Responding to domestic violence in the wake of disasters: exploring the effects on services and workers

This chapter focuses on the ways in which disasters affect social service agencies and their employees and clients experiencing domestic violence (In Australia, ‘domestic violence’ (DV) is the preferred term. However, in the USA, ‘intimate partner violence’ or IPV is preferred. In this chapter, colloquial ‘DV’ is used). It reports on interviews conducted with workers from domestic violence services and first responder organisations in Townsville, a regional centre in Queensland, Australia, that was hit by Cyclone Yasi in 2010 and on a survey conducted with 67 workers across Australia who had experienced a natural or technological disaster. Workers described how services were reduced as work premises were damaged or destroyed and how they themselves were affected by the disasters. Many workers felt torn between having to attend to their own situation and that of their clients. This chapter reports on some managers’ strategies for supporting both workers and clients during disasters.