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Bridging the Systems to Empower Victims: Mental Health and Victim Services (Student Manual)

NCJ Number
163173
Date Published
December 2004
Length
128 pages
Annotation
This manual presents workshop materials and training tips for a 2-day training program designed to foster cooperation and collaboration between victim services and mental health providers.
Abstract
To accomplish this, the training is highly interactive, with repeated opportunities to relate the information presented to each team's community. The training is as much about a change in attitudes and perceptions as it is about expanded knowledge. Training is designed for community teams composed of five to eight people who represent community victim and mental health services. Instructions for conducting a number of exercises in the course of the workshop are included. An agent-of-change exercise is intended to help each person recognize personal resistance to change, identify resistant behavior in others as well as its repercussions in others, and develop leadership skills to overcome individual and group resistance. An exercise designed to help workshop participants serve victims of particular types of offenses consists of charts that identify problems typically experienced by victims of burglary, robbery, assault, and sexual assault, as well as the following types of victims: battered women, survivor victims, child victims, and elderly victims. Students must offer suggestions for dealing with each type of problem outlined under each offense or victim category. Other exercises involve case studies and the support that caregivers need. A workshop evaluation form is also included. Guidelines and tips for workshop instructors are provided.