You would expect nurses or social workers to be among the first people to hear about family violence, but disclosures come to a much wider section of the workforce.
Hairdressers, for example, with their long-standing relationships with clients and the almost therapeutic role they have with the people in the salon chair, are common recipients of disclosures – whether they know what to do with that information or not.
An upcoming workshop by Women’s Support Motueka aims to offer education and tools for anyone in a social service or customer-facing role who would like to know how to handle a disclosure of violence.
Course facilitator Mikayla Cahill says that kaimahi/ employees from a range of organisations have already completed the course, including Golden Bay Workcentre Trust, Te Kotahi Te Tau Ihu Charitable Trust, Te Piki Oranga, Motueka Community House, and Kāinga Ora, as well as “individuals who were just interested in learning how to make our community a safe place to disclose”.
“We would love more people from different sectors to get involved,” she says.
“This would be perfect for doctors, nurses, pharmacists, case managers, teachers, lawyers, social workers, bank staff, bartenders, hairdressers, barbers, or anyone else in a customer-facing role.”
The course was drafted by the organisation’s previous community engagement coordinator, Rachael Fabish.
Mikayla, who now holds this role, says that the content has evolved with feedback from the attendees, and what was a two-page workbook has bloomed into a 65-page resource. The course takes nine hours, spread across three half-days.
“It would be easier to have a whole day course, but talking about abuse all day is difficult to handle and is exhausting, so we decided to spread it out over three weeks. We also offer a lovely spread of healthy kai to make sure everyone’s bodies and minds are nourished after discussing heavy content,” Mikayla says.
“The programme is based around helping people understand trauma. A lot of people know about ‘fight’ or ‘flight’ reactions but there is also ‘freeze’ and ‘fawn’. We also cover the different types of abuse that perhaps a lot of people don’t know about, such as verbal, emotional, psychological, and financial, as well as abuse tactics like narcissistic abuse, gaslighting, coercion, and power and control.”
She explains that the content is user-friendly and does not include any graphic details or “shock factor” content, to keep the space a safe one for attendees “without ruining their entire week”.
Feedback from previous attendees is overwhelmingly positive, with one saying that it made a triggering subject easy to work through and retain, and another saying that they have already used the workbook twice while receiving a disclosure of violence.
The next Understanding Trauma and Dealing with Family Violence Disclosures workshop is being held at Motueka Community House in Decks Reserve, running for three weeks beginning Wednesday, 8 May, from 9am-12pm. The course costs $100 per person and can be booked here. For further information, contact community@wsm.org.nz
