Category: Bridging the gaps – practice, policy and theory

‘Giving up smoking is easy. I’ve done it 100s of times’  Mark Twain

Most people who have given up smoking will probably be familiar with this well-known quote. We all will have made behaviour changes. Some are so effortless we may not even be aware we have made them. Others can fill us with dread. New Year’s resolutions we know will probably be ‘thrown out of the window’ by February.

People who work with behaviour change often use models to help them work in a more appropriate and time efficient manner.  One of the most commonly known behaviour change models is the ‘stages of change’ by Prochaska and DiClemente. Within this model people usually transition through six stages (pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, possible relapse/ lapse) before they finally reach a more stable setting known as ‘maintenance’. This transition can happen at different rates and depend on many various external and internal factors. Continue reading “The different dimensions of working with behaviour change. Exploring internal and external influences”

When training clinicians about IRIS (the General Practice domestic abuse service) they would sometimes tell me that they had made many referrals into the IRIS service that year. Occasionally this would happen at a practice from which I had received no referrals at all.

Intrigued by this discrepancy I would ask more questions. It transpired that the clinicians thought that they were referring into the service (IRIS) but in fact, what they were actually doing was signposting to the service. This ‘difference’ made all the difference, and the intended recipient was usually lost in the process. Continue reading “Engaging potentially vulnerable client groups. Referrals and signposting. What’s the difference?”

The SafeLives Dash is the most commonly used risk assessment tool available to help professionals assess the risk of serious harm and homicide for domestic abuse victims. It has been absolutely invaluable in my work.

When risk assessing women who experienced domestic abuse, I have always asked the question ‘Are you very frightened?’ It is question number two on the DASH. Fairly frequently, they would respond to the question by saying ‘No, I’m not feeling frightened.’

I would continue the assessment. ‘Have you ever been raped?…. Have you ever been strangled?’ They would sometimes reply ‘Yes’ despite having just told me that they were not feeling afraid.

Continue reading “Are you afraid? Identifying victims of domestic abuse. Ask the question but don’t always expect a straightforward answer”