Spotlight on economic abuse - Good Shepherd Youth & Family ...

Community Services Policies and Practices
This section describes some of the key connections between the community services sector
and economic abuse. Key services and programs relating to economic abuse are mainly
tertiary interventions, including some services that are specifically designed to assist
individual women experiencing domestic and family violence as well as more general
services such as financial counselling, legal assistance, accommodation assistance, material
aid and financial education programs. Service providers in these areas are also active in
developing and providing secondary interventions, for example education and training for
workers and systemic advocacy.
This section is primarily organised around different sectors of community services providers
and considers the ways in which they relate to economic abuse. First, however, it draws
attention to some recent research findings and to development work by community sector
organisations concerning some possible gaps and/or priorities for service responses that are
not sector specific or that may require collaborative responses.
Recent findings relating to service and program gaps
In Braaf and Barrett Meyering’s (2011) recent study, workers in a variety of community
services (for example, domestic violence, health service, legal service) identified financial
issues as being raised regularly in their discussions with clients affected by domestic
violence and they observed that financial abuse was very common among such clients. This
and other studies have also identified the following issues for services:
A need for greater acknowledgement of the long-term impacts of violence and the
need for post-crisis support aimed at preventing women returning to violent
relationships and supporting women’s wellbeing in the longer-term (Desmond 2011;
Evans 2007).
A need for workers supporting women on exit from domestic and family violence to
provide individual ‘economic advocacy’ around women’s debts, savings, assets and
income as a key strategy to assist women increase their financial security following
domestic violence (Barrett Meyering 2012).
A need for economic advocacy at a systemic level, for financial literacy education as
preventative measures and for specialised financial literacy programs from women
affected by violence (Braaf & Barrett Meyering 2011).
A need for training around domestic violence and linkages with domestic violence
and other services including to raise awareness of the economic impacts of domestic
violence on women and to recognise that abuse may continue after separation (Braaf
& Barrett Meyering 2011).
Domestic and family violence services
In the United States context, Christy-McMullin (2011) maintains that domestic violence
services generally focus on mental health, parenting skills and domestic skills and that this
reflects patriarchal society and traditional gender assignments. She argues that emotional
abuse, economic literacy, and wealth and asset building need to be brought to the fore of
service, policy and research practice agendas. This critique does not readily apply to the
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