, the explanation of experimental plans, of procedures, and their significance, the elimination of the attitudinal effects or the effects of learning some behaviours or of opinion change, the presentation of individual or collective results, if this is possible immediately after the experiment etc. The observation method Observation is a fundamental method of empirical data collection, used in socio-human sciences and in social work practice; the scientific observation is a planned action, with scopes and objectives, developed according to exact and long verified rules (Tratat de Asistenţă Socială, coordinator George Neamţu, Polirom Publishing House, Iaşi - 2003, pag. 290-294). Types of observation According to the investigation scope we distinguish the following: the exploratory observation, the diagnosis observation, the experimental observation; According to the degree of the observer’s involvement: the external observation (nonparticipative) and the participative observation; According to the degree of structuring we can talk about: a structured observation, and an unstructured (qualitative) one. The exploratory observation is used when we do not have enough information on the reality to be investigated. In the phase of locating the problem and analysing the client’s situation, the social worker makes exploratory observations, where he builds his hypotheses for further methodical investigation, for the phases of psychosocial diagnosis and of intervention planning. The diagnosis observation is a deep analysis of the problematic situation the assisted client confronts himself with. An investigation-based diagnosis has a descriptive (differential) diagnosis and an explicative (causal, etiologic) diagnosis. The differential diagnosis consists in the detailed description of the objective and subjective conditions of the social work problem and the systematic analysis of the respective case. The differential, descriptive diagnosis needs to be completed by an explicative diagnosis which shows the causes that generated the respective problem. The causal diagnosis helps the elaboration of an intervention plan appropriate for the case solving. The experimental observation is used especially during the development of the intervention plan when there are produced social change processes that bring together the characteristics of an experimental situation. The external (non-participative) observation is used by journalists, science people, doctors and social workers. This type of observation is recommended in situations when the investigator’s control is difficult, inappropriate or impossible. The participative observation supposes the observer’s integration in the researched community, on a longer period of time, for a deep qualitative knowledge. It catches the daily existence of a community in order to get an authentic image of it; it is a comprehensive and holistic study on a social unit; it is a qualitative approach of the used methodological strategy and methods; it develops according to certain specific methodological and deontological rules and principles; the observer needs to observe the cohabitation norms and the customs of the investigated community; the observer’s identity can be totally, partially or by no means revealed; during the observation it is necessary to use observers – members of the investigated or assisted group. The structured observation is characterised by the fact that it appeals to category grids, evaluation scales, analysis charts, previously created, that guide the observation and set in order the aimed empiric material. It is a quantitative, rigorous and systematic method. There are used observation grids that facilitate the investigation and psychosocial diagnosis action. The unstructured (qualitative) observation does not appeal to a pre-established category or hypotheses chart. This type of observation is used in ethnographic studies and in the social work practice under the form of participative observation. The documentation technique 5
The documentation technique is used to collect data on a certain social aspect we do not have access by direct observation or for theoretical information, by consulting a bibliography and the research reports concerning a previously studied field and trying to recompose the spirit of an epoch (Tratat de Asistenţă Socială, coordinator George Neamţu, Polirom Publishing House, Iaşi- 2003, pag. 294-296). Social documents contain accounts on events, social facts and their reflection in the subjects’ consciousness. The social documents are: written texts, photographic and cinematographic images, and audio recordings, products of human activity, household objects, symbolic objects and clothes. Case study By means of the case study researches in social sciences are done, by using a multitude of the previously presented methods, each with its own strategy. Therefore, the case study is the perfect strategy when questions of the type “how” and “why” are asked. Case studies are common research strategies in psychology, sociology, political sciences, economy, judicial field, medicine, public policy etc. The case study tries to clarify a decision or a set of decisions (how they were taken, how they were implemented and with what results). The case study can include quantitative proof but it is not a qualitative strategy. It has at least five different applications: - it explains the assumed causal relations in real life; - it describes an intervention and the real life context where it took place; - it illustrates various themes in a descriptive evaluation; - it explores those