Understanding the Multifaceted Nature of Domestic Violence Service Work through the Narratives of Victims' Advocates:Implications for Social Work Education

Background and Purpose: Social workers play a critical role in assisting domestic violence (DV) survivors in a variety of practice settings, helping them to recover from the negative consequences of DV (Crabtree-Nelson, Grossman, & Lundy, 2016). However, social work programs lack to provide DV specific courses, leaving students with limited knowledge and skills to effectively help DV survivors (Blake, Weisz, & Bennett, 2010). Learning about DV service providers’ experiences and perspectives can be informative in social work education as it can help students understand the work nature and develop realistic expectations as service providers.  To fill this gap, this study explores the complexities involved in DV service work through DV advocates’ narratives. Specifically, the study explores DV advocates’ positive work experiences and unique challenges in the field as they deliver various dimensions of services. The study also yields implications for training social work students to effectively respond to survivors’ needs.

Methods: Seventeen DV advocates in a rural Midwestern state participated in semi-structured in-depth interviews. They worked in various service units including shelter, crisis-line/counseling, outreach, transitional housing, and volunteer coordination programs.  The advocates worked in DV or related fields for approximately 8 years and all of them were females. Interview questions inquired about their main work tasks followed by positive and challenging work experiences. Interview transcripts were analyzed using framework analysis, which involves the processes of familiarizing data; generating themes; coding the interview contents under the developed themes; and exploring interconnections among and across the themes (Ritchie & Spencer, 2002).

Results: Five themes emerged as positive DV service work experiences; helping rural communities, observing survivors being empowered; others acknowledging their services; building trust with clients; and realizing professional growths.  Witnessing survivors’ empowerment was the most frequently mentioned positive work experience (n=11).

The following themes were commonly shared by the advocates as challenges; difficulties in working with the law enforcements, victim blaming culture, multilayered issues survivors encountered, conflicts between institutional level policies/resources and survivors’ needs, and emotional distresses. Working with the law enforcement appeared to be most challenging, mainly because of the victim blaming culture implied by the law enforcement and officers’ insensitivity toward DV. Such challenges were amplified for the advocates who worked in rural communities where limited resources to assist clients exist (e.g. transportation, mental health therapists, and hospitals with sexual assault nurse examiners) and the advocates and their clients and/or abusers have been acquaintances. Although the intrinsic rewards from positive experiences motivated them in assisting survivors, these didn’t necessarily eliminate their work challenges.

Conclusions and Implications: The findings indicate that DV service providers are rewarded by a variety of positive experiences, but at the same time encounter many challenges. The findings highlight that social work educators must enhance students’ DV advocacy skills necessary to work with the law enforcement. Eradicating victim blaming culture is also crucial: Social work students should become competent to educate the public, DV survivors, and other service providers that DV is not victims’ fault, perpetrators should be accountable, and changing social norms is eventually needed.