Tier 3 – Specialist knowledge

Knowledge

In addition to Tier 1 & Tier 2 knowledge, you need to know: 

• advocating for victims and survivors within systems is important to establish safety, reduce the risk of re-traumatisation and ensure their needs are central in any response provided
• how to prepare for upcoming child protection meetings, hearings and/or court cases, which involves providing information, emotional support, and developing strategies for managing emotions that arise during the process and afterwards
• the importance of assisting victims and survivors to form realistic expectations about the outcomes of criminal justice and complaints processes.

Skills

In addition to Tier 1 & Tier 2 skills, you can: 

• provide information and support to assist a victim or survivor to navigate complex systems, including courts and child protection
• assist victims and survivors to identify likely points of distress when engaging with systems, and implement strategies for managing strong emotions
• assist victims and survivors, family, kin and supporters to work through less-desirable outcomes from prosecutions and complaints
• support victims and survivors to undertake their own advocacy if they would like to do this.

Did you know?

Redress and legal responses to child sexual abuse are complex 

Knowmore provides redress and legal training for professionals.

What do victims and survivors tell us?

‘Well, if it’s like a couple of months before court you feel like it’s going to take forever before you get there but then say like 2 weeks before it feels like it’s moving at a thousand miles per hour. You get a bit panicky. I was terrified to go to court.’ 

– Female victim and survivor, 14 years old, quoted on page 129 of the Making Noise Project full report by Warrington et al. (2017).

Knowledge

In addition to Tier 1 & Tier 2 knowledge, you need to know: 

• the importance of providing simultaneous and coordinated multi-agency intervention, where a person has co-occurring mental health and substance use issues
• that in cases of recent child sexual abuse and/or harmful sexual behaviour displayed by a child or young person, the need to work collaboratively with existing joint investigation protocols is very important
• you may receive requests from other services or workers for specialist advice and support about how to work with child sexual abuse.

Skills

In addition to Tier 1 & Tier 2 skills, you can: 

• in consultation with the individual victim and survivor, choose the most suitable option for each from the range of models offering ‘joined-up’ care
• where there is no established protocol, develop a written plan for a victim and survivor for working with other service providers, clearly delineating roles, responsibilities and identifying what information needs to be shared and how. This plan should be developed with the input of the victim and survivor, and family, kin and supporters where appropriate
• use professional supervision to reflect on challenges when working collaboratively with other services
• proactively engage with other services involved in cases of recent child sexual abuse and/or harmful sexual behaviour displayed by a child or young person.

Did you know?

Integrated service responses 

The degree to which services are integrated is often conceptualised as lying on a continuum, from no integration (service autonomy) to full integration (highly coordinated multidisciplinary care). The figure below is adapted from NSW Health’s Integrated Prevention and Response to Violence, Abuse and Neglect Framework (2019) and is an example of this continuum.

1. No integration
   A highly fragmented system with service delivery organisations working in isolation.
2. Limited integration
   Loose, informal cooperation (e.g. information sharing) between practitioners.
   Sharing of office location, facilities and overheads, but no integration of services.
3. Partial integration
   Some formal sharing of resources (e.g. staff, tools, data) and joint planning.
   Information on multiple services available through single employee or website portal.
4. Full integration
   Integrated staffing, funding, technology applications, service delivery tools and case management.
   Simultaneous and coordinated provision of multidisciplinary services.

Knowledge

In addition to Tier 1 & Tier 2 knowledge, you need to know: 

• victims and survivors will benefit if workers build positive professional relationships with other services
• sharing knowledge about trauma and strategies that support recovery with other workers both inside and outside your organisation can enhance victim and survivor outcomes
• a shared understanding of trauma and how to respond to it is helpful when working collaboratively with other services and clinicians from other disciplines. Seeking clarity around roles and language and terms used is also beneficial
• victims and survivors many require specialist responses to other issues that may not be part of your core business, for example:
  • domestic and family violence
  • exhibiting harmful sexual behaviour
  • alcohol or other drug use
  • disability
  • faith-based or religious concerns.

Skills

In addition to Tier 1 & Tier 2 skills, you can: 

• make complex ideas about trauma accessible to other workers
• support other workers to develop safe and effective professional relationships with victims and survivors through supervision, consultation and/or training
• proactively and constructively engage with interagency partners when processes have broken down to avoid future issues
• take responsibility for ensuring effective responses from your organisation
• proactively engage with other specialist workers to build your knowledge of complex intersecting issues and seek advice.

Resource

Multi-service provision for adult victims and survivors 

‘The service sector is built in such a way where people focus on a particular issue so as you add more and more presenting complex issues that an individual is facing, the smaller and smaller the number of services are there that can support that individual which makes access very hard … The more complex issues you start adding into that mix, suddenly you get to a position where there’s no services that can tackle every single one of those presenting needs, which in itself is traumatising, do you get what I mean? So you get to this thing where there’s just nothing left, and you just can’t address it.’ 

– Manager/supervisor, homelessness service, quoted on page 86 of a research report by Salter et al. (2020). 

Read more about service provision for adult victims and survivors across multiple service providers in the paper by Breckenridge et al. (2015).