Research into development of program for youth suffering from Mental Health issues due to Domestic Violence in Perth, Western Australia

Assessment 4

Title: The title of this research proposal is “A Research into development of program for youth suffering from Mental Health issues due to Domestic Violence in Perth, Western Australia”.

Introduction

The main purpose of this research proposal is to highlight the mental health issues faced by youth due to domestic violence and to develop the effective awareness program to support the youth of Perth. This research proposal will be based on Qualitative Research Methods where we focused on in-depth data and information by highlighting the aims of the project with some valuable background information on Domestic Violence. Further, this proposal will demonstrate the methodology process and procedures, acknowledges the ethical implications while working with vulnerable youth suffering from mental health issues. The data and information we collect will be based on one year of the research and the estimated budget will be based on the complete cost of the research. Also, after the successful completion of the project, we will disseminate the finding to various agencies, organisation, and club to develop the youth developmental program in Perth.

Research Aims

As the youth of aged group 18-25 years old are the participant of this project who had faced domestic violence that leads them to suffer from mental health issues. This project will include the youth from diverse cultural background, Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal youth, youth with disability and from diverse linguistic background who will be sharing their experiences in one and one interview session. Similarly, there will be focused group of Youth Worker, Community Support Worker, Counsellors, Teachers, Case Managers, and Domestic violence service providers to capitalise on communication to generate data. To make our project fruitful and to utilise the valuable data collected we had created a following aims

To allow young people to speak out their experience in own voice,

To develop service, support, and programs for youth welfare and development

To develop the family inclusive approaches, support for young people

To identify and assess the risk and complex need of the youth

To develop holistic approach for the prevention of youth mental health issues and

To prioritize research project into resilience building for youth

To create and formulate the strategies and skills to deal with youth, suffering from mental health issues like depression, anxiety, and trauma

Literature Review

Domestic and Family violence is one of the major reasons for youth to be suffered from long term mental health issues like depression, anxiety, trauma, and suicidality during their early age (Itzin, et al., 2008). As per the data released by Australian Institute of Health and Welfare around 13.9% of youth suffered from mental health due to violative and abusive behaviour of their parents or any family member (AIHW,2022). These violative and abusive behaviour have significant negative impact on the mental health of the youth as they witness the scenario. Being in the constant unsafe environment in their own home and being abandon from parental love and care results in trauma, powerless, ashamed, and long term physical and psychological distress (Groves, 2004). It is irony to acknowledge that, young people are being physical, sexually, and emotionally abused by their parents, stepfather, or mother, who are identified as a perpetrator (Corr, et al., 2013). There is multiple reason for youth to be suffered from mental health issues due to domestic violence as they are being

Abuse and Neglect: Young people are subjected to faced abused and neglect because of their poor parental relationships. Mostly youth are being confronted towards physical, sexual, and emotional abuse from their own parents, family member or care givers (Kaplow, 2007). Parental engaged in use of illicit drugs, financial issues, mental illness can make long-term bad impact in young people growth and development (Kaplow, 2007).

Constant Fear: Being constantly in furious home environment, young people mind will not get an opportunity to explore the freedom of mental peace ,physical growth and emotional development that leads them towards isolation, poor self-confidence, and make more vulnerable to be homeless in their early age (Bell, C.C., 2004). Homelessness in youth is major caused by domestic violence that results in extreme exploitation on youth mental health (Park, et. al., 2004).

Self-harm: Ongoing anxiety and depression, emotional distress, low self-esteem make youth to develop aggressive behaviour which can leads to self-harm (Westers, N., 2019). As per the data of Australian Bureau of Statistics, Suicide rate in young people is higher in Australia which consist of 40% of youth death (ABS,2022). Similarly, young people develop the sense of guilt and blame themselves for being in violative environment that develop phobias and insomnia which leads to development of suicidal thoughts and depression (Westers, N., 2019).

Involve in illicit drug use: Involvement of young people in consumption of illicit drugs like cocaine, heroin, cannabis, inhalants and alcohol is an intensive concern, as they being using it to deal with the past trauma, to feel in control and for relaxation or fun which is one of the major cause of youth being suffering from mental health issues like depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder (Lynskey, M., et al., 2008).

Poor Mental growth: As being witness to domestic violence at young age, it not only traumatised the youth but also affect the long term intellectual development like decision making skills, weakness the concentration levels, struggle to attend school and loses the ability to develop the social interaction skills (Rossman, 2001).

So, young people are the vulnerable group of our community and its everyone responsibilities to support, encourage, and enlighten the present youth.The support, services, and programs run by Australian government in association with various organizations is succeeding in providing awareness programs in youth. But the Domestic Violence and Young Suicidal rate is still higher in every state of Australia. To review the present context of the youth and to develop new programmes for the welfare of the youth will be the main aim of this research project.