situations when the assessed intervention does not produce a clear set of results. Any case study contains a series relevant data for the analysed situation, the case history and its analysis as well as conclusions leading to the finding of the social problem solution, a problem identified and classified as social case. The constitutive parts of a case study are: Client’s identification data: name, surname, address, age, identity documents. When a case study represents teaching material or mass media material, fictional initials or names are used to keep the confidentiality of information; - Data on the family situation: civil status, family members, relationship between family members, expectations concerning the family etc; in order to emphasize these aspects the genogram, the eco-map and the observation guide will be used; - Data on the state of health: the presence/absence of a disease/handicap, age illness (characteristic of the elderly), whether the person is bed-ridden or not, whether the person was/is abused; - Education data are important in the case of a child (in order to identify the possible school problems, such as the low school frequency or abandon, lack of education, the presence of a handicap) or of an unemployed person (for assessing the chance to be taken up on the labour market); - Occupation data: profession, occupation, obtained income, areas that are covered by income, areas that cannot be covered by income or are not enough; - The case history: time evolution of the case, provided services, obtained results etc. - Situation analysis: definition of problem/s, provided or necessary services; the SWOT analysis can be used for a better emphasis of the strengths and weaknesses; - Conclusions: The entire structure is orientative and can be adapted according to necessities. The structure prefigured by the present legislative framework stipulates that in Romania, the assisted child is up to 18 years old (or up to 26 years old if he continues his studies as full-time education) who beneficiates of primary-character social services according to a service plan or a plan of specialised social work services according to an individualised protection plan (individual plan referring to the preparation of the child’s social reintegration/personalised intervention plan – for unaccompanied Romanian children, in difficulty on the territory of other states). The persons responsible for ensuring this right are: - parents are, first of all, responsible for the child’s growth and development, with obligations towards the child, taking into account the child’s superior interest, in accordance with Law no. 272/2004; 6
- the local community – subsidiarity, the responsibility comes to the local community the child or his family belong to. The authorities of the local public administration have the obligation to support the parents or another regal representative of the child, in order to carry out the obligations towards the child; - the state – the intervention of the state is complementary; the state ensures the child’s protection and guarantees the observance of all its rights through the specific activity realised by the state institutions and by public authorities with attributions in this field. The children who have social aid in observing their rights and social protection come from two main categories: - The child who is not temporarily or definitively, deprived of his parents’ care, but is in difficulty or in a risky situation within his family, together with it, together with the community/group he belongs to or outside them, for various reasons. This category contains: disabled children; AIDS/HIV infected children; children belonging to marginalisation risk or social exclusion families; children who commit criminal acts and are not legally responsible; children who, for various reasons, have school or psychological adaptation problems; children who live in mono-parental environments families that are temporarily in difficulty; children who live in environments characterised by domestic violence, but are not direct victims of it; children who come from families where there are disabled, alcoholic or drug-addicted persons, persons who come from jail, AIDS or HIV infected persons; children victims of the internal/external traffic or exploited children (after family reintegration); children victims of economic exploitation; children in difficulty on the territory of other states; children victims of the illicit use of drugs and psychotropic substances (after the social reintegration – recovery, re-adaptation, rehabilitation); children exposed to the risk of economic exploitation and the risk of being enslaved. - The child who is temporarily or definitively, deprived of his parents’ care or who, in order to protect his interests, cannot be left in their care. To this category belong the following: children whose parents are dead, unknown, deprived of their parental rights or whose parental rights are forbidden, who are under interdiction, declared legally dead or disappeared, as well as in the case of adoption cessation; disabled children; abused or neglected children, as well as found children or those abandoned in sanitary units; street children; children who live in environments characterised by social violence and are not themselves direct victims of it; children victims of sexual abuse and sexual violence; children victims of the internal/external traffic and/or exploited; children in difficulty on the territory of other states; children victims of the illicit use of drugs and psychotropic substances; children who commit illegal deeds without being legally responsible and for whom the special protection measure is the specialised supervision; In this paper we have carried out a research based on a case of domestic violence using the case study method. The case we have chosen to bring to the readers’ attention is that of a fifteen years old girl who comes from a mono-parental family, where the mother deceased and the father left his home and lives in concubine (at the concubine’s place), in Tisa Silvestri village, Odobesti commune, Bacau county. 7
