Jacques Family Case study Essay

Domestic violence has several mitigating approaches, and the health care approach has proved to be fruitful. By gathering feedback from victims of domestic violence in a health care setting, has helped to create awareness as well as demystify the phenomenon eventually helping to create more accurate intervention strategies (Enos et al, 2004.p 4). It has also been noted from studies that children who grow up in homes where they experience domestic violence are likely to be perpetrators of the same in their adult life (National Resource Centre on Domestic Violence, 2002. p 6). The co-occurrence of child abuse and intimate partner violence is an issue that needs to be professionally addressed. The impact on domestic violence on children cannot be explained by one theory. Assumptions about the Jacques family There is a co-occurrence of child abuse and intimate partner violence in the Jacques family. This is seen when Jacques physically abuses Samuel when the boy tries to help his mother from the father’s attack. Jacques verbally abuses Samuel, as seen in the case study. The husband, Jean Jacques is an unstable man, with an inclination towards violence. This is likely to be a medical condition. Jean has a manipulative attitude and domineering towards his family. Marie suffers from depression as a result of the continued violence and a feeling of having wasted her life by not pursuing the nursing course. Marie has had a troubled childhood and early adulthood as is stated in the case study. Her father physically abused her. Samuel’s father actually abused her sexually as evidenced by her feelings to go for an abortion. Marie is basically a responsible and intelligent woman. Marie has not contributed to the violence in the family in any way. The family has lost close ties with their paternal relatives/extended family. The children feel a sense of insecurity towards their father and suffer from various behavioral/ attitudinal disorders (National Resource Centre on Domestic Violence, 2002. p 7). Data, facts, information, and observations about this family Jean Jacques is an unstable man, with an inclination towards violence is evidenced by the fact that when Samuel tries to intervene to save his mother Jean violently throws the boy across the room and ignores the cries of the little children Valerie and Miranda. The fact that jean used a baseball bat to batter his wife proves he has an inclination towards violence as well as being of relatively unstable mind. He does not need to use a base ball bat. The injuries sustained, and the feelings of depression by Marie demonstrate the extent of the violence. Marie has grown to fear her husband and fearing he will come home from jail to kill her demonstrates this. Jean would hit Marie for no reason, yell at the kids and use abusive language towards Sammy who is not his son. He has an alcoholic problem. He even abandons his family and goes away. Has trouble sleeping and claims he hears strange voices. He feels scared of himself. His violent outbursts cause his family to be denied the services of homeless shelters. A social worker had to intervene for the family to get admission to a domestic violence shelter. Jean has a manipulative attitude and domineering towards his family. This is seen when he discouraged Marie from pursuing her dream in nursing. Jean discouraged his wife from visiting her family as well as discouraging her family to visit her. He domineered over her denying her the right and freedom of association by becoming possessive and consequently Marie had no friends. Marie suffers from depression. She has lost motivation to be productive. She has no motivation to seek employment, perform her household chores, and provide quality parenting to her children. Marie has had a troubled childhood and early adulthood. She was physically abused by her father. The father of her first child Samuel sexually abused her at age 19 years. She was vulnerable and hence fell for Jean who promised her a better life and security. Marie is basically a responsible and intelligent woman. She expresses desire to be supportive of her husband as a duty. She desires to pursue nursing to support her family.   Marie has attempted to restore their relationship. She suspects that jean is having a drug problem. This is found to be true when the family comes back from Bahamas. She took Jean back after one year when Jean supposedly went back to his medication and started applying for jobs. Marie graduated from high school with straight A’s. The family has lost close ties with their paternal relatives/extended family. There is no mention in the case study of Jeans relatives and the Child Protective Services Caseworker could not trace any relatives. The children feel insecure about their father. Samuel tries to save his mother from the violent attack while Joshua calls the police.   Samuel does not feel attached to Jean anymore. Jean is not essentially a bad man. In their initial years in marriage Jean was a responsible man and took care of Sammy as his own child. Though he is violent towards his wife he apologizes for the violence. He agrees to seek psychiatric advice upon Marie’s request. Jean makes his family more comfortable when he gets employed. He agrees to let Marie take the children to Bahamas. Concerning the children Samuel is 13 years old and feels like he no longer belongs to this family. He is constantly teased by the siblings as well as Jean for being black. He suffers from attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and learning disorder. He is academically average and manages to get C’s and D’s. He is getting into more problems at school including fights and poor academic performance. Molests younger children at school and is physically and verbally aggressive to his younger siblings. He copies Jean’s behavior in that he has physically attacked his mother. He is unfriendly. His accomplishments in karate programs demonstrate his inclination towards violence. Joshua is 11years old, he is obese and reserved. He is academically average and manages to get B’s and C’s. He has one friend Joe, and wishes his friend’s family were his family. He sees Joe’s family as normal people and this means that he sees his family as abnormal. He feels that his father would have killed his mother had he not called in the police. He is having trauma and yet he cares for his father. He is at risk of failing as a result of traumatic experiences. Has personality problems, he refuses to bathe. He loves solitude. He is a responsible child, helpful in the house and loves school. Valerie is 9 years old. She is quiet and withdrawn child. She is kind and eager to please. She is above average and bright. She manages straight A’s. She is well liked by peers and teachers, though she does not socialize with her friends outside school. She is a responsible child and takes care of her younger siblings. She is friendly to Joshua but antagonistic towards Samuel. Miranda is 6 years old, she is a friendly but withdrawn child and does not perform well at school. She seems to be disturbed and disconnected from her immediate surroundings. Has nightmares that proves she is disturbed. Matthew is 4 years old. He does not seem to be doing well at school, he is very active physically with an inclination towards violence. He is basically uncooperative. Interpretation the information about this family  From the observations about the children in the Jacques family it is important to note that they all demonstrate varying degrees of emotional and psychological deficits. This has been found to be the case from studies conducted on children who have been exposed to domestic violence (National Resource Centre on Domestic Violence, 2002. p 6). The children in this family are unable to socialize with their peers as this is demonstrated by their unfriendliness and disability to keep friends. Children are likely to view themselves as the cause of the violence and feel held captive by their inability to stop the violence. This may most likely cause the child to internalize, and this situation is made worse by their inability to acquire social skills (National Resource Centre on Domestic Violence, 2002. p 7). Conclusions about this family The Jacques family needs medical interventions. From the observation in the case study it demonstrates Jacques has a medical condition and having exposed his entire family to the violence the whole family needs the relevant medical intervention for each age bracket. Studies have shown there does not exist a single intervention strategy that fits all cases (National Resource Centre on Domestic Violence, 2002. p 15). Treatment for this family Given that Marie has on several attempts tried to restore their relationship with Jacque it would be appropriate to engage the services of both the Domestic Violence programs (DV) and the Child Protective Services (CPS) more seriously. The CPS’s approach focuses on protecting the children while at the same time propagate the preservation of the family unit while the DV facilitates the safety of the victim. There are several joint programs between DV and CPS that would be helpful in this case (National Resource Centre on Domestic Violence, 2002. p 16). Empirical Studies Case 1; In handling Domestic violence related problems it is important to understand that factors such as age of the child, its gender, and the time that has passed since the last exposure to violence, the child’s attachment to the friendly parent and other important individuals and social supports in its life are the determining factors that influence the impact of the violence on the child (National Resource Centre on Domestic Violence, 2002. p 19). Case 2; The mistreat of children and violence against females are con-current. About 500,000 may be found by police during arrests for domestic violence. An overlap of between 30%-60% exists between violence against women and violence against children in the same families (National Resource Centre on Domestic Violence, 2002. p 20). Case 3; If safety and other pertinent interventions are not available the impact of the exposure to domestic violence and child abuse can spill over into the child’s adolescence. Young people who have been exposed to domestic violence at home are likely to replicate the violence (National Resource Centre on Domestic Violence, 2002. p 20). References Enos V, P., Linden, J, A., Tieszen, L., Bernstein, J. & Brown, J. (2004) An Intervention To Improve Documentation Of Intimate Partner Violence In Medical Records. U.S Department of justice. Retrieved February 23, 2009 from http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/207146.pdf Kelleher, K., Gardner, W., Coben, J., Barth, R., Edleson, J. & Hazen, A., (2002). Co-Occuring Intimate Partner Violence and Maltreatment; Local Policies/Practices and Relationships to Child Placement, Family Services and Residence. U.S Department of justice. Retrieved February 23, 2009 from http;//www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/213503.pdf National Resource Centre on Domestic Violence. (2002). Children Exposed To Intimate Partner Violence. Retrieved February 23, 2009 from http://new.vawnet.org/Assoc_Files_VAWnet/NRC_Children.pdf