CRISIS CENTERS AND
HOTLINES
Crisis centers and hotlines are a
primary way in which advocates around the world have organized to provide
battered women with support and assistance. Crisis centers and hotlines provide
a variety of services that can include safety planning, lethality assessments,
legal advice, referrals, and counseling. Crisis centers offer these services
in person; women can come to the crisis center to speak with a trained advocate.
Hotlines, in contrast, offer these services over the phone; women can call
a hotline number and speak with an advocate. Hotlines and crisis centers also
often respond to inquiries from friends, family members or neighbors concerned
about a woman in crisis.
Advocacy Principles
While it is critical that advocates, both staff and volunteers,
receive training
on issues such as advocacy principles and the dynamics of domestic
violence, they need not be professional therapists or lawyers.
The organizing principle of crisis centers and hotlines is that
women are the best judges of their own situations and support
from peers rather than professional psychologists is an effective
way to help women evaluate risks and identify the best course
of action.
Staff and volunteers who work at crisis centers must follow
advocacy guidelines. Confidentiality,
as always, is of primary importance. Advocates can employ creative
approaches to protect women’s confidentiality. A crisis
center in Uzebekistan, for example, created a back entrance, while
another established itself in a building that also housed a sewing
school, “so that women could stop by on a the way to a ‘legitimate’
destination.” From MAHR, Domestic
Violence in Uzbekistan 57 (2000).
In addition to confidentiality, it
is vital that staff and volunteers at a crisis center or hotline understand
that while they can help a battered woman find and evaluate the choices and
options that are available to her, only she can make the decision about what
course of action to take. The role of an advocate is to listen, ask appropriate
questions, and offer referrals to and information about resources and other
options that are available.
To do otherwise may, in fact, endanger
the woman who is seeking assistance. For example, an intervention approach
under which advocates contact husbands in order to arrange for joint
counseling may have severe and potentially lethal
consequences. First, contacting a husband alerts him to the fact that his
partner has sought assistance and disclosed the abuse. He may view this as
a challenge to his authority or a first step towards separation and retaliate
with violence. Second, by contacting the husband, advocates disclose information
that was relayed in confidence. Women may, as a consequence, feel even more
isolated and forgo seeking additional help. Third, because reconciling women
with their husbands does not address the underlying issues of power and control
that are at the core of the violence, the abuse is likely to continue as
before.
Publicizing Services
Critical to the success of hotlines
and crisis centers are community education or media campaigns to publicize
the existence of these services. Such campaigns serve the dual purpose of
informing the public that these services are available and raising awareness
about domestic violence.
Service Accessibility
Both hotlines and crisis centers may
need to assess the accessibility of the services they provide. Translation
services help ensure that the services offered are available to women in different
communities. Hotlines may want to equip their telephone system to accommodate
hearing-impaired women. In choosing a location for a crisis center, the accessibility
of the center for women with disabilities may be an important criteria.
Because a hotlines rely on the phone
system, additional factors should be considered prior to starting such a service.
In many countries, telephone service is available only in urban areas. While
such services may be useful for women in cities, it is important for advocates
to consider the provision of services to rural women, who may experience significant
isolation because of reduced transportation opportunities and greater distances
from resources.
Documentation
Documentation is an important part
of providing services through crisis centers and hotlines. Such documentation
can be useful both externally and internally.
Internally, documentation can help
ensure that battered women receive better service. Whether it is a crisis
center or a hotline, women may call or visit multiple times. A brief record
(nature of question or problem, advice that was given) created by the staff
person or volunteer who initially talked to a woman can be read by other staff
and volunteers so that all are appraised of her situation; as a result, she
will not have to reiterate the details of her situation each time she speaks
to a new person. The information collected can also be used to help the center
ensure that the services it is providing are needed and to identify additional
services or programs that could be effective in combating domestic violence.
Externally, the information collected
about individuals who have contacted the center (number, needs, obstacles
encountered) can be used to document the prevalence, scope and nature of the
problem. This information can, in turn, be used to support community education
campaigns and legislative reform efforts. In addition, this data can be extremely
useful in fundraising, particularly in creating grant applications for both
private and government financial support, because it can establish the need
for the services provided by the center or for additional services not yet
available.
Recording information, however, must
be done in a way that protects the victim’s confidentiality. General statistics
collected for external purposes should be maintained without any personal
or identifying information. To the extent that personal information is important
for internal reasons, this information should be protected from unauthorized
disclosure.