Gender Responsive Case Management (G R C M)

 is different from the generic case management process because of the perspectives
that frame it. The perspectives integrate gender, women’s human rights and
strengths.

Gender

 Gender intersects with other social variables like class, age, educational attainment,
and socio-economic status in determining one’s access to opportunities, income,
wealth, and benefits, and vulnerabilities to abuse and violence.

Violence Against Women

 is an example of GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE

What is Violence Against Women in a gender- based understanding?

 “Violence against women and their children” refers to any act or a series of acts
committed by any person against a woman who is his wife, former wife, or against a
woman with whom the person has or had a sexual or dating relationship, or with
whom he has a common child, or against her child whether legitimate or illegitimate,
within or without the family abode, which result in or is likely to result in physical,
sexual, psychological harm or suffering, or economic abuse including threats of such
acts, battery, assault, coercion, harassment or arbitrary deprivation of liberty.”

What is Violence Against Women in (Sec.3, R.A. 9262)

1.2. “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual
or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary
deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.” (United Nations, Magna
Carta of Women)
1.3. Violence against women is rooted in the higher value and status that males are given in
society.
1.4. This privileging of males is embedded in social structures (e.g. family, school, church,
mass media), institutionalized, and reproduced, and is referred to as “patriarchy.”

Forms of Violence Against Women

- physical
- sexual
- verbal
- emotional
- psychological
- economic
Perspectives used in the analysis of violence against women
 - Human rights
- Legal and cultural frameworks
- Gender

Effects of Violence

- The effects encompass the physical, social, emotional, psychological and sexual well-
being and functioning of the survivor. They are damaging not just to the body but to
the mind and spirit.
- Children exposed to domestic violence are also affected emotionally,
psychologically, physically and socially (e.g. engagement in violent behavior in
relation to peers).
- Effects may also be seen at the community level. Rampant acts of gender violence
may lead people to think they are normal. Unless such acts are exposed and
challenged, they will continue to be committed, and reproduced.

The Five Phases in GRCM

- Initial Supportive Responses
- Gender-Based Assessment Process
- Intervention Planning, Partnership and Implementation
- Monitoring and Evaluation
- Closure and Follow-up

Phase One (1) : Initial Supportive Responses

Disclosure
- is very critical in the helping process in situations of violence. It is a turning point for
survivors and the beginning of their healing process.

Step 1: Identify the state of mind of the survivor.

This will determine whether :

- the interview should proceed

- the survivor needs time and space to collect herself first
- she must be referred to a psychologist or psychiatrist.

The woman/girl survivor most often is in a state of crisis as shown by:

- Temporary loss of self-control, state of shock, hysteria, and catatonia
- Fear for her safety and the safety of her children and/or other family members
- Anxiety, worry, and fear that the male perpetrator would find out she sought help
- Defensiveness, insecurity and distrust.

Step 2 :Create a safe environment and stabilize the survivor.

- provides her space where she can have privacy

- assures her that she is safe
- that her rights and well-being are of paramount importance.
- If the survivor so requests, allow her the company of someone she trusts.
 - Provide a room/place with privacy.
- Offer water, food, first aid (if needed).
- Ensure that the perpetrator is not present
- Let the survivor decide whether to be interviewed alone or in the presence of a
relative or friend.
- Show sincere concern and compassion for her.
- Assure her of the confidentiality of information.
- Allow and respect her own pace of disclosure.

Step 3: Use a gender-sensitive interviewing process.

The social worker seeks to find out basic personal information from the survivor (e.g. name,
age, place of residence, occupation, civil status, no. and ages of children), and the details
relevant to the violence the survivor went through.

- The interview is not an interrogation.

- It is an interactive process whereby the pace and extent of disclosure to be made are
determined by the survivor.
- The survivor feels a loss of control over her safety and her body.
- She is also not sure whether people will believe what she will disclose.
- Avoid the mode and direction of questioning that refer to the survivor’s own role
and responsibility in the violence.

Step 4: Make an initial assessment and identification of the problem

Based on the interview results and collateral data available, the social worker identifies the
immediate concerns that need to be attended to. She asks the survivor to confirm whether
correct or not.

The initial assessment by the social worker is validated by the survivor. It includes the
following:

- the survivor’s immediate needs and problems, e.g. shelter, medical care, safety
plan, and the corresponding action plan ;
- identification of other social systems (e.g. child/ren whose safety and well-being
might also be at risk) that might require intervention, too; and
- partialization and prioritization of the needs and problems to be addressed.

