Jargon Buster- let us explain as much as we can for you!

Hello again and welcome back to our IDVA blog...

I thought it may be helpful to bust a bit of the jargon that professionals can sometimes use – I know that we sometimes have a habit of using acronyms, and maybe talking too quickly.  We need to remember that this may be the first time you have found yourself in a world of various different agencies being involved in your life and we expect that it sometimes may feel a little intrusive.

Let’s try and break that down a bit, you may have found yourself being identified or labelled as a high risk victim of domestic abuse/violence and there may also be several calls to you from lots of different agencies.  I know that you may not always feel like talking to them or indeed feel as though you have to keep repeating what has happened to you, with all the agencies asking similar questions and gathering lots of personal information all about you and your family.

This in itself can be daunting, frightening and quite possibly a tad annoying!  We certainly do not ever set out to annoy you but the reason for all of questions is to ensure we are all doing the very best we can to keep you safe,  understand your level of risk and ensure we are putting in the safety around you and your children in the best way we can.  So, please be sure that no one is judging you, we all want to do the very best we can to support you and one agency is not always able to have expertise in all the areas of support that you may need.  We all try hard to work together and ensure that you are at the centre of everything we do.

Jargon Explained...

CSC = Children’s Social Care (Don’t be alarmed you and your children are at the heart of all they do to ensure safety)

ASC = Adult's Social Care

IDVA = Independent Domestic Violence Advocate

DAP= Domestic Abuse Practitioner

WCU = Witness Care Unit

NPS = National Probation Service

CRC = Community Rehabilitation Company

TCP = The Change Project

CAFCASS = Children & Family Court Advisory

DASH = Domestic Abuse Stalking & Harassment Risk Assessment Tool

NCDV = National Centre for Domestic Violence

Compass = This is Essex’s triage service for all victims of domestic abuse

DA = Domestic Abuse

DV = Domestic Violence (we at Next Chapter refer to it as domestic abuse as you will have read in previous blogs domestic abuse is a lot more than a physical violent attack)

ABH = Actual Bodily Harm

GBH = Grievous Bodily Harm

MARAC = Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference

ASBO = Anti-Social Behaviour Order/or Officer

I don’t want you to be bored with the jargon busting and I know you can google all of the above for yourself if you wanted to… My point to you all today is to continue to ensure you that as IDVA’s we can help and we will help with all sorts of issues that matter to you, simple and not so simple.  We may not always have the solution right away, but we will help you get there, we will  help you see the wood for the trees, to see that there can be a light at the end of that tunnel and you will then understand why all of a sudden you have so  many people wanting to talk to you.

We will not be shocked, we will not be judging you, we are simply going to listen and advise and support you no matter what your individual story is…

Think of it like a jigsaw puzzle, and how frustrating it can be if just one piece is missing! We want to help and support you to get all those pieces of the jigsaw in place.

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