The social work unit who took the case is called “The Service Centre for Child and Family Odobesti”. The project “The Service Centre for Child and Family Odobesti” was created for the children’s and for their families’ support. The purpose of this project is to improve the quality of the children’s and their families’ life by providing access to educative, information and counselling social work within the centre, equally valorising the community resources. In the day Centre there take place direct interventions on the child and on the family climate where he grows and develops, under the form of activities aiming at the development of the child’s personality, of the personal and social skills, supporting him in the development of school activities and interventions on the community environment. The place where the Service Centre for Child and Family Odobesti operates is in the Cultural House Odobesti, appropriately equipped, on the main street of Odobesti. The Service Centre for Child and Family Odobesti provides services for the beneficiaries with their place of residence in locality as well as for the beneficiaries who live in other villages from the same commune (Ciuturesti village, Tisa-Silvestri Village). The beneficiaries of the Centre Services are: - direct beneficiaries – children, a number of twenty, come from families in difficulty; - indirect beneficiaries – legal tutors of the children, parents, professional maternal assistants who have taken children in a certain form of care. The origin of beneficiaries according to the place of residence is presently the following: • Odobeşti – 6 children; Tisa Silvestri –2 children; Ciutureşti – 12 children. The beneficiaries were selected and taken by the Service Centre for Child and Family by: - the recommendation of other institutions/services (specialists); - the guidance of the case manager/case responsible within D.G.A.S.P.C. Bacău; - by direct solicitation of the clients. The acceptance of the child in the Service Centre for Child and Family is done according to the agreement with the family concluded with the case manager within the complex evaluation service of DGASPC Bacău, in accordance with legal provisions. In the case of the legal beneficiary of the child (in the case of direct solicitation of another service/public or private institution) who gets information on the necessary documents (social survey, primary psychological evaluation, medical certificate showing the state of health, social documents of the beneficiary), the case has to be presented at SEC for establishing the Service Plan. The service centre for family and child Odobesti is a functional component of Odobesti town hall, specific for the protection of the child’s rights. The institution has a daily program, flexible in evolution, meeting the community children’s needs, for duration established by the Centre Evaluation Centre or according to the family’s and child’s need. The centre capacity is of 20 places. The target group is made of children, aged 7-14 years from Odobesti commune, coming from families in difficulty due to various reasons as: insufficient income, mono-parental, low educational level, alcoholism, tensioned domestic relationships etc. Even if the beneficiaries are children aged 714, the community is equally a long-term beneficiary. The first direct beneficiaries of the project were the 20 children from families in difficulty. The following services operate within the centre: the social work service, the psychological and psycho-pedagogical guidance; the educational service; the medical service, which we shall present as follows. The social work service has the following objectives: - The guidance of the children’s parents; - the efficient collaboration with the families of the children in difficulty for the implementation of an individualised intervention plan according to the particularities of each case in order to better integrate in family and society; - The support and help for the children and their families in order to prevent abandon and institutionalisation; - The filling out of the files of the registered children with all the necessary documents in order to obtain a complete data basis on their social and home situation; - The development of positive relationships between the specialists involved in the 8