Step 5: Respond to the survivor’s immediate needs.

- Refer to legal, medical, and/or psychiatric services.

- Provide temporary shelter.
- Give priority response to matters that present a clear and present danger to the
survivor or others.
- Attend to emergency cases based on the existing protocols of the agency/LGU social
service.
- Ensure that re-victimization does not happen
 - Discuss thoroughly the risks involved. Devise a safety plan.
- A safety plan is a contingency plan of the woman/girl survivor to be used in cases
when the perpetrator exhibits life-threatening and escalating violent behavior.
- Discuss with the survivor her rights under RA 9262 Violence Against Women and
their Children Act of 2004, and the option of a Protection Order (PO) that may be
secured from the barangay or from the court should the survivor decide to do so.
- The social worker may file for POs (RA 9262 Section 12) with the consent of the
survivor.
- The social worker should be familiar with and observe the protocols that the
government has established in the handling of violence against women cases
- DILG Memorandum Circular No. 2012-61 entitled Adoption/Implementation of
Guidelines in the Establishment and Management of a Referral System on VAW at
the LGU Level
- Joint Memorandum Circular No. 2010-1 entitled Creation of Local Committees on
Anti-Trafficking and Violence Against Women and their Children
- Joint Memorandum Circular No. 2010-2 provides guidelines on the establishment of
a Violence Against Women Desk in Every Barangay

Tips in Interviewing Survivors

Strengths Exploration: The Exception Question

- Ask the client to describe the times when the problem is not present or is less
severe. The client describes strengths, resources, and abilities.

Survival questions:

- How have you managed to overcome/survive the challenges that you have faced?
"What have you learned about yourself and your world during those struggles?"
(Saleebey, 2006, p.87)

Support Questions:

- Who are the people that you can rely on? Who has made you feel understood,
supported, or encouraged?

Exception Questions:

- "When thing were going well in life, what was different?" (Saleebey, 2006, p. 87)

Possibility Questions:

- What do you want to accomplish in your life? What are your hopes for your future,
or the future of your family?

Esteem Questions:
 - What makes you proud about yourself? What positive things do people say about
you?

Perspective Questions:

- "What are your ideas about your current situation?" (Saleebey, 2006, p.87)

Change Questions:

- What do you think is necessary for things to change? What could you do to make
that happen?

The Difference Question

- Aims to help the client become aware that s/he has the ability to try something
different, and to increase her/his intent to achieve goals. e. g. “What difference did
doing that make for you?

Data Collection Principles

- Client: primary source but not the only source

- Data collected should relate to the problem or issue
- Don’t acquire info if unwilling to share with client
- Inform client about info source
- Obtain client’s consent
- Get data after problem is identified

Remember!

- Nothing justifies the commission of any act of violence against a girl or a woman.
- The responsibility for violence falls on the man who did it, NOT on the
victim/survivor.
- Believe the survivor.
- The Social Worker is not a police investigator.
- Inconsistencies in the story of the survivor are acceptable considering the trauma
she experienced.
- Respect the pacing of the survivor.

Phase two (2) Gender - Based Assessment

Procedure:
1. What are your analysis and interpretation on the given situations below?
2. What are your implications to the social worker handling the case?

Scenario:
“My husband would slap me as his way of ending an argument. Later, he became verbally
and psychologically abusive, reminding me that I should be thankful he even married me
despite my past as a bar girl. Now, he grabs me by my hair and puts a knife to my neck.”

Possible Answer:

Violence has escalated over time. What was once limited to physical battery has progressed
to include other forms, particularly emotional and psychological, which intend to lower her
self esteem and put him in a position to control her. Worse, there is now a direct threat to
her life.

Implication to the Social Worker:

- priority action is to secure the survivor’s safety.

Scenario:

“Ana did not file for a Barangay Protection Order. Her mother was the Barangay Chair and
she did not want to embarrass her. But, after the last violent episode, she sought her
mother’s help in arresting her husband. The latter was arrested and detained. Ana’s children
and in-laws begged her to forgive him. So, she did. She withdrew her complaint.”