Methodology

This research project is based on qualitative methods for collection of in-depth data and information. Qualitative Research is the collection and analysis of concepts, opinions, or experiences to gather in-depth insights into a problem and to generate new ideas for research by performing Observations, Interviews, focused group, and Secondary research (Bhandari, 2022). To conduct in-depth research, I as a researcher have chosen the young people of aged group 18 to 24 years, who are the victim of mental health issues due to domestic violence in Perth. The participant will be from diverse background including Aboriginal and Torres strait Islander which will be selected as per their interest from health centres where young people are being look after, Community Service Agencies, Department of Police, and from different youth organisation. We will use multimedia platform and social networking sites to invite the participant with the clear description of research aims and proposal. Further, we will be running 5 focused group who are directly involved in youth welfare like Counsellors, Staff from different Agencies, Case Worker, Teacher, and Community Support Worker to understand the thoughts, experiences, and ideas of them which will help to saturate our result.

Moreover, we will book ‘Belmont Public Library’ for our interviews and provide information for participant and our focused group which will run simultaneously. Before starting our interview session, participant and focused group will requested to fill up the consent form and aware them they can leave at any point of the conversation if they feel traumatized, counsellor will be available in next room if required. Also, the questionnaire will be the open-ended question and the interview will be held in plain English. As a researcher, my priority will be on developing rapport with the client and focused group, as building apport means creating an friendly environment where trust, empathy, effective communication, reflection and experiences are shared in freedom and secure ways (Dang, et al., 2017). For this research proposal we will be doing 10 interviews with the participant which will last for 45-60 minutes each and likewise, for our focused group we will be having 60-90 minutes as they will be the background source of the information and data. Information and data collected will be compared with the previously obtained data to develop transparent plans and effective tactics which will help in developing new programmes for youth suffering from mental health issues. All the data we gathered will be in recorded version following the consent protocols which will be destroyed after transcribed and translated the information into final report.

Ethics

Ethics are the norm for conduct research or the disciplines that standards the code of conduct which provide the clear set of professional boundaries (Munford, et al., 2008). In research project, ethics is the valuable source of guidelines for the approval of our project. While preparing this proposal we have considered following code of ethics:

Informed Consent: While conducting the research project, participant rights was respected. Consent Form was filled up and research policies and procedures were clearly explained to participant.

Beneficence: Research was performed for the welfare and benefit of the client with doing no harm. All the data and information collected was in the best interest of the client.

Justice: As the information was sensitive and crucial, as a researcher I make sure there was no exploitation and abuse of the participants. Instead, we try to build the rapport to work together for the welfare of the client.

Privacy and Confidential: All the gathered data and information were kept private. None of the information was shared with outer people and the recorded tape will be deleted as per the destroying of information protocols.

Timetable

One of the most crucial aspects of research is planning (Bryson, et al., 2017), which must be done with utmost care to making a successful research timeline. Thus, a research timeline is an outline of all the steps that must be taken in order for the hypothesis to become a finding, where careful and feasible planning can ease the process and prevent misunderstanding (Bryson, et al., 2017). For this research project, the duration of research is up to minimum of 12 months with all the activities and plannings listed below.

1) First Month: There will be acknowledgement of research topic and identification of objectives and goals for the research project, including background research into similar topic to grasp more ideas.

2) Second Month: Participants, mostly young people, who have encountered domestic and familial violence in the past and/ or present around Perth, western Australia, will be identified, as well as necessary amendments will be made after reviewing existing literature topic.

3) Third Month: This month, I will visit various department, agencies, and medical centres around Perth, western Australia, who particularly works in domestic violence sector to discuss about my project with managers or other related personnel of those areas.

4) Fourth Month: There will be many discussions with managers about my topic, this month, to know if the participants they got in their agencies who have the history of domestic violence will be eligible for my project or not.

5) Fifth Month: All the interview sessions in the project will be conducted by the interviewers, so I will be identifying interviewers this month who will conduct interviews for 45-60 minutes.

6) Sixth Month: I will primarily focus on preparing questions for the interviews which will be mostly open-ended.

7) Seventh month: Transcriber is essential for this project, so I will bring transcriber who will be transcribing all the data and information.

8) Eight Month: There will be 45-60 minutes 10 in-depth interviews with the victims and evaluation will be implemented about all the things that went well and unwell.

9) Ninth Month: All the information gathered from the interview will be transcribed by the transcriber so that every information is in a written form.

10) Ten and Eleventh Month: In these months, I will evaluate and analyse all the data and information obtained with the help of my assistance researcher to finalize it.

11) Twelve Month: Finally, I will write findings and results and the hard copies of it will be sent to different agencies, departments, and service provider.

Budget

The 12-month project’s budget has been approximated to be between $80,000- $100,000 which is illustrated as below, with all the expenses.

Research Coordinator: $60, 000, as he will be there from starting to an end of the project supervising, analysing, and ensuring