Glasgow East Women’s Aid (GEWA)

We  believe  that  Resilience  is  a  key  factor  in  protecting  and  promoting  good  mental  health.  It  is  the  quality  of  being  able  to  deal  with  the  ups  and  downs  of  life  and  is  based  on  self  esteem.    

Research  shows  that  interventions  that  focus  on  improving  the  confidence,  self-­‐esteem,  resilience  &  protective  factors  amongst    people  subsequently  leads  to  either  a  reduction  of  substance  misuse  or  

the  likelihood  that  someone  will  become  involved  in  substance  misuse  behaviours.  The  move  towards  more  of  a  resilience  approach  using  alcohol  and  drugs  as  a  vehicle  for    

demonstrating  resilience  has  grown  naturally  from  work  undertaken  by  GCA  Prevention  and    Education,  with  a  range  of  target  groups.    Resilience  and  Protective  Factors  have  always  been  a  key  

consideration  our  in  prevention  and  education  approaches  towards  alcohol  and  drugs.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘We helped the women to increase their resilience’

GROUP:  KINSHIP  CARE    

LOCATION:  EASTERHOUSE  

PROGRAMME:  RESILIENCE    

DURATION:  planned  for  4  weeks  but  ran  from  Jan-­‐  April  2014      

PROGRAMME:  RESILIENCE  PILOT  

DURATION:  6  WEEKS    

BACKGROUND    Glasgow  East  Women’s  Aid  (GEWA)  works  from  a  three  stage  therapeutic  model  underpinned  by  theoretical  learning  from  Dr  Judith  Herman  to  address  long  term  effects  of  gender  based  violence  such  as  post-­‐traumatic  stress  disorder  (as  most  symptoms  and  residual  effects  of  domestic  abuse  are  categorised  as  PTSD).  The  therapeutic  support  staff  engage  with  women  in  the  counselling  process  to  assist  them  with  building  self-­‐esteem,  raise  their  levels  of  self  confidence,  establish  healthy  routines  and  empower  women  to  discard  the  negative  thoughts  and  feelings  associated  with  their  experiences  of  domestic/sexual  abuse.  This  work  is  undertaken  on  a  one  a  one  to  one  counselling  and  therapeutic  group  work  basis.  The  stage  one  group  promotes  safety  and  well-­‐being,  leading  to  stage  two  focused  individual  work  to  empower  women  to  integrate  the  impact  of  their  traumatic  experiences  in  order  that  they  are  no  longer  living  in  the  traumatic  events  but  can  live  them  creating  positive  goals  and  outcomes.  The  overall  aim,  therefore,  is  to  provide  a  service  which  gives  women  the  space  and  time  to  recover  from  the  effects  of  gender  based  violence  and  go  on  to  live  fulfilling  and  positive  lives,  leading  to  the  possibilities  of  educational  attainment  and  future  employment.  

From  May  to  June  2014  we  worked  in  partnership  with  GEWA  to  facilitate  a  resilience  pilot  with  the  women  who  are  in  stage  three  of  their  recovery  process.  It  was  agreed  that  the  group  of  women  would  be  a  group  of  GEWA  service  users  who  had  never  met  as  a  group  beforehand.    

The  women  taking  part  in  the  programme  had  all  experienced  domestic  abuse  in  their  lives  and  are  meeting  for  support  from  each  other,  GCA  facilitators,  and  from  GEWA.    We  agreed  that  resilience  based  workshops  were  appropriate  with  this  group  as  they  are  meeting  to  support  one  another  and  are  all  at  different  points  on  their  journeys  after  experiencing  domestic  violence.  We  had  worked  with  other  groups  of  women  within  GEWA  in  the  past  on  resilience  which  had  evaluated  well.  

 

OVERALL AIM • To  use  alcohol  and  drug  Prevention  and  Education  interventions  as  a  vehicle  to  demonstrate  

the  impact  of  resilience  on  children  and  families.  OBJECTIVES

• To  raise  awareness  of  the  concept  of  resilience.    • To  increase  understanding  of  protective  and  risk  factors  and  how  these  can  influence  

positive  and  negative  attitudes  and  behaviours  • Increase  in  knowledge  around  current  drug  trends  and  language  to  ensure  that  the  carers  

could  communicate  more  confidently  and  easily  around  these  subjects  with  the  young  people  in  their  care.      

• To  increase  resilience  in  the  women  in  the  group  by  showing  them  a  range  of  tools  that  they  can  use    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

METHODS

Alcohol,  drugs,  domestic  violence,  resilience  and  self-­‐esteem  are  potentially  complex  and  sensitive  issues  and  therefore  the  need  to  ensure  the  wellbeing  of  participants  remained  a  priority  at  all  times.  The  programme  required  some  thought  in  terms  of  what  can  be  realistically  achieved  within  the  sessions  while  allowing  for  fun  activities  and  ice  breakers  each  week,  to  help  ensure  the  group  feel  comfortable  with  each  other  and  with  the  facilitator,  before  discussing  resilience.  Additionally,  the  programme  needed  to  be  tailored  to  the  groups’  needs  so  an  overarching  outline  with  the  flexibility  to  develop/adapt  once  we  had  met  the  group  was  developed.    