Possible Answer:

Ana thinks that domestic violence is a cause for shame for her and her family. Her
immediate family environment is more of an impediment for her desire to put a stop to
domestic violence

Implications to the Social Worker:

- The priority action is to strengthen Ana’s resolve to end violence by informing her of
legal and administrative measures that support her exercise of her rights, and linking
her with the necessary support network and resources such as her mother. A
secondary focus is Ana’s children and in laws so they could be a source of support to
Ana.

Scenario:

“Bining has stayed in an abusive relationship for ten years. She has learned to keep quiet
when Tony berates her. She has stopped being confrontational. Instead, she pretends to be
a subservient wife to avoid physical battery. Through the years, she has secretly saved
money for herself and her son to use when she decides to run away.”

Possible Answer:

Bining may have stayed on in an abusive relationship for a decade. But it does not
necessarily mean that she has meekly accepted violence as a way of life. Her efforts to
minimize violence by complying with her husband’s image of an ideal wife may be
interpreted as a form of resistance. She has also quietly built up financial resources through
the years for her eventual escape from the relationship.

Implications to the Social Worker:

- Affirm Bining’s strengths. Link her with the necessary network and resources.

Processing :

1. What are your observations on the assessments made?

2. What are to be considered in writing assessment?
3. Which areas should be given emphasis?

This phase is the basis for both immediate and long-term interventions

It involves the collection and analysis of comprehensive data that include the dynamics of
gender relations and violence in the survivor’s family, sources of support, and negative
pressures on the survivor in her family, workplace, and community.

- The survivor’s participation in this phase is an integral and important part of the
healing process.
- This is a process where she gains a better understanding of herself, and reclaims
her control over her situation.
3 Steps Defining a Problem
- Recognize the client’s unmet needs, rights that have been violated
- Identify the blocks to the protection, promotion and fulfillment of rights
- Determine client’s capacity to change (Client’s strengths, resiliencies, motivation for
change, resources )

Goals of Assessment

- establish the gender-based causes and effects of violence against

- women, specially from the point of view of the survivor;
- prioritise the problem/s to be addressed;
- Understand need, problem, the situation, rights violated
- Recognize client’s strengths, assets, skills, abilities that may be important
in addressing the needs/ problems/ rights violated.
- Understand client system’s interaction w/ other systems
- Make judgments (partialize/prioritize)

Components of Assessment

- resources needed to bring about changes

- problems that might result in bringing about change
- Factual and Analytical components—or sometimes referred to as “the
collection” and the “appraisal” of data
- Evaluation (e.g. urgency of the situation)
Characteristics of Assessment :

- It is ongoing.
- Focus on understanding the client in her situation
- Involves both client and worker
- It is individualized.
- It requires judgment as basis for decision-making.

Remember:
An assessment involves not only gathering data but also making sense out of the data, i.e.,
analyzing and interpreting data in order to understand where the survivor is at, how she is
progressing, and whether the she is nearer.

Gender-Based Assessment

- focuses on how socio-culturally constructed notions of feminine and

masculine attributes, roles and power relations inform the ways in which
individuals, families, communities and institutions, including duty bearers,
understand and respond to violence against women.

Example: Consider a man who justifies domestic violence by saying:

“As the head of the family, I forbade her from looking for work because I could comfortably
support her and the children. But she went out and found herself a job.”

- He invokes his masculine roles of income earner and head of the family
and with that comes power OVER his wife, including the power to control
her.
- The husband believes that disobedience deserves punishment in the form
of acts of violence.

A good assessment is contingent on:

- the availability of relevant information

- the analytical lens utilised
- the social worker’s commitment and experience.

Tools for Gender- Based Assessment

- Gender Violence Survivor Assessment (GVSA)

- Domestic Violence Surivor Assessment (DVSA)
- Interdisciplinary Gender Assessment (IDGA) Tool

Gender Violence Survivor Assessment (GVSA) Tool

- uses a simplified listing of internal and external factors that are relevant
to the presenting problem/s of the survivor. - can be used generally with
various cases of violence.
External Factors:

- dynamics of gender relationships existing in the family

- sustaining and constraining support systems

Internal Factors:

- Survivor’s strengths
- Survivor’s Constraints

Internal Constraints
- refer to the innermost views or thoughts of the woman-survivor about her
situation that may possibly hinder her to change her situation.

Interdisciplinary Gender Assessment Tool

- This tool requires almost the same data as the GVSA. The only difference is that
IDGA has an additional section containing the analysis of the survivor by an
interdisciplinary team.

