“An Innovative Domestic Violence Initiative”

Communicare’s Breathing Space is a residential and therapeutic program for men who have been violent and/or abusive within their family relationships. The program has 12 places within it, with the program being of a three month duration. While the program is based in Calista, it can take referrals from the entire metropolitan region of Perth. Organisations, services and individuals can all refer to the program.

Key Objectives
The service has a number of key objectives that underpin its service provision. These include;
* To assist in the provision of safety to women and children who are experiencing violence and/or abuse.
* To provide a safe environment for men.
* To encourage men to cease their use of violence and/or abuse.
* To provide a timely, appropriate and responsive intervention in situations of family and domestic violence
* To ensure that all interventions are congruent and respectful
* To provide ongoing supports to those clients exiting but still requiring a continuity of care.

These objectives interrelate with one another and underscore service delivery and the programmatic framework.

Entry into the Programme
In order to enter the program prospective clients need to agree to the Contract. The Contract requires clients to agree;
1 To commit to a non-violent belief system.
2 That partner and children safety is paramount and that the service will act if there is reason to believe people are at risk. This also is around clients being aware that the service will contact partners routinely and that the content of these discussions will not be revealed.
3 No drugs, alcohol or illicit substances will be used on site or that clients will not return to the program having used substances.
4 To engage in all aspects of the program and that group work, individual counselling and assisting with the day to day functioning of the centre are mandatory.
5 To pay a lodgings contribution calculated at 25% of what it is that a client is earning.
6 To negotiate any leave of absence from Breathing Space and that extended unnegotiated leave of absence may result in removal from the program.
7 That any illegal or criminal behaviours will be reported to the Police.
8 To see all visitors that are not visiting in an official capacity off site.

Clients will often be asked to participate in a suitability assessment prior to being offered a place within the program. This assessment will examine a client’s motivation to change, the level of risk to the family, his ability to engage in all aspects of the program as well as the level of insight and responsibility that they are taking for their behaviour. The program also reserves the right to ask clients to exit the program for improper or inappropriate conduct.

The program takes the position that family and domestic violence is a Human Rights issue. All individuals have the right to live free from violence and unencumbered in their life choices. The responsibility for ending violence lies with those who enact it – not those who experience it. While the program holds men accountable for their choice to use violence and abuse within the family, it does so in ways that are non punitive and congruent with respect based relationships.

Underpinning Principles
Communicare’s Breathing Space is underpinned by a number of principles. These principles influence the operations of the program as well as providing clients with a clear set of ideas to integrate into their own belief systems and identity. These principles are;
* Accountability
* Justice
* Empathy
* Non-violence
* Fairness
* Human Rights
* Responsibility
* Equality
* Compassion
* Safety
* Love
* Respect

These principles assist men in guiding them to a preferred reality that incorporates loving, safe and non-violent relationships. It also requires staff to model these principles in their interactions with clients so as to demonstrate and reaffirm there applicability.

Clients often present to the program with multiple and complex issues. The service provides a holistic or multi-systemic approach to its service provision and assessment. This allows for a multiplicity of supports and clinical interventions aimed at alleviating the crisis, assisting in promoting safety and addressing the violence or abuse. While the program clearly attends to the intra personal issues and factors within each client’s situation, its initial focus is on maximising the safety of the remaining family members and implementing actions to best assist with the provision of safety.

Counselling and Support
Clients that enter the program are assigned a support worker and counsellor within the first few days. The counsellors role is to work therapeutically with the client throughout their engagement in the program. Breathing Space has a clear series of individual counselling aims that inform the therapeutic alliance and content. The process for individual work is;

EXPLORING CURRENT LIFE CIRCUMSTANCES
- Unpacking the resident’s past and more recent use of violence
- Seeking out in-congruencies in the men’s narration i.e. punishment/empathy, violence/love, blaming/protection.

SAFETY AND SECURITY
- Exploring the resident’s previous understandings of family safety (women & children)
- What can he do to create and maintain safety i.e. prioritise safety & protection, safety planning and cognitive/behavioural strategies.

GENDER
- Insight into construction of masculinity and patriarchy
- Deconstructing gender and exploring the resident’s understandings and principles of equality.

RESPONSIBILITY / ACCOUNTABILITY
- Invitation for the men to take responsibility for their actions, and challenging resistance to accountability
- Challenge existing understandings and explore concepts of responsibility, empathy and consequential thinking.

