CHANGE Conference
September 1990
University of Stirling
The
Men’s Programme
Men come onto the CHANGE
Programme as a condition of a probation order via the three
local Sheriff Courts. What I want to do in this part of our
presentation is look at how that works in practice and then look
briefly at the content of the programme.
1. Taking referrals
The system which we have set
up in consultation with Social Work, Procurators Fiscal,
Sheriffs and Sheriff Clerks means that potential clients can be
identified at a number of stages:
-
the Fiscal marking a case
for the Sheriff Court can draw the Sheriff's attention to
the possibility
-
the Sheriff can call for a
CHANGE assessment to be carried out at the same time as a
Social Enquiry Report
-
a social worker
undertaking an SER can suggest a CHANGE assessment in his or
her report
In practice what happens is
that we receive a request from the Sheriff Clerk's office on a
pro-forma which we devised. One of us then contacts the local
Social work office to find out who is compiling the SER to
liaise with them. The man is then contacted and an appointment
made to interview him, either at his residence or in the Social
Work office, depending on what is convenient.
The purpose of the interview
is to assess three main things:
1. The history, frequency
and severity of his violence to his partner.
Our prime concern at this
stage is his partner's safety. Being put on probation and
attending the CHANGE Programme means that offenders remain in
the community and we need to ensure that by recommending him for
a place we are not placing his partner in danger.
2. Whether he takes
responsibility for his violence and motivation to stop
it.
Men very often minimise,
deny or blame their violence on someone or something else.
In order to work with a man we need to have him accept that he
was the one who used violence and must take responsibility for
it. At this stage all we ask is that men admit that they used
violence and we ask them their understanding of what happened.
Very often they express their inability to explain their
violence, putting it down to a 'blind rage' or 'seeing red' or
'losing the place'. As for motivation to stop, at this stage we
ask only a willingness to stop. Our experience so far has been
that men are often frightened by this aspect of their behaviour
and want to understand it. However, we recognise that at the
time we are interviewing a man he will have his own agenda for
saying he wants to stop. He will by now be in the 'hearts and
flowers' stage of the cycle of violence, remorseful and anxious
perhaps to stay out of prison or to get his partner back. As to
the last, he is told that acceptance onto the programme offers
no such guarantee and that his partner will be contacted to be
given details of the programme. She will be told that she must
put her own safety and wishes first and is under no obligation
to do anything while he is on it.
3. His cognitive ability to
benefit from the programme
Some of the material that men
have to tackle on the programme will require an ability to learn
from and to analyse past behaviour so we need to assess a man's
ability to handle such material. Some men have reading
difficulties which we can assess at this stage by asking him to
read out loud the Agreement to Participate (which I shall come
to soon). We don't feel that literacy problems alone should
prevent us accepting a man, we can adapt to them, but we do
require a willingness and ability to learn.
Having assessed these points
the man is then asked to read out a copy of the Agreement to
Participate and a copy of the group rules. He is asked whether
he feels able to comply with both.
This is the Agreement to
Participate.
1) I agree that I am
violent to my partner and that I am willing to stop my violence.
As I have said, at this stage
men will qualify their acceptance of this statement in three
ways; by denial, minimisation and blaming.
- They deny their
violence by saying they didn't mean it or it was a one-off
incident which will never happen again
- they minimise their
violence by saying.. 'but I only...' or that it wasn't as bad
as the police, courts of their partner made out
- and they blame their
violence on someone or something else. 'She provoked me,' ' I
was drunk ', 'I'd had a bad day etc.'
We make a note of what is said
so that when the man has learned about these issues we can see
if he is more able to take responsibility for what he did.
2) On (date) I was required
by (……….Sheriff Court) to participate in the CHANGE Men's
Programme as directed, and as a condition of a Probation Order.
We explain how participation
in the CHANGE Programme works as a condition of a probation
order. If he breaches any of the terms of the agreement with
CHANGE we can refer him back to his social worker who in turn
will refer the matter to the court. The other terms of the order
are between him and his probation worker, but he is told that we
will maintain close contact with him/her while he is attending
the CHANGE programme.
3) I agree to complete 16
sessions of the Programme
He is told that the Programme
consists of a two hour group meeting held locally in educational
premises and that the programme will take him at least sixteen
weeks to complete.
4) I agree to participate
in the CHANGE men's programme as directed.
The programme consists of a
number of different Modules, some lasting half a session, some
one session and others that may need two sessions. Each module
has completion criteria, that is, work that each man must do
both in the class and as homework, before he can be said to have
completed it. We keep class records on each man so that he,
ourselves and his probation worker can see how he is progressing
with the CHANGE programme.
The programme is in two halves
and men will not be allowed to move onto the second part until
they have completed all the first part.
5) I agree to abide by the
rules of the CHANGE Programme .
There are 8 group rules to
which men must agree:-
1. I must be on time. If I
am late I will have to repeat the sessions I am late for.
We explain that it is very
important for everyone that we arrive and start punctually,
probably men will be keen that we end punctually. The work we do
in the group is serious and requires concentration. We feel men
should respect the other members of the group by not arriving
late. Late arrivers will not be admitted to the group that week
and will have to repeat the session missed.