Domestic Violence Survivor Assessment Tool

- The DVSA tool was developed by Dienemann, J., et.al. (2002) specifically for
survivors of domestic violence. It is used in the context of the Change Model.

Pointers!

- When one does assessment, one looks at the current situation and not the past.
- A social worker can consider pondering evaluative questions such as a) does the
present circumstance (action) the woman-survivor experiences serve as a strength to
the woman, b) was it a constraint on her part and c) what is the woman-survivor’s
own viewpoint on such values and beliefs.

When doing the assessment statement and gender analysis, a Social Worker may
encounter difficult circumstances that require her to refrain from easily judging based on
her personal values and beliefs

o i.e. how does a SW view/assess infidelity. Dealing with conflicting viewpoints

may require from a social worker to undertake her/his own personal
reflective practice.

Phase 3: Intervention Planning, Partnership, and Implementation

Objectives may be commented on based on their compliance with the SMART criteria:

S pecific

M easurable
A ttainable

R ealistic

T ime-framed

5 Steps in Planning Intervention

- Desired Impact / Goal

- Objectives
- Inputs / Enabling Mechanisms
- Interventions / Activities
- Effects and Indicators

Step 1: Establishing Goals

- Setting final or outcome goals is the second critical element of the
contracting process
- Envisioned aims toward which cognitive, emotional, behavioral,
and situational actions are directed

Effective goals are :

- Stated in clear and specific terms

- Stated in measurable or verifiable terms
- Have a realistic chance of success
- If achieved, would be adequate to improve the situation
- Consistent with client’s value and cultural systems
- Include a time frame for achievement

Step 2: Set S M A R T Objectives

Set objectives that are S M A R T and S M A R T E R

S= specific
M= motivational
A= accountable, agreed upon
R = Realistic
T= time-bound, touchable
E= exciting, ethical
R = recorded

Comparative Sample Objectives:

Poor: To obtain legal redress against the perpetrator.

Good: To seek immediately a BPO from the barangay chairman and file a TPO/PPO at the
Quezon City Family Court

Poor: To enhance the survivor’s assertiveness

Good: To learn to say” no” to her violent boyfriend.
Step 3: Determine the Inputs and Enabling Mechanisms

Examples :

Inputs: education on rights, reading materials, films

Enabling mechanisms: informal conversations, group activities

Step 4: Identify The Interventions / Activities / Timeline

Decide what interventions and activities are needed, including the target period for each,
that will enable the survivor to make the necessary changes.

Examples:

- immediate services: temporary shelter, medical referral

- continuing services: individual and group counseling

Dienemann’s Change Model and Stage-Specific Intervention with Sexual Violence

- Identifies strategies of change and the roles of the social worker in each
stage the survivor is located based on her own assessment and that of
the social worker.

Organizing survivors into a group – whether it be for therapeutic and/or

support purposes.

Support building for survivors is also a possible intervention. A support group is

composed of empowered survivors, survivors in the process of
healing, survivors’ relatives, friends, and other supporters.

Interagency partnership - Collaboration among law enforcement agencies, legal

aid groups, health care organizations, public health programs, educational
institutions, NGOs and agencies devoted to social services and economic
development.

Step 5: Determine the effects on the survivor

These are what the survivor needs to know, agree with, and do differently BEFORE the
desired impact can occur. Effect indicators are used to measure the level of changes and
include:

KNOWLEDGE: The survivor should know …

- RA 9262
- Violence is a human rights violation.
- The cycle of violence in an intimate relationship
- List of agencies she can seek immediate help from
ATTITUDES: The survivor should…

- Reject self-blame
- Believe in her self-worth
- Acknowledge the perpetrator’s accountability for the acts of violence

SKILLS: The survivor should be able to …

- avert serious harm using the safety plan for her and her children
- manage her own finances/ resources
- acquire skills from job training
- learn skills in conflict management

BEHAVIOR OR PRACTICES : The survivor should/could …

- seek a BPO from the barangay chairman

- practice stress management exercises
- regularly attend support group meetings

Targets of intervention in the ff. areas:

- knowledge
- attitudes
- skills
- behaviour or practices
- structures in place to prevent/combat VAW
- Relationships (e.g.from hierarchical to egalitarian, from authoritarian to
democratic, from oppressive to empowering)
- Policies, ordinances (enactment, implementation, oversight)

Phase 4: Monitoring and Evaluation

- In this phase, the survivor’s progress is tracked towards the goal of

empowerment.
- This phase directs the social worker and the survivor to an evidence-
based intervention, where intervention decisions are based on the
continuous evaluation of the woman/girl survivor’s change process.

