Application
This unit describes the skills and knowledge required to establish the user’s willingness to change, confirm the user’s responsibilities and work respectfully with the user to plan and monitor changes. This relationship creates the context for the intervention and is constructed within a framework that promotes user responsibility, accountability, self-agency and direction towards change while maintaining a focus on the safety of others.
This unit applies to workers who operate with significant autonomy in therapeutic professional service roles in the community sector. The activity is self-directed.
The skills in this unit must be applied in accordance with Commonwealth and State/Territory legislation, Australian/New Zealand Standards and industry codes of practice.
Elements and Performance Criteria
ELEMENT | PERFORMANCE CRITERIA |
Elements define the essential outcomes | Performance criteria describe the performance needed to demonstrate achievement of the element. |
1. Establish willingness to address violent and abusive behaviour | 1.1 Analyse existing case information about the user of domestic and family violence as the basis for work 1.2 Use questioning to explore how the user understands and locates the responsibility for their violence and abuse 1.3 Encourage the user of domestic and family violence to recognise the advantages of behaving in ways that are non-violent and non-abusive 1.4 Explore the user’s aspirations for future relationships to examine how their violence undermines fulfilment of those aspirations 1.5 Characterise interactions with the user with respect, honesty and a concern for children and partner safety and in accordance with agency/organisation policies and procedures |
2. Establish focus on user’s responsibility for change and conditions for intervention | 2.1 Acknowledge and challenge as the focus for change the user’s understanding of the problems their violent and abusive behaviour cause 2.2 Establish a written contract for the intervention which clearly focuses on the user’s responsibility, the potential for change and the priority of the safety of children and partners 2.3 Clarify and agree on expectations for mutually respectful behaviours and use of language, including challenging by the worker |
3. Use reflective practice to minimise potential for collusion | 3.1 Enact and maintain accountability processes throughout the intervention process 3.2 Recognise, resist and challenge instances provided by the user for collusion 3.3 Examine own practices with the user for their potential to replicate dominant behaviours 3.4 Examine own values and attitudes towards constructions of gender to determine the potential for collusion with the user’s account of their use of violence and abuse 3.5 Maintain processes that ensure gender accountability between workers |
4. Establish respectful and safe practices | 4.1 Establish and maintain practices and strategies that are sensitive to the user’s experiences in relation to membership of a minority culture or experiences of injustice 4.2 Acknowledge respectfully the user’s experiences of injustice, victimisations, prejudice or discrimination while ensuring that any attribution of causality or responsibility for abusive practices to these experiences is challenged 4.3 Assist the user to seek and acknowledge evidence of respectful, just and equitable values and practices in their culture |
5. Provide opportunities for the user to plan, initiate and monitor changes | 5.1 Encourage the user to make and implement realistic plans to cease all forms of violent and abusive behaviour 5.2 Provide opportunities for the user to demonstrate their responsible and respectful behaviour 5.3 Encourage the user to establish and maintain active involvement in ongoing networks of support for responsible and respectful behaviour |
Evidence of Performance
The candidate must show evidence of the ability to complete tasks outlined in elements and performance criteria of this unit, manage tasks and manage contingencies in the context of the job role. There must be evidence that the candidate has:
worked intensively to establish relationships with at least 3 different users of domestic and family violence to assist them to change, including:
making a critical assessment of willingness to change
drafting a written contract for each intervention that clearly focuses on the user’s responsibility, the potential for change and the priority of the safety of children and partners
monitoring and critically evaluating changes in the light of information from a variety of sources, including:
the user
user’s family members
colleagues
used the following counselling skills and violence intervention models:
challenging/confrontation
negotiation
undertaken a structured process of reflection to minimise collusion based on work with 3 users of domestic and family violence.
Evidence of Knowledge
The candidate must be able to demonstrate essential knowledge required to effectively complete tasks outlined in elements and performance criteria of this unit, manage tasks and manage contingencies in the context of the work role. This includes knowledge of:
legal and ethical considerations for domestic and family violence work, and how these are applied in organisations and individual practice:
codes of conduct
discrimination
duty of care
human rights
mandatory reporting
practitioner/client boundaries including issues surrounding potential collusion
privacy, confidentiality and disclosure
policy frameworks
records management
rights and responsibilities of workers, employers and clients
specific legislative frameworks that apply to domestic and family violence
work role boundaries – responsibilities and limitations
work health and safety
current and emerging domestic and family violence theory and practice
gender analysis of domestic violence
tactics and politics of abuse
restrictive constructions of masculinity
theories of change
types of user responsible and respectful behaviour, including:
self responsibility
self reliance
self confrontation
separateness/independence from partner
supervision and debriefing models in community services
collaborative practice in working with users of domestic and family violence, including benefits, different models and opportunities
self knowledge, including own biases and the potential impact on work practices.
Assessment Conditions
Skills must have been demonstrated in the workplace or in a simulated environment that reflects workplace conditions. The following conditions must be met for this unit:
use of suitable facilities, equipment and resources, including:
client information
organisation policies and procedures
modelling of industry operating conditions, including:
scenarios that involve complex interactions and problem solving with other people.
Assessors must satisfy the Standards for Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) 2015/AQTF mandatory competency requirements for assessors.
Foundation Skills
The Foundation Skills describe those required skills (language, literacy, numeracy and employment skills) that are essential to performance.
Foundation skills essential to performance are explicit in the performance criteria of this unit of competency.