development of the service plan and the family information on the IPP content (intervention personalised program). The service of psychological and psycho pedagogical support and guidance has in view: - The realisation of the psycho diagnosis (evaluation, psychological examinations); - Psychological support, intervention and guidance ; - The personnel’s guidance in realising the individualised intervention plans for each and every child; - Psycho-pedagogical recovery; - Behavioural psychotherapy. The educational service develops: - The equalisation of chances that is the accessibility to the cultural, physical environment, to living, transport, social services and health conditions, cultural and social life, entertainment possibilities. - The institution of an education that should be similar to that offered to children of the same age. - The stimulation, education and the cognitive perceptive education: the development of language and communication; the development of behaviour and social skills; the sensorial and psychomotor education; the knowledge of the environment, of general culture elements; the organisation of individual and group games offering possibilities for the child’s expression; the stimulation of the children’s autonomy. The educational service has three components: early intervention, complex educational therapy, vocational and independent life training. The medical service offers: - Prophylactic activities (periodical medical control, the evaluation of the state of health, the relationship with the family doctor, and, if necessary, with the hospital); - Nutritional support (establishing daily menus, checking the food); - First-aid and treatment in emergency situations; - Sanitary education with parents on various themes. The objectives of the Service Centre for Child and Family Odobesti are: o The guidance of parents or of the legal representatives as well as of other persons who take care of children, in order to prevent the children’s abandon and institutionalisation; o The stimulation for schooling in the mass education system; o The encouragement of social integration; o The improvement of the partnership with parents or with the child’s reference person in order to achieve to set objectives; o The development of independent life skills; o The encouragement for developing the child’s entire potential in order to be included in his own family/community ; o The attraction of a large number of volunteers ; o The permanent optimization of structural compartments; o The permanent training of the staff; o The implementation of minimum quality standards. Within the day centre of Odobesti, the opinions of the children and of their families, as well as of other persons important for the child are solicited and taken into consideration in taking decisions directly or indirectly concerning the child. Each child is encouraged and supported to take part in the development of activities within the service and to assume responsibilities according to the development of its maturity level. Children actively take part in the centre’s daily life, in taking decisions on their future, being involved, according to their level, in any activity aiming the development of education, such as: the creation of different materials for exhibitions, special days (Child’s Day, legal holidays, birthdays) etc. By establishing a constant partnership with the beneficiary and his family, there is taken into account his awareness on the benefits and the stimulation /increase of self respect, in accordance with deontological norms and to the best interest of the child. The quality of the service is periodically assessed through: 9
- the observation card of the beneficiary’s progress; - phase assessments in determining the achievement of objectives in accordance with IPP (Intervention Personalised Program) - Supervision In the Service Centre for Child and Family, the degree of satisfaction of beneficiaries is controlled by means of parents or of the legal representatives, based on discussions, programmed interviews, evaluation questionnaires; for this a meeting with the parents is established every six months. The activity of the social service in Odobesti – Bacau is as follows: The staff of the Service Centre for Child and Family Staff employed with individual labour agreement Clerks Staff paid under any other forms Volunteer Administrative staff Total
University education 2 1 3
Highschool education 4 1 2 7
The Service Centre for Child and Family is placed in the centre of Odobesti commune, is at a 100 m distance from Odobesti town hall, 100 m distance from the church in Odobesti village. The Police station is in the same building with the centre, and is placed at a 50 m distance from the food shop, at a 300 m distance from the school, and at a 28 km distance from D.G.A.S.P.C. Bacău. Besides the above mentioned services, the centre departments are the following: Educational module; Psychologist; Dinner preparation place. Dinner is served in hygienic conditions, in an appropriately equipped dining hall where there is water supply, electric energy supply. The room is equipped with cooker, refrigerator, sink and kitchen furniture. The food is prepared in the centre’s kitchen. Food storing room; Social worker room; Administrator’s office. As there are beneficiaries in all Odobesti commune (Ciuturesti village, Tisa Silvestri village) who need transport to the Day Centre, the transport is provided by a minibus of 9 seats. The realisation of the project and the setting up of the Centre had in view the following results and benefits of the activity: The growth of the number of children in the community, beneficiaries of the Day centre services ; The improvement of the quality of the care, education, development of the children’s entire potential; The promotion of quality services and the decrease of the beneficiaries’ intervention age; The integration of a larger number of children in kindergartens and public schools ; A higher involvement and responsibility of the local community concerning the children’s inclusion in community; The permanent training of the staff in order to increase the quality of children’s life and the observance of child’s rights. The study case we have presented in this paper is of a 15 year old girl who was selected to beneficiate of the Day centre services, as, being abandoned by her father, she was left in the care of an elder sister who is married and lives with her family in the same house. She needs psychological guidance to overcome the mourning period, and was assessed by the specialists as needing education and behaviour and relational development for the formation of personality and the development of skills. 10