Monitoring
This is a process of continuous gathering of data and analysis. Actual interventions,
resources, and effects are compared to what had been planned in terms of adequacy,
relevance and and timeliness.

- Gaps and problems are identified and corrective measures immediately

undertaken .
- Services are being furnished in accordance with the recipient’s care plan
- Services in the care plan are adequate and effective
- There are changes in the needs or status of the recipient
 - The recipient is making progress toward his or her goals.”

(Source:http://www.ncdhhs.gov/dma/casemgmt/TCMService03202010.pdf)

Objectives

- assess progress or lack thereof of plan implementation

- identify gaps /problems in implementation
- find alternative courses of action
- basis for decision-making re what adjustments and/or modifications have
to be made in relation to the plan
- identify strengths and weaknesses of the plan: inputs, implementation,
desired/expected outcomes
- cull out learning / insights on inputs, interventions and process
- identify facilitating and constraining factors

Evaluation

- “the periodic (i.e. in the middle of the intervention plan and/or at the
end) gathering, analysis and interpretation of planned versus actual
activities, interventions, resources and outcomes ( e.g. desired changes in
the client) to determine mainly the effectiveness of the plan, to identify
strengths and weaknesses, and to cull out lessons”
- “…it is not simply about effectiveness of outcomes….It must also
encompass as developing understanding of how social workers
themselves evaluate their practice.” (Joyce Lishnam. Evaluation and Social
Work Practice. Shaw and Lishman (eds) p.3.)
- determine the effectiveness of the interventions
- identify strengths and weaknesses of the plan : assessment, problem
identification, goals/objectives implementation, inputs, enabling
mechanisms, process, desired/expected outcomes

Objectives of Evaluation

- recommend policies, protocols, mechanisms to improve GRCM

- cull out lessons and insights to serve as inputs to the continuing
improvement of our GRCM and capabilities of Case Managers
- summarize facilitating and constraining factors to the successful conduct
of GRCM

Importance of Monitoring and Evaluation

- serve as tools to track the progress or lack thereof

- They are sources of regular information and data for an evidence-based
decision-making
- They help to identify gains, gaps, constraints and problems as well as
trends, challenges, and opportunities in anti-VAW interventions.
 - They generate data to prove/disprove, evolve models and approaches in
anti-VAW interventions.

Phase 5: Closure and Follow Up

Closure
- is a mutual decision by the social worker and the survivor to end the healing
partnership.

Follow Up

- is an integral part of a continuing relationship. Through this, the survivor’s well-being

can be periodically checked.
- Taken further, she can be encouraged to use her personal empowerment as an
impetus for her active involvement at the meso and macro levels on women’s issues.

Conditions for Closure

1. The intervention goal and objectives set have been successfully achieved.
2. The survivor is empowered to manage her life and its challenges.
3. The danger to the survivor is no longer present and the survivor wants to end the
helping relationship.
4. The survivor decides to end the relationship even before reaching the objectives.
5. The survivor acts unilaterally and seeks the help of other people/agencies and fails
to come back as per agreement.
6. The survivor relocates to another place of residence and requests for an intra-agency
turnover or a referral to another service agency.

How to Conduct Closure and Follow-ups

- Make sure that the closure phase is clear to the survivor.

- Discuss each others’ feelings in relation to the closure.
- When an adult survivor wants to terminate the helping relationship even
with unmet objectives, the social worker should explain the possible
consequences of such a decision.
- Celebrate the closure with a symbolic event that will make each one feel
good during the parting.
- Assure the survivor of a follow-up to make sure everything is well with
her.
- For follow-up services, shelters and/or Rape Crisis Centers (RCC’s) should
coordinate with the DSWD, make appropriate referrals to the concerned
LGU social service units/NGOs.
 Asian Social Institute
1518 Leon Guinto Street, Malate, Manila

(SW 205)
SW Practice with Individuals & Families
1st Semester 2019-2020

Submitted by:
Culong, Hazel Anne S.
BSSW Student

Submitted to :
Prof. Edna Cunanan
Professor