More men ‘choose’ domestic abuse prevention scheme

And the programme itself is now being updated to include sessions that look at the effect of abuse via social media – which the organisation says is increasingly a feature of cases being reported to Jersey authorities.

Since the ADAPT Domestic Abuse Prevention programme was launched in Jersey in 2007, 149 men have completed it – 23 of them this year.

That compares to 16 last year and 13 in 2015.

Seven men have completed the programme more than once, and individuals are not able to sign up more than twice.

The latest figures produced following a review by the States police show that the 30-week programme has had a 71 per cent success rate for men on the course not reoffending between 2014 and 2016.

The new statistics follow the news that the number of ‘high-risk’ domestic abuse cases reported in Jersey has risen by 11 per cent in the last year – despite the number of domestic abuse cases overall dropping by eight per cent. High-risk means someone is at risk of being murdered or seriously harmed and is in need of urgent help.

And although the ADAPT programme is having good results and has a higher success rate in Jersey than in many areas in the UK, Nigel Collier Webb, the manager of the programme, said it now needed to be updated, with sessions on social media due to be included from February.

He said: ‘The programme is going to change quite a lot. It’s going to be updated to look at the effects of abusing someone via social media. This is something we need to look at as more cases are being reported.

‘We have done the initial training and in early January we are going to offer further training. We hope the programme will be up and running by February.’

ADAPT, which also employs a support worker for victims, receives support from the Probation Service.

Brian Heath, the chief of probation, recently visited Brussels where they are using virtual reality within similar programmes for men who have committed domestic abuse.

He said: ‘The programme we run needs to be updated and refreshed. There are some programmes using virtual reality to look at the way domestic abuse can impact children. You put the googles on and then you look at the world as if you are a seven-year-old and see domestic abuse happening in the home. It then raises the question to the male: “Are you sure your actions don’t impact on the children?” We are moving with the times here in Jersey and things like that would be easy to introduce.’

The service is currently funded until the end of 2019 from the States’ Building a Safer Society programme. The charity receives £34,000 annually, which pays for work done by 12 members of staff. Probation has made a bid for more funding which will be decided in the next Medium Term Financial Plan.

Mr Heath added: ‘It will be frustrating if we don’t receive the money. I’m optimistic that the impact of domestic abuse on our society and the recognition that these programmes work means the ADAPT programme will be saved and we will be given more funding.’

Currently the programme is only delivered in English, but there are plans to introduce a Portuguese-speaking member of staff or materials translated into Portuguese.

Mr Heath said: ‘We have good links with the Probation Service in Portugal and we are looking at opening up the opportunities there. I think if we do introduce some modules in Portuguese then we will probably deliver them on a one-to-one basis, but we don’t know how that might work yet.’

Last week a number of agencies supported Domestic Abuse Awareness Week through the #SittingRightWithYou campaign, which aimed to get Islanders to think about what makes a healthy relationship.

For more information on ADAPT contact 441916.

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