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Domestic violence: practice issues for drug and alcohol services

The associations between domestic violence and problematic drug and alcohol use are very strong. Many acts of violence are committed under the influence and many people on the receiving end use substances to help them manage what is happening to them. There are strong links between being under the influence and being a perpetrator. The Stella Project, A London based charity that specialises in the prevention of domestic violence reports that:

• Up to 30% of men who assault their partners do so when under the influence of alcohol (National Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy)
• 50-90% of women within substance misuse programmes have experienced current or past physical, emotional; or sexual abuse.

• Studies into women and drug use find an extremely high correlation between the experience of abuse and substance use. Violence and abuse are not always past issues; there is a high likelihood that a women using drugs may be living with a violent partner.

Often the using behaviour is seen as the cause of the problem. Common statements used to almost justify the behaviour are 'he is a lovely man when he is sober' and 'it wasn't me it was the drink'. When this is accepted the obvious thing to do is stop the drinking and the abusive behaviour will look after itself. Sadly, reality is a lot more complicated. This course looks at this complex interrelationship between the two and explores practical ways of working with clients to maximise safety.
On completion of the course participants will be able to:

• Identify what constitutes domestic violence
• List the key substances associated with domestic violence
• Describe the relationship between patterns of substance use and how this may impact on a perpetrator’s use of violence
• Learn key skills that may enable a worker to increase the safe options for the survivors of domestic violence
• Pass information on to relevant agencies and individuals in line with legal and organisational obligations
• Develop guidelines to partnership working with domestic violence services

DANOS Units or other National Occupational Standards:

AA4 Promote people’s rights and responsibilities
AB4 Minimise the effects of abusive behaviour
AB5 Assess and act upon immediate risk of danger to substance users
Length: one day

This course is designed and delivered in association with DrugScope - the UK centre for drugs information.

image credit dreamstime

Please note
All our courses are commissioned for groups and organisations. If you have more than three people who would benefit from working together on this topic, use the link at the the bottom of the page to contact me, or click here to find out more about getting us to deliver a programme.

We regret that we do not have an open access programme