Introduction

Rachel Robbins and Kate Cook (2017) authored the article “Don’t Even Get Us Started on Social Workers’: Domestic Violence, Social Work and Trust – An Anecdote from Research”. The article explores the concept of trust relating to the work done by social workers in child protection against domestic abuse. The authors conducted the study using interviews from women who suffered domestic abuse and requiring child protection services for their children and used the interviews to examine the barriers to trust-building. Robbins and Cook (2017) used the ‘Freedom Programme’ to highlight issues in trust-building in the context of living with abuse, systems set up to provide social work services, wider inequality, and developing an ecological approach towards improving the trust-building process. The authors set apart the argument that social work should be seen as a trauma through which mothers should be helped to overcome.

Freedom Program and Behnia’s Critical Framework

The thematic analysis of the study was conducted based on the conversations on social work and trust issues among women living in abusive relationships. The authors used Behnia (2008) critical framework of trust to develop the ‘Freedom Programme’ developed by Pat Craven and incorporated into Witt & Diaz (2018). The Freedom Programme (FP) is a short course examining the roles of attitudes and beliefs on the actions of abusers, and the reactions by victims of abuse (Robbins & Cook, 2017). Behnia (2008) discusses two levels of trust: initial trust developed at the start of a relationship, and deeper trust facilitates by further disclosure; further espoused in Egan and others (2017). The authors argue that the development of trust from the initial level to a deeper level occurs through the symbolic interactionist approach where the actor in the relationship understands the professional social worker through their self-concept, self-perception and the professional’s identity.

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Relationship-Based Social Work and Domestic Abuse

The authors argue that two contrasting approaches define the relationship between domestic abuse and social workers in their role to help dysfunctional families. The voluntary approach uses expertise from professionals to guide the welfare and rights of women in society; while the statutory approach focuses solely on child protection, risk assessment and investigation (Robinson & Masocha, 2017). The authors argue that models such as the Three Planet Model are applied by social workers to improve the effectiveness of child protection services and to protect women from victimization by employing the trust-building process (Robbins & Cook, 2017).

Methodology

The authors conducted the research between April and July 2015, involving women. The data collection process includes focus group discussions facilitated by social worker staff, observations of FP sessions at three different venues, concluded by short discussions by participants. Some women were given the opportunity to fill out surveys. The main question requested participants to describe whether social workers, police officers and other professionals understand domestic abuse.

Findings and Conclusion

The authors argue that trust is the first process in relationship-based practises for social workers. However, social workers operate in involuntary environments where child protection is paramount. As such, the social worker must work actively and creatively to build a relationship with the clients (Robbins & Cook, 2017). The social worker needs to balance between child-focus and family-dynamics, specifically based on Rogerian qualities such as empathy, active listening and demonstrating authority in assessing client genuineness (Robbins & Cook, 2017). The authors argue that improving the effectiveness of relationships in social work by limiting focus on physical violence to focusing on the element of coercive control. Robbins and Cook (2017) argue that social workers build relationships by developing social work systems that provide support to families and victims superseding the professional role of social workers.

Introduction

The understanding of the effectiveness of the formation of relationships in relationship-based social work is crucial in providing social care services to dysfunctional families (O’Leary et al., 2013). To fully understand and comprehend the versatility and breadth of the significance of relationships in achieving positive outcomes, it is cr