For  the  programme  used  our  toolkit  of  resilience  interventions  and  tools  with  the  group.  This  included  some  of  our  activities  that  have  been  facilitated  and  evaluated  and  we  know  work  well  alongside  some  new  activities  to  explore  resilience.    

TOOLKIT OF ACTIVITIES

ACTIVITY:  ICEBREAKERS    • ‘Share  One  Truth  and  One  Lie’.  

ACTIVITY:  HEALTHY  MIND  PLATTER    • Encouraged  participants  to  explore  their  own  lives  and  their  wellbeing.  

ACTIVITY:  POSITIVITY  NOTEPAD    •  Write  positive  things  that  people  say  about  you.  

ACTIVITY:  POSITIVE  AND  NEGATIVE  SELF  TALK    • Who  do  we  listen  to  and  why?    

ACTIVITY:  PROTECTIVE  AND  RISK  FACTORS  • Exploration  of  what  is  a  risk  and  what  is  a  protective  factor  with  their  own  

resilience    

ACTIVITY-­‐  BALANCE  WHEL    • Looking  at  how  balanced  your  life  is    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EVALUATION    

 

EXAMPLE OF GOOD PRACTICE 1 Due  to  the  vulnerable  nature  of  the  group,  the  facilitators  were  very  experienced  Prevention  and  Education  workers  (one  facilitator  was  also  COSCA  trained  and  the  other  facilitator  a  professional  Person  Centred  Counsellor  with  several  years’  experience  of  working  therapeutically  with  clients).  We  felt  this  was  important  due  to  the  nature  of  the  disclosures  that  some  of  the  women  might  make.    

EXAMPLE OF GOOD PRACTICE 2 During  2  of  the  6  sessions  of  this  programme  we  were  unable  to  do  almost  any  of  the  activities  we  had  planned  to  do.    This  was  because  on  these  occasions  some  of  the  participants  were  in  need  of  support  and  this  dominated  the  sessions.    We  felt  it  was  best  practice  to  allow  the  participants  to  share  with  the  group  rather  than  press  on  with  activities.    What  we  then  saw  was  the  women  in  the  group  supporting  one  another  which  was  an  excellent  outcome.    In  addition  to  this,  we  were  able  to  support  and  listen  to  the  participants,  and  GEWA  staff  were  able  to  follow  up  any  issues  outwith  the  group  setting.    So  whilst  we  did  not  plan  for  these  two  ‘support’  sessions  to  happen,  we  feel  the  appropriate  actions  were  taken  by  all  involved,  and  most  importantly  the  participants  received  all  of  the  support  available  to  them  at  this  time.    In  terms  of  our  plans  for  the  programme,  this  cut  our  delivery  time  unexpectedly  down  to  4  sessions.  Accordingly,  in  future,  we  may  plan  for  an  8  week  programme  where  possible,  to  allow  us  more  delivery  time  should  similar  issues  occur.  

EXAMPLE OF GOOD PRACTICE 3 We  feel  that  for  the  activities  we  did  each  week  with  this  group,  the  group  always  grasped  the  activity  a  bit  better  if  we  were  able  to  show  our  own  examples  of  completed  activities  as  facilitators.    So  in  future,  we  will  make  sure  to  always  have  a  completed  example  of  any  activities  we  hope  for  the  group  to  complete.  

 

EXAMPLE OF GOOD PRACTICE 4 We  planned  to  do  various  ‘pre-­‐evaluation’  measures  on  week  1,  but  were  unable  to.    This  is  partly  because  only  3  women  of  the  expected  10  attended,  and  partly  because  one  participant  was  quite  emotional  and  dominated  the  conversation  after  a  few  introductory  activities.    With  this  being  our  first  week  meeting  the  women,  we  did  not  feel  it  would  be  appropriate  to  shut  the  participants  down  when  they  seemed  to  need  emotional  support.      

EVALUATION  

A  pre  and  a  post  evaluation  was  carried  out  measuring  ‘What  does  resilience  mean  to  you?’    Place  selves  on  a  Resilience  Scale  (1-­‐10)  –  individual  decision  and  a  discussion  about  various  resilience  and  risk  factors  –  recorded  group  discussion  led  by  GCA  facilitator.  The  participants  were  asked  to  scale    1-­‐10  which  participants  placed  their  own  drawing  on  based  on  how  resilient  they  currently  felt.    As  can  be  seen,  3  placed  themselves  in  the  middle,  with  one  below  this  and  one  above  this  in  the  pre  questions  and  in  the  post,  only  two  of  the  participants  who  were  there  on  week  two  for  the  pre-­‐evaluation  were  there  on  week  six,  and  both  have  moved  their  characters  up  to  indicate  they  feel  more  resilient  now.    Two  other  women  were  also  there  on  week  6,  having  dropped  in  and  out  of  the  programme  and  both  have  ranked  their  resilience  as  quite  high.                                                                                                                                      

                           

 Pre  evaluation                                                                                                                                            Post  evaluation    

QUALITATIVE EXAMPLE: THE BALANCE WHEEL ‘One  participant  identified  that  all  her  time  and  energy  was  currently  being  spent  on  her  daughter  who  she  was  having  difficulties  with.    She  felt  this  was  important  for  the  moment,  but  identified  that  in  the  coming  months  she  would  like  to  see  an  improvement  in  her  relationship  with  her  daughter,  so  she  can  have  some  time  and  energy  for  herself  and  her  own  development.’