MA Understanding Domestic Violence and Sexual Abuse CPD (Continuing Professional Development) options

In this module, we’ll examine the issues concerning children and young people who are exposed to domestic violence and sexual abuse. The starting point of the module is that professionals working in the statutory and voluntary agencies need to acquire knowledge of childhood exposure to domestic violence and sexual abuse. The module aims to explore key messages from research to give you a better understanding of the key factors that impact upon the experiences and contexts of domestic violence and sexual abuse affecting diverse groups of children and families.

The module will address the following key areas:  

• The effects of childhood exposure to domestic violence and sexual abuse on children
• Theories to explain domestic violence and sexual abuse
• Identification and links between domestic violence, sexual abuse and child abuse
• Domestic violence, sexual abuse, and child protection systems.
• Parenting in the context of domestic violence and child sexual abuse
• Inter-agency working 
• Dynamics of race, class, gender, sexual orientation and disability on domestic violence and sexual abuse 
• Legal remedies to respond to domestic violence and sexual abuse
• Ethical dilemmas related to domestic violence and sexual abuse

This module will introduce you to skills in working with people who perpetrate or experience abuse. We’ll explore intersectional approaches to working with victims and survivors, and consider how personal and social identity interacts with a survivor’s experience of services. We’ll start by examining the manipulative and controlling behaviour of perpetrators of domestic violence and sexual abuse. You’ll analyse anonymised case material to gain a sense of how they (and their victimised clients) experience these behaviours.

Victim/survivors will then be considered with particular emphasis on how coercion, threat and intimidation worked to force their compliance with the abuser’s demands. The interplay between these factors and the experience of being marginalised within society by race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender and mental or physical capacity will be examined. You’ll critique the role of services, communities, and political policies in increasing/decreasing vulnerability and in re-traumatising victims. A working knowledge of the complex nature of post-traumatic stress and its use/abuse by perpetrators and by the health and social care sector will be a central theme.

This module will invite you to explore the unique experiences of adolescent victims and perpetrators of domestic violence and sexual abuse.

The module will address the following key areas:

• Adolescent development – what happens physically, neurologically and socially for young people during adolescence.
• Peer dynamics and how they impact behavior and wellbeing. The roles of leader, follower and bystander in peer-to-peer violence.
• The scale of abuse in adolescent relationships.
• Practical tools to engage young people in healthy relationship education. This includes participation in a demonstration of evidence-based arts practices that can be used in youth settings.
• Contextual safeguarding approaches: The home context; the school context; the neighbourhood context, the peer group context, and online contexts. 

The module approaches the topic as fluid and open to exploration, not a set of ‘facts’ to be learned. This programme features a cross-disciplinary approach with input from the fields of social work, community work, neuroscience, and psychology.

This module will examine the psychological impact of violence and abuse related trauma on individual adults and children. It will introduce a critique of the disease model of mental health and will look into the harmful impact of trauma (e.g. PTSD, self-harm, substance misuse) while also learning about potential personal growth experiences that some people experience in the aftermath of the traumatic events. Positive psychological interventions that support coping and facilitate positive growth will be examined. Finally, the module will also look at the impact that trauma work has on those who work in the field, both in terms of vicarious trauma and burnout and in terms of personal growth.

The module will encourage you to consider self-care and resilience in relation to working with traumatised individuals. There will also be a consideration of how experiences of trauma interact with personal identity and how the issue of social equality interacts with this topic.

The teaching on this module supports you to create interventions, environments and policies which are fully informed by the latest understanding of trauma making them more accessible, engaging, and effective for survivors of abuse. The module emphasises the importance of including the survivor’s voice and perspective in the services designed to support them.