Personal information Surname and name: G.A Sex: F Chronological age: approx. 15 years old Place of residence: Odobeşti commune, Bacău County Occupation: student Family information Parents’ surname and name: - father – G.R. - mother G.M. (deceased in 2002) Parents’ occupation: the father has no occupation. The relationship in the enlarged family: After the mother’s death, the father left his place of residence and lives in concubinage with A.D. in Tisa-Silvestri village, Odobesti commune. The beneficiary lives in her parents’ house together with her sister V.S. who has a family made of two children and the husband V.M., and with a brother in a three-room house and an annex, in unsatisfactory and unsanitary conditions. The constant income is represented only by the children’s allowance and occasional income (V.M. and G.M. without a job provide various services). At the same time, violence is also present due to alcohol consumption. Another cause of domestic violence is the family’s poverty, V.M and G.M. being those who bring occasional income. V.D and V.M. are the V.M and G.M family’s children, V.M. being two years old and having health problems (autism), thus the decision to spend the money. Also, the presence of the children, especially of the one with health problems has become a source of conflict; and the communication deficiencies, instability, stress and the mutual verbal violence caused by contradictory repeated discussions facilitate domestic violence. The family’s mentality: due to the precarious education and inefficient communication, the beneficiary isolates herself. The sister’s husband is violent due to alcohol consumption, the victim – the abused mother (the beneficiary’s sister) does not give up to the abusive husband as she is dependent on him, she puts the blame on herself, hoping “the incident” will not happen again, is afraid to call on the authorities due to their ironic attitude, does not have family support (from those who live in the same building) and the friends, even though they know their situation, keep away from defending her. At least three times a week, partners have an argument; the husband hits the beneficiary’s sister and threatens to kill her. He does not hit the children, the victim believes, as she reported him to the police. From this point of view, the risk factors are: the alcohol consumption, health, the impact of violence on the children, the posttraumatic stress, social isolation – marginalisation. Taking into consideration the present situation, the specialists of the Day centre for family and children have suggested the following solutions, having the following objectives: We present now some intervention objectives requiring specific psycho pedagogical intervention; the cessation of the physical abuse phenomenon, the guidance of members and of the beneficiary who is at the Service Centre for Child and Family Odobesti. Specific objectives: - the initiation of an Intervention Program; - the conclusion of an agreement; - the initiation of an Action Plan; - the beneficiary’s guidance; - the victim’s and her husband guidance (if he accepts) in order to re-establish the psychoaffective equilibrium; - the development of the socialisation tendency. Target activities: the presentation of similar examples where the problem was solved; the distribution of tasks (concerning the child’s care) to the father by occupational therapy, when he is not working; efficient communication concerning the administration of the family budget; good 11
communication with the husband’s parents to help in the household; soliciting certain members in the community to help them overcome the crisis; involving in progressive activities for the familiarisation with norms, rules for children; involving in game activities with other children in order to assimilate behaviour rules, the autistic child through specific recovery therapy (specialist - psychologist) Conclusion In conclusion, in order to solve and prevent the domestic violence there should be identified the causal and encouraging factors, and then eliminated during interventions. They should not be tolerated, even if the cultural tradition favours the dominating position of the man, nor the increased social tolerance towards the maintenance of domestic violence from one generation to another (it should not be perceived as normality). The effect of assisting at violence during childhood is even more severe and profound in the case of women than of men, their adult behaviour being negatively influenced, as there is the possibility for them to become aggressors. References 1. DEX '09 Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române, ediția a III-a, Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan - Alexandru Rosetti”, Ed. Univers Enciclopedic, 2009 2. Neamţu, George (coordinator), Tratat de Asistenţă Socială, Ed. Polirom, Iaşi, 2003 3. Neculau, A, Ferreol, G., Violenţa. Aspecte psihosociale, Ed. Polirom, Iaşi, 2003 4. Septimiu Chelcea, Metodologia cercetării sociologice, metode cantitative şi calitative, Ed.
Economică, Bucureşti, 2004 5. Neamtu, George, Stan, Dumitru, (2005), Asistentă socială: studii si aplicatii, Polirom Publishing House, Iasi
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