The Coalition for Woman Abuse Policy and Protocol in Prince Edward Island RESPONSE TO WOMAN ABUSE: POLICY AND PROTOCOL INITIATIVE Collaboration Strategy A Collaboration Workshop was held on November 7, 2000 at the Charlottetown Hotel. Approximately 50 survivors, community organizations and service providers came together to focus on moving towards a holistic, co-ordinated response to woman abuse and to determine how to better share information between service providers about policies, procedures and services to ensure that they provide appropriate and timely responses. After hearing presentations about each of the protocols developed during Phase 2 of the project, workshop participants discussed, in small groups, the development of a collaboration strategy to ensure a holistic response to woman abuse. The following information was generated. What are the barriers or difficulties that Hospital Emergency staff, Financial Assistance staff and Justice staff have to working together to ensure an effective response to victims of woman abuse? Resources lack of weekend services (eg. financial assistance) this will mean an increased work load lack of time so we get tunnel vision within our own workplaces overload of the person designated to work with woman abuse issues lack co-ordination of services on a particular case lack of management support Training and Education lack of training to help people lack of consistent and on-going training in: responding to woman abuse; identifying those who don't self-identify; available services and resources lack of education/public awareness Service Limitations responders have limited authority in various areas inflexibility of programs Beliefs and Biases of Service Providers hesitancy to become involved responders come from different perspectives our own frustrations (eg. impatience with the woman not leaving the abuser) Communication confidentiality lack of opportunities to share information and educate each other lack of confidence in other service providers lack of consistency within services (regional differences) there are no formal links between some agencies lack of communication with client Monitoring and Evaluation monitoring how the protocol is used getting feedback from users of the service Victim denial of victim (perhaps for fear of consequences around children) How can Hospital Emergency staff, Financial Assistance staff and Justice staff support each other to overcome the barriers or difficulties to working together to provide an effective response to woman abuse? Resources reallocation of resources to make services available 7 days a week/24 hours a day emergency line with trained individuals to answer inquiries outreach workers are a resource that should be tapped into more often (may require an expansion of their program) establish a provincial coordinator to co-ordinate: 1-800 number monitoring/evaluation of protocols/service provision info/education/training receiving evaluation from clients create a quick reference guide (covering all protocols) have a designated person in each service to work with women who are in or leaving abusive relationships create pamphlets and posters for waiting rooms make time for education/training/evaluating develop telephone directory of resource people with a person responsible to update them develop directory of services/programs in looseleaf format to be updated on a regular basis with a person responsible and/or website providing same info (NB not everyone has access) Training and Education joint info exchange/training sessions should be held on a regular basis regionally and at least one provincial meeting per year public education among services develop directory of services/programs in looseleaf format to be updated on a regular basis with a person responsible and/or website providing same info (NB not everyone has access) education (on-going) of service providers and the community in general - project social marketing approach to support each other to work together mandatory training sessions of staff ongoing education/training on every service providers protocol (not only of your own) education starting with management public awareness campaign Service Limitations explore the programs flexibility in each sector Monitoring and Evaluation build in an evaluation of your own protocol and others as well ... How is it working provincially, regionally, set a date for this and include feedback from other service providers as well as clients and users of the service case evaluation/audit comment boxes and cards Communication Create a formal link for exchanging information share training as a way to get to know each other hold multi-sector case conferences understanding confidentiality - we can work together if we have the client's consent - release of information - specific - may depend on service ie probation to explain up front if the info will not be held confidential ie sexual abuse, court issues, charges have all protocols available when final clarify with other services policy changes that will/may affect some services joint info exchange/training sessions should be held on a regular basis on a regional and, at least once a year, a provincial meeting regional rep for each protocol to meet regularly with other reps develop telephone directory of resource people with a person responsible to update them How can we hold ourselves and each other accountable for providing an effective response to woman abuse? Make protocols accessible on website with email notice going out to all service providers when changes are made - who will be responsible for this sharing of info re: changes? - to pass on to others - have one person who will be responsible for this by formalizing expectations of policy contact with client - how did I do? Did you understand what I was saying? Was I helpful? Did we meet your needs? Did other service providers meet your needs? Accreditation evaluation - short term of our own service and on the co-ordination of services stats - research to see if we are making a difference have client evaluate service with surveys cards self evaluate own protocol in our teams and others evaluate statistics have employees evaluate how receptive the employer is to have the time and resources to deal with the issue available to service providers define what an effective response is Workshop Evaluation What worked well? lunch inter-agency (meeting other services) discussion groups process continuing positive attitude re: work most stayed for whole day learned about different services What could be improved for next time? parking room temperature update front line service providers about project progress can we broaden the group?