2. I may only miss sessions
through illness or other urgent reason and any sessions missed
must be made up.
I have already covered this in
the agreement to participate, it is in the group rules as a
reminder.
3. I must be sober. If I am
under the influence of alcohol or other drugs I will not be
allowed to take part in the group that week and will have to
repeat that session.
We tell men that this rule
means even a pint before they come in. Again, the work we are
doing in the group is serious and men need to have a clear head
in order to do it. Arriving under the influence of drink of
drugs makes us think a man is not serious in his efforts to end
his violence, and shows a lack of respect for the others who are
taking the work seriously.
4. I must undertake all
work given to me including "homework" in order to complete the
programme.
We have already covered this
point, but it is in the rules to act as a reminder.
5. I must not use any
violence in the group.
We know men have already
agreed not to be violent while on the programme, and we hope
they will be able to continue this agreement for the rest of
their lives. However, we have put in this rule because we
believe that in order to be successful, we all need to feel safe
in the group and we need to be able to feel free of any
anxiety. Within this rule we include all acts which
violate another person, so we include in it not only attacking
someone else, but also touching them without their permission,
verbally abusing them or making fun of them.
6. If I am disruptive or
unco-operative I may be suspended from the Programme.
The CHANGE programme will need
men to co-operate both with us and with each other if we are to
succeed in our aims. One of these aims is to help men to learn
to act in a co-operative rather than in a competitive way so we
need them to start now by recognising that they will need each
other's help and support to get through the work we have to do,
and that anyone who tries to disrupt that work is not respecting
the needs of the others in the group.
7. I must keep the names of
all other group members confidential.
In the group work we expect
men to be very frank and open with us and with each other about
things they have done in their relationships with their
partners. So to encourage them to feel safe in doing that we ask
them to agree to keep the names of the others in the group, and
what is said by them, confidential. Each man is of course free
to tell his partner, or others, what he has said and learned.
8. I must refer to my
partner by her name at all times.
The reason for this rule is
because we know that one way in which people make it possible
for themselves to use violence against another human being is to
distance themselves from that person by using names which turn
that person into an object. As human beings, we find it
difficult to hit other people, but easier to hit things. If we
can turn people into things it stops us thinking that those
others have the same kinds of lives as us, the same hopes and
feelings, and can feel the same pain as we do. Thus when men
call their partner 'her' or use names like 'that bitch' they are
turning her into an object rather than talking about her as a
person.
6)I understand that I must
contact CHANGE if I am going to be absent due to illness or
other urgent reason, and that I must make up any session missed.
I understand that missing more than two sessions in a row
without reason will result in my suspension from the Programme
and referral back to the Social Work Department.
7)I understand that the
CHANGE Project will report information regarding my attendance
and participation in the Programme, or any acts of violence to
the Social Work Department.
8) I understand that CHANGE
will contact (partner’s name) to give her information concerning
the CHANGE Programme and my involvement there. She will also be
advised if I am put off the CHANGE Programme before completion.
Each man knows that we will
contact his partner to give her information about the CHANGE
programme and we will be letting them know of his progress on
it. We also say that we will make it very clear to her that;
1. She is not to blame for his
violence.
2. She cannot stop
his violence, and she is under no obligation to stay
with him or to do anything else.
3. We cannot offer her any
guarantees that being on the programme will stop his violence
and that we therefore advise her to put her own safety first.
9) I understand that I must
notify the CHANGE Project of any change of address.
10) I understand that
violations of Probation conditions are grounds for removal from
the Programme and referral back to Court.
I AGREE NOT TO BE VIOLENT
WITH ANY PERSON DURING MY PARTICIPATION IN THE PROGRAMME.
Men are told that being on the programme will not prevent their
social worker from taking action if they breach any of the other
conditions of your order. If this happens, they may be asked to
leave the programme.
There is a space for
signatures at the end. This is not signed at this point, but the
court is told that the man has seen it and knows the terms. If
the court refers him to the Programme, the Agreement is signed
in the presence of the social worker handling the man's
probation order and each party keeps a copy, the Social Worker,
CHANGE and the man.
After assessing the man and
before submitting any report to the court we contact the man's
partner to ask if she would be willing to meet so she may be
given information about the programme, particularly that she is
not expected to stay with him or do anything other than consider
her own safety and needs; and to answer any questions she may
have. She is also advised on where she can obtain support via
her local Women's Aid group.
For a number of reasons felt
it was important from the outset that we undertake the
assessments for the courts ourselves even though this is a time
consuming activity. For a start the process is not
cut-and-dried in the sense that there is a formula to work to.
Personal judgement plays a major role in the assessment and the
accuracy of that judgement can only be measured by the outcome
of the programme. Secondly we feel it is important that doing
assessments and giving our reasons for accepting or rejecting
clients is part of our accountability to the courts and the
community.
The report that is submitted
to the court gives in some detail why we consider a client
suitable or not. So far we have had twelve requests for
assessments out of which we felt unable to accept the man in
only 3 cases.
