|
|
INJURY PREVENTION
Volume 7 Number 3
Winter Issue, 1997
INTENTIONAL INJURIES: FAMILY VIOLENCE
by Peter McFarlane
[Intro] [Intentional Injuries to Spouses/Partners] [Intentional Injuries to Children] [Elder Abuse] [Starting a Family Violence Prevention Committee] [Healing the Family Circle] [Family Violence Parenting Project] [Bibliography] In a recent national injury prevention workshop, participants were broken up into small groups and asked to try to set realistic injury reduction targets in different areas. Most came back with targets in the 25 per cent range, but the group looking at family violence returned with a simple but eloquent message: reduction targets were impossible to set because no level of family violence was acceptable.(1)
The workshop group was reflecting a growing concern in both the Aboriginal and general Canadian population at the serious impact of family violence for individual victims, families and entire communities.
In a purely physical sense, injuries from family violence include "bruises, broken and cracked bones, back and head injuries, impaired eyesight, malnutrition, burns, disfigurement and death."(2) Like most social agencies today, the National Clearinghouse on Family Violence defines abuse more broadly as involving "physical and sexual assault, emotional and psychological intimidation, degradation, deprivation and/or exploitation" of family members.(3)
On the physical side, family violence results in the death of a large number of Aboriginal women each year in Canada. Statistics show that while homicides account for 6.9 per cent of the injury deaths for Aboriginal males, they account for 9.7 per cent of the injury deaths for Aboriginal females (see Homicide Among Aboriginal People -A Statistical Profile: 1991-1993.)
Numerous studies have shown that homicides tend to take place within a racial or cultural group. With Aboriginal people, in over 80 per cent of the murders where the victim was a Native, the killer was also Native. During the study period, 198 Native men and 60 Native females were murdered.
For men, homicide was the fifth leading cause of injury fatalities -- after suicide, motorvehicle accidents, poisoning/drug overdoses and drownings. For women, homicide was the fourth leading cause of injury fatalities -- after motor vehicle accidents, suicide, and poisoning/overdoses. For men, deaths from homicide account for 6.9 per cent of total injury fatalities; for women, the number is 9.7 per cent In the female deaths, most of the killers were a partner, husband or another male close to her.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Intentional Injuries to Spouses/Partners
Spousal assault occurs in all societies and at all socio-economic levels, but a number of studies have also shown a strong link "to poor socio-economic conditions prevalent in most Native communities such as: unemployment, overcrowded housing, alcohol and drug abuse."(4) One study suggested that such conditions place Aboriginal women at higher risk than non-Aboriginal women.
Because so much of spousal or partner abuse is hidden, and the definition ranges from emotional intimidation to violent beatings and shootings, it is difficult to get accurate statistics on the degree of spousal or partner abuse in either the Aboriginal or the general Canadian populations. A fair arbiter of the seriousness of the issue is probably community members themselves. A Manitoba survey of 57 bands found that 69 per cent of the people recognized that spousal abuse was a major or serious problem in their community.
The National Clearinghouse on Family Violence suggests that Canada-wide, one in ten women is physically abused by her husband or partner. It also suggests spousal abuse occurs because: (5)
Historically, women have not been valued as equal partners in society: as individuals, we learn to hold power over others and to encourage submission. We are taught these lessons through the process of socialization and through sex-role stereotyping. Negative messages about women reinforce the theme of inequality.
Studies in Aboriginal communities have pointed out that high incidences of wife beating are not traditional, but have multiplied in the shadow of up to four centuries of historic exploitation and oppression by Europeans. Like child abuse, however, spousal abuse has a strong inter-generational component -- once violence becomes entrenched in a family, it tends to perpetuate itself through succeeding generations.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Intentional Injuries to Children
Half of all Aboriginal children who die as a result of maltreatment, die from physical abuse. The other half die as a result of severe neglect, usually malnutrition from lack of food. Of these neglected children, the majority (up to 75 per cent) are 1 year old or younger.(6)
Alcohol abuse and the youth of the parents themselves are leading risk factors for this type of harm to children. One study found that alcohol was a factor in 85 per cent of child neglect cases and in 63 per cent of child abuse cases. Abuse and neglect are often found in families with multiple problems.
Several risk factors for fatal child abuse have been identified:(7)
- adults are using/abusing alcohol and drugs;
- family living in poverty with parents unemployed;
- children of parents with poor parenting skills; and
- a high family stress level reflected in frequent arguments.
