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Di Farmer, Minister for Child Safety, Youth and Women
and Minister for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence paid us an impromptu visit
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FACTS given by IWSS and the Minister
- One in 6 women and one in 10 men over the age of 15 have experienced violence at the hand of an intimate partner, and has been the victim of DV. Women are 8 times more likely to experience sexual violence from their partner rather than someone else.
- DV Connect receives 110 000 calls a year, 9% of those from women who do not speak English.
- At IWSS (Immigrant women support services) 51% of women who access IWSS need interpreters.
- Nearly 2 women each week are killed in a domestic homicide (Minister)
‘Communication is, perhaps, an immigrant woman’s most immediate barrier to leaving an abusive relationship’ (Minister)
IWSS – Immigrant Women Support Services spoke about
NESB women are the most vulnerable in our community: access to income, racism when trying to access work in the community, vulnerable to exploitation, visa status, cultural believes, knowing that what is happening to them is not ok, isolation, lang barrier, past trauma and torture.
VT (vicarious trauma) for Interpreters
Vicarious trauma refers to an individual’s own
psycho-emotional reactions due to her exposure to other’s traumatic
experiences.
Signs: insomnia, headaches, rash on the skin, stomach ulcers, anxiety,
depression, feeling of guilt, feeling less safe in the world (lack of safety,
may all men be like that), agitation/anger, tics, hot sweats, heartburns,
difficulty concentrating, changed sense of humour (cynicism), I don’t want to
do this type of work again (avoiding), wants to be left alone, declines involvement.
Another problem is Compassion fatigue.
Resources: Calm App, ATA Chronicle magazine, Living Well,
debriefing with IWSS personal (good practice is 10mn), breathing mindfully
exercise
IWSS Director (25 years exp), Facilitator
How does it happen?
Cycle: I love you, I want you to be with me all the time.
Don’t go and see your friends, jealous of what she/he does without him including reading, uses the children to
relay messages, then threatens if you do this..., then violence (including violence to self like suicide). Sufferers live in fear and have the
inability to make rational decision of what is best for them.
Their speech is not flowing clearly. Use chuchotage technique when appropriate and appropriate calming tone of voice.
Equal relationship means that people are able to express
themselves without fear of retaliation.
(see equality wheel below)
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Source: IWSS |
Police has a duty to protect people if they judge they
cannot protect themselves adequately.
DV Victims, Acting/Senior Sergeant from QLD Police Service. There has been cases in the past when the perpetrator has been used as an interpreter. They don’t like to ask the children because after the police leaves, what may happen to the child.
Say they have difficulties finding interpreters in the middle of the night and another difficulty is the level of maturity of young officers (not much life experience, they don’t know how to deal with NESB people at all, they don’t know how to engage).
'Building a rapport is difficult, I am not just a blue shirt, some NESB people are afraid of the police'. Having the same interpreter is important. 12 000 police officers, so we need agencies. Police interpreters are not suitable for suspects.
An interpreter talked about a case when the victim's parents in law were used as interpreters and all the consequences which could have been avoided.
Child support worker from Save the Children (who could not be here today) left a note. Helps with Children’s problematic behaviours that they may have picked from the perpetrator. Play based interviews. In refuge settings, we have seen many children being used as interpreters. Tone is important, kids coming out of trauma are hypersensitive to tone.
A Principal Sollicitor working for REILS (Refugee and Immigration Legal Service) – daily involvement with migrants, around visa status, demonstrating domestic violence (DV) might be a way of getting a visa. Having continuity of interpreters is difficult with TIS. Compatibility of interpreters, variation of language is a pb with agencies, Arabic is Arabic, they don't differentiate, gender sensitivity is an other. He encourages clients to speak to the interpreters to clarify legal jargon. Advantages of Interpreters are providing cultural cues for us, taking the burden off the client to have to explain everything themselves. We are busy and time poor, so sometimes, we do not always treat the interpreter well, 'we don’t always see her/him as a person' (please someone pinch me :(, 'we need to improve' (yes). The potential of misunderstanding and consequences are too great so we never hesitate when interpreters are needed.
Professionals Australia (Union)– we did not have an industry award, this was discussed.
Ethical principles discussed: prof conduct, confidentiality,
competence, impartiality, accuracy
Bringing ethics to practice: skills are applied in a
dynamic, interactive and social context
They consider good practice that the interpreters relays
cultural information to a client asking more explanations about an unknown system but it is
the job of IWSS to explain. Some women are worried about confidentiality with
having interpreters.
Good interpreter: Warm empathetic caring flowing tone.
Mirroring the client tone. Client ask again an interpreter because she felt
that this interpreters was listening to her. IWSS agreed that if the client request the same person, they will try to have this person again, but not always possible with agencies.
Not now, Not ever
report against domestic violence – access to justice and right to be heard.
Family members are not suitable.
Specialist Domestic Violence Court tried a few years ago on
the Gold Coast which is the hotspot of DV. Big success.
Acknowledgement - 'For all the women who would not be able to escape their
lives without your support, I thank you. If you did not do what you do these
women would not even be in these ‘being helped’ statistics' (Di Farmer, Minister for Child Safety, Youth
and Women and Minister for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence)
Translator's pride: 'I am someone who assists people to have a voice' (P. Avila, Spanish translator)
More information
Domestic violence means behaviour by a person towards another person with whom the person is in a relevant relationship. Can be physical (threatening to suicide, damaging property… coercing a person out of acts of violence), psychological (calling names, ), emotional (stalking, continuing contacting on phone, preventing a person to be involved with family and friends, not letting a person express their identity like preparing the food they like in their culture etc..), threatening or coercive behaviour (coercing to signing a contract, not allowing her to work), on-going pattern of fear over a period of time.
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Source: IWSS |