FAMILY OF ORIGIN
- Raising insight into familial schemas, and exploring the men’s own experience of family violence
- Explore and deconstruct learnt schemas, and threw the men’s own experiences encourage them to learn how to change current understandings of relationships and violent behaviours.

ATTACHMENT / INTERPERSONAL ISSUES
- Raising insight into (systemic) patterns of behaviour within relationships, identifying associated attachment issues, and how these concepts contribute to interpersonal abuse
- Develop strategies to change patterns, attend to interpersonal issues, explore concepts of respect, individual rights and empowerment.

GRIEF & REALISATION
- Exploring the impact violence has on all individuals involved
- Moving away from shame, apologies and the remorse stage, toward accountability and safety.

VICTIM EMPATHY
- Exploring other individuals behaviours
- Reframing the men’s current interpretation of behaviours by examining the effects that violence and abuse has on an individual at the time, in the relationship, and beyond the violent event.

EXPLORING WHAT CAN I DO DIFFERENTLY
- Raising insight into incongruent understandings of fairness and respect - Develop understandings of safety, equality, human rights, fairness, and effective communication.

The exploration of these items are seen as essential in moving away from the use of violence and abuse within intimate relationships. Additionally, clients are required to complete a Self Assessment which is a detailed inventory of the behaviours and attitudes that clients have demonstrated in their relationship/s. This also informs the individual counselling direction.
The Support Worker adopts a case management role with clients and assists in the formation of management plans from a holistic and multi-systemic position. This requires that staff work with clients to enact a range of different concurrent processes and actions (eg domestic violence counselling, group intervention, substance abuse group, health checks, mental health assessment/intervention). Encouraging accountability and change from multiple sites within the individuals life offers a coherent chance of sustainable and enduring change. The Support Workers also provide support in the form of informal counselling, Court support and the liaising with external organisations. The program focuses on working collaboratively with external agencies .
The program also delivers an intensive group work series of interventions and supports. The group work modules are informed by current evidence based practice and are a compulsory requirement of the program. The groups are underpinned by a psycho-educational, therapeutic and skills acquisition framework. Most of the groups are open meaning that clients can commence them at any point of entering the program. Clients are also offered the opportunity to attend the Holyoake men’s substance abuse group. The range of groups offered are as follows;

Men Relating Safely
This is the core domestic violence group work intervention. This group examines the client’s use of violence and abuse within the family and is encouraged to look at the effects of these choices. Participants also examine the construction of gender and the ways in which this encourages the notion of male entitlement and promotes men to see women and children as property.

Understanding Anger and Aggression
The central theme around this program is to increase awareness and provide education around the motivation for the emotion anger. It examines anger and aggression from physiological, psychological and socio-cultural perspectives.

Understanding Emotions
This program is designed to increase and share our understanding of our emotions. It is designed to explore some of the more complex and difficult emotions so as to have a more positive relationship with them. It also links the key primary emotions both with the cycle of violence and relationships were violence and abuse is being used.

Fathering Group
The fathering group supports men to reflect on their fathering roles and acknowledges and encourages them to promote the principles of active and responsible fathering. Additionally, it examines the effects of violence and abuse on the father/child relationship

Workshops
The program also provides a range of different workshops throughout the duration of the program. Some topics include Intimacy, Children and Play, Fair Fighting, Communication, Conflict Resolution, Masculinities, etc.

Therapeutic Community Model
Another important element of the program is the utilisation of a therapeutic community model. The program attempts to create a therapeutic milieu whereby there are many opportunities for learning and change. Having clients engage within a complex living environment encourages men to demonstrate what they are learning experientially. Clients are required to negotiate, respond to situations non-violently, deal with conflict and stress, take responsibility for their day to day living requirements (cooking, cleaning shopping etc) contribute to a positive an equitable living environment, take responsibility for the safety of all those within the program and considerably more.

Partnerships for Family Safety
Assisting in the provision of safety to those people who have experienced or witnessed violence/abuse is a central focus of the program. Breathing Space has a formal collaboration with four specialist women’s services throughout the metropolitan area. The programs Partner Contact Officer makes initial contact with the partner of every client that has entered the program. They are asked for consent so that their information can be passed onto one of the women’s services. Each service then works with the remaining family in providing supports and services as required. Any concerns or immediate risks are relayed back to Breathing Space through the Partner Contact Officer and actions are initiated. More general communications are passed on fortnightly.

To download a brochure on Communicare's Breathing Space, please click here.

To refer a person to Communicare's Breathing Space, please download and complete the referral form here.

This service is funded by:

The Department for Community Development (DCD)