Parent aid programs which address issues like family stress and isolation can play a significant role in preventing child abuse. These programs provide parents with education in reducing their stress and isolation. Emergency crisis services including crisis nurseries, parental stress hotlines and emergency homemaker services are also important frontline prevention tools.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Elder Abuse
The elderly are vulnerable to many forms of abuse because of their often frail health and financial or emotional dependency. Physical abuse is believed to be less common than neglect. Neglect can take the form of passive neglect, where the caregiver does not intend to injure the dependent elder; or active neglect, where the caregiver consciously fails to meet the needs of the elder.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Starting a Family Violence Prevention Committee
In Healing the Family Circle, we look at a family violence prevention program in Kahnawake, a large Mohawk community near Montreal. But Christine Sioui of the Quebec Native Women's Association says that effective measures can also be taken in smaller, more isolated communities. The important thing to keep in mind in dealing with family violence, she says, is that "you are never alone."
"Even in a small community, there are other frontline services like police, educators, maybe even clergy, you can work with. And you can always contact the national or regional native women's groups for help. So my basic advice," Ms. Sioui says, "is don't stay isolated. Help is available."
The Quebec association has also carried out a pilot project to bring training in dealing with family violence directly into communities. Recently they sent teams into Lac Simone, Manouane and Restigouche to sensitize frontline workers and the local leadership to the issue of family violence. The program had special sessions for youth, community organizations and mental health workers.
A useful tool for those considering starting a family violence working group in their community is Health and Welfare's Community and Social Services' Guide For The Development Of Family Violence Committees. It describes in straightforward language the potential advantages, and some of the difficulties, of setting up a committee.
The guide outlines the type of people who might be involved at the organizing stage, such as the CHR, a member of the band council, medical personnel like the local nurse, a mental health professional and a representative of a law enforcement agency as well as concerned members of the community. It stresses that from the outset, the Committee should have clear concise goals such as: gathering information on the problem of family violence and introducing programs to maintain spiritual, emotional, mental and physical balance within the family and community.(8)
One important role the Committee can perform is to act as a conveyor belt between the community and existing programs, so the committee should be ready to reach out to related organizations, political associations and parties at the local, provincial and federal levels to seek help in education and training programs (see Reference List).
"We should learn from the Royal Commission report," Christine Sioui says. "Their answer to family violence was simple: zero tolerance."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- HEALING THE FAMILY CIRCLE
The Mohawk community of Kahnawake has been working in the field of family violence prevention for the past six years with its Healing the Family Circle program. Don Horn, the executive director, says it was started in 1990 in response to a growing community concern about family violence. The community social services department appointed a coordinator who brought together frontline services personnel to form the initial organizing committee. Today, the program is funded by the Department of Indians Affairs and Health Canada's Medical Services Branch.
Healing the Family Circle's project manager, Arlene Delaronde, has worked with the organization for five years and says that in the beginning they took a go-slow approach to lay a groundwork of trust in the community. "People are more willing to talk about sexual abuse than family violence," she says. "With family violence there is an attempt to deny it exists or to gloss it over."
As part of the attempt to build trust, the Kahnawake project began by giving workshops on the dynamics of families and how problems, addictions and ways of dealing with anger tend to be inter-generational. The organization's other prevention activities include sponsoring a women's centre and talking circles, and offering a wide array of workshops and support groups to help families under stress. The organization also emphasizes traditional healing by sponsoring sweat lodges and cedar baths.
Healing the Family Circle has frontline workers on staff to intervene in emergencies, but its focus is prevention. After emergency assistance is given, the case is turned over to the appropriate social service agency for follow-up.
Kahienes Skye, a program worker, says that to begin a family violence program, the first step has to be a detailed assessment of the extent of the problem and the needs of the particular community. Since family violence is often hidden, the best way to get a true picture of it in a smaller community, Kahienes Skye says, is to go door-to-door. "You should go to the grassroots," she says. "Get the people who are interested in the problem, ordinary people who aren't working for the service."
As part of their ongoing needs assessment, Healing the Family Circle also discovered a demand in the community for more help for parents. Last year, it decided to put more resources into prevention of child abuse and neglect by launching a separate parenting project.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Family Violence Parenting Project
The Parenting Project began in late November 1995. So far, it has focused on mothers of young children. Project worker, Mary Gilbert, a former high school teacher, says that one of their most successful efforts has been the Nobody's Perfect program, "a one-on-one workshop designed for young mother, who need support, information on child health, development, safety and behaviour."
More recently, the Parenting Project has also been moving into the schools, where they have introduced parenting information as part of the Life Skills program. They are now developing working relationships with teachers and school nurses, with the hope that troubled families can be identified and helped before problems escalate.
Bibliography
1. Year 2000: Injury Control Objectives for Canada, Health and Welfare Canada, p.45.
2. Wife Abuse, The National Clearinghouse of Family Violence, Health and Welfare Canada, p.1.
3. Ibid.
4. National Family Violence Survey, Aboriginal Nurses Association of Canada, August 1991, p.14.
5. Ibid.
6. Injury Prevention Programs in First Nations Populations, p.67.
7. Ibid.
8. A Guide for the Development of Family Violence Committees, Health and Welfare Canada, p.7.
copyright © 1997 NIICHRO 05/01/98
