At Shine we have a range of amazing services to help victims of domestic abuse. One of them is Safe@home. Have a read about that here: One of our clients was a mum of two young children. Although she was separated from her abusive partner, he continuously sent her threatening texts, and would frequently phone the home and say things to the children like: “I can make your mum disappear.” He had threatened to kill her on numerous occasions. She feared for her safety, but even more for the safety of her children. The children were petrified of what their father might do and could not sleep at night. Both children compulsively checked that all the doors and windows were locked and never played outside. A Shine Advocate became involved with the family after the man was arrested for threatening behaviour. The Advocate referred the family to safe@home. After the Shine safe@home Coordinator conducted a home safety assessment for the family, she then organised for a home security upgrade, which included a door restrictor and peep hole, security stays on the windows, sensor lights, and a key locking bolt on the French doors. On a follow up visit by the Shine safe@home Coordinator, the mum expressed joy and relief that her children were now able to sleep at night and were no longer continuously worried about their dad breaking into the house. Her 9 year old son thanked the Shine safe@home Co-ordinator saying, “You are the only people that listened to us.” Shine safe@home is a service which targets victims of domestic abuse who are at high risk of serious injury or death (these are mostly women and their children). Clients of the service are provided with intensive support from an advocate specialising in working with high risk victims. Based on a comprehensive risk assessment, the advocate develops a risk management plan. As part of this support, the security of their homes is upgraded. Starting at the front door, a room by room and then exterior, security audit is conducted of the entire house, assessing points of vulnerability and then the required security upgrades take place. Women are offered a personal silent alarm so that in an emergency, clients just need to press a button on the alarm and be confident that Police will be alerted, responding rapidly. So far, the service has been 100% successful at stopping further assaults in the house, when women have followed the safety plan and are using the security equipment installed. You can help ensure another family is able to access the safe@home service, by donating $3 to Shine by texting safe to 3181 now.
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 00:30:01 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015