Clinton News-Record, 1985-2-27, Page 2§,4!IOCI 1 + NEs Y, FESRTJARY 27, p8f
szws. tedlorqs.:
Huron Task Force tackies proble ri, of fini1y violence
By Shelley McPhee
CLINTON - Huron County health and social
agencies are networking their resources to
fight family violence.
More than 22 men and women from
various organizations met in Clinton recent-
ly to discuss their concerns and involvement
with family violence.
Nurses and counsellors, a minister, a
lawyer, representatives from Family and
Children's Services, Survival Through
Friendship, Women Today, Huron Public
Health Unit, the Community Psychiatric
Services at Alexandra Marine and General
Hospital in Goderich, Huron County Coun-
cil, Huron County Board of Education,
Alcohol Educational Counselling Program,
and the Huron Centre for Children and
Youth are among those who are taking part
in the Huron County Task Force on Family
Violence.
The informally organized group has one
basic aim - to simply gather professional
and interested individuals together, to
discuss family violence in Huron County, its
causes and its prevention.
The group represents an information
gathering and exchange amongst the people
who are dealing with family violence in
their work.
In the past, individual services handled
the increasing problem of family violence as
they best knew'how. Now, through the com-
bined efforts of the task force, professional
services are learning more about family
violence, how other agencies are handling
the problem and where help is available.
Valerie Bolton of Women Today explain-
ed, "We need to understand all of the ser-
vices that are available. This meeting is
allowing that kind of co-ordination. The aim
should not be to make the services one and
the same, but to provide a network of
specialized services."
Discussing
By Shelley McPhee
CLINTON - The man who beats his wife
will soon be able to talk about his problems
and find help through a new Family
Violence Prevention Project, being
developed by the Huron Centre for Children
and Youth in Clinton.
Counsellers at the Centre have conducted
a pilot project of this innovative program
and, only await funding to proceed with the
complete service. Funding from the
Ministry of Community and Social Services
looks promising.
In fact, the ministry is looking at the pilot
project with particular interest since it is
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Huron. County professionals and concerned citizens have joined
forces to battle family violence at a local level. More than 22 people
attended a recent meeting of the Task Force on Family Violence
Through the task force discussions, ser-
vices are gaining greater exposure and sup-
port. The impressive Survival Through
Friendship Organization in Goderich has
been promoted. People are hearing about
the self-help women's groups that are being
established by Women Today in Clinton.
They're learning about individuals like Hol-
held in Clinton. The task force is represented by a variety of health
and social service agencies in the county. (Shelley McPhee photo)
ly Keil of Wingham who works as a lecturer
and conducts workshops in her community
on family violence.
Sheila McCaffery of the Huron County
Family and Children's Services said that
the task force provides needed information
about services that are available Shp noted,
"We don't have the extra time to do these
other things. The networking allows ser-
vices the opportunity to keep updated and to
make each other aware of information shar-
ing. We keep these in mind, then go back to
our own agencies are carry this out."
Mark Roberts of the Ministry of Com-
munity and Social Services was surprised,
and impressed with the gathering in Clinton.
He commented, "I'm amazed to come to
this meeting and see all thesepeople."
The task force has three goals - to share
information, to encourage co-operation and
promote public education.
By sharing information about current ser-
vices available in the county, the task force
hopes to increase their understanding of the
broad ramifications of family violence in
Huron County and to define unmet needs. di
With co-operation and communicatio
task force members hope to develop in-
itiatives to meet community needs.
Through education, the group hopes to in-
crease public awareness of the serious ef-
fects of family violence and gain public sup-
port to solutions.
Thefirst proposal the task force has sup-
ported is the development of the the Family
Violence Prevention Project, a self-help
group for abusive men, that is being put
together by the Huron Centre for Children
and Youth. (See separate story).
The task force involves a combined voice
of expertise and concern for the common
goal of easing family suffering and violence
in the home.
Together people on the task force share
their concerns and their information. In
their individual areas of work they use the
task force findings to help people in need.
Family violence is a complex problem
and solutions are not simple. Heather Ross
of Seaforth said, "It's too easy to go in too
many different directions."
Mrs. Ross' area of expertise is law, and
through her specialized work she hopes to
help victims of family violence. She believes
that the task force can help identify proble
areas and who can best work with them. She
noted, "Each of us has to decide what part
of this problem we're going to attack."
probieHl may help these who abuse partner
one of the .only projects off ts kind in the
province.
The Family Violence Prevention Project
was born from discussions and concerns by
various organizations - in Huron County.
Throughout the county, organizations are
becoming ,nore aware of the intensified
problem of family violence. Women Today
has been promoting public awareness of
violence to women in Huron County. The
Goderich based Survival Through
Friendship Organization has provided
assistance and mutual support for victims of
family violence.
Laurie Thomson, a counsellor at the
Huron Centre for • Children • and Youth
reported that the Centre has found that
family violence is a major area of concern in
the distress of children among those
families who have come to the Centre for
help.
• County services have been successful in
offering help and support for women, but
Ms. Thomson noted, "nien who express
their anger and distress in violence at home
make little or no use of existing, social
services to cope with this problem."
In a written report she also noted, "It is
our conviction that a widely publicized
program focused on the problem of family
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violence would offer an attractive
violence offer an attractive
alternative to men caught up in destructive,
behavior in their families and elsewhere.
The justice system, lawyers and courts may
well refer men in need of this help.”
Ms. Thomson and Dr. Doug Reberg have
been conducting a small test program at the
Centre, for men who are attempting to
control their own violence in their families.
The eight week project involved•five men,
and the- counsellors believe that it could
successfully run as a full program over a 40
week period.
The aim of the program is to offer men
help -and treatment in an effort to
understand and control their
and violence. It
represents a new way of dealing with family
violence since there are few professionally
assisted, self-help groups geared for. the
"battering" man.
The proposed program would not replace
services available for abused women, but
would compliment and assist those
programs. Ms. Thomson noted that in cases
of family violence the first priority is for the
safety of the women and children and
assistance in this area is being handled
through organizations like Survival Through
Turn to page 3
Huron County has its
share of family violence
F ranula violence is no stranger to Huron
County. In fact, the number of child abuse
cases per 1,000 population is double the pro-
vincial average.
A report from the Huron County Task
Force on Family Violence reveals some
startling statistics.
In Huron County:
1. Thirty abused women are identified by
Public Health Nurses each year.
.2. In one year police are called to over 200
domestic disputes (251 in 1983), approx-
imately one third of which involve physical
assault.
3. Physicians estimate that each practicing
doctor in the county knows of about 12,
families where a woman is physically abus-
ed.
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4: Thirty women made use of a shelter in
Huron County for battered women, in the
one year of its existence. •
Canadian research indicates that one in 10
women in a relationship with a man, is
physically abused by him'. This may well be
a low estimate.
The task force has identified the need for
greater public awareness and additional
services to reduce family violence and to
help its victims.
The experience of the Family Services
Association in Guelph shows that many
families approaching them to help do not
reveal the violence with which they live and'
consequently do not profit from counselling.
They found that when the presence of
violence is specifically questioned, it is
found to be a major factor in a much greater
number of families than has been thought.
They offered programs to deal specifically
with this and found them to be well attended
and their effectiveness encouraging.
Other communities have found that once a
program is running, it is rapidly swamped
by the demands,prediously unsuspected.
This may well be due to the sensitization of
the community to the issiie•that is the con -
makes it exceedingly difficult to judge*
sequence of publicizing the program.
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