My role
As a case worker I provide advocacy support to 30 women at a time who are standard to medium risk of domestic abuse. Our survivors are aged 18+ and they are usually referred to our services by various statutory or
voluntary organisations, or there are those brave women and men who had the courage to pick up to phone and ask
for support. The support I provide is short-term crisis intervention advocacy for survivors of domestic and or sexual abuse working alongside them to accomplish lives free from abuse.
A typical day
No two days are ever the same and there is certainly never a dull moment. I learn so much from every experience, or after every phone call I make to a survivor/ professional. It is a very fast based environment and almost every day I get at least one new referral. After receiving a referral allocated to me, I contact the survivor and make arrangements to carry out risk and needs assessments, safety planning and to draw up a tailormade support plan with them for another day, convenient / safe for the survivor if they cannot do it at the time I called.
Every day I carry out risk and needs assessments, or review them. I do safety and support planning with survivors and advocate on their behalf with external agencies. The key aspect of my role is to advocate on the behalf of the survivors of domestic abuse pursuing remedies through the criminal and civil justice system, supporting with referrals to statutory or voluntary organisations such as housing, mental health, social services, and other
therapeutic services. As a caseworker I provide independent advocacy to the survivor by signposting them to relevant agencies/organisations and offering them information empowering them to be able make well-informed decision.
What I love about what I do
I work with a team of brilliant and truly inspirational women and I learn so much from them as a person and as practitioner.
One thing I wish I’d known is that it is ok to be affected by people’s trauma and I do not have to bottle it up. Now I know better, it is ok to ask for support, it is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign of strength to be able to reflect and debrief, talk to a colleague/manager.