Caroline Glass is private domestic abuse advisor having worked extensively throughout her career with those impacted by domestci abuse. She had been part of the charity Refuge and was also an Independent Domestic Abuse Advisor (IDVA) in Lambeth.
She has since decided to become a private advisor and joins the latest Today’s Family Lawyer Podcast to discuss her work and the way she works with family lawyers to provide a more holistic support network for clients.
Her starting point is always a detailed risk assessment, similar to those completed by IDVAs but as a private assessor Caroline says you can invest much more time into the client. As an IDVA you may have 30 clients at any one time; reducing the impact you can have as a professional. Whereas her caseload enables her to work with people in a more in-depth way.
Once the risk assessment is done she works with family practitioners to explore and understand options and rights; be they non-molestation orders, occupation orders, prohibited steps orders, housing rights, marital right, social service intervention etc. She sees her role as extending the knowledge a solicitor can provide.
Caroline also suggests she can have a role to play in helping firms understand and identify where domestic abuse and coercive control is happening, and educates many on the increasingly varied form it can take. She points to the rise of technological abuse as a growing concern; with the use of spyware to monitor phones and computers; home devices like Alexa and Ring doorbells as tools that can be used to monitor partners; and car tracking tools so perpetrators know where their victims go.
She also warns of the growing understanding and use of the language of domestic abuse and control being used by perpetrators to portray themselves as victims.
Caroline delivers a fascinating insight into her role and provides some really useful points for practitioners to consider in their day to day roles.
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One Response
As we enter more of the age of technology, it becomes more difficult for the victim of IP violence to break free of her oppressing partner. Spyware of all types, apps, burner phones to harass, innocuous doorbells, it takes courage and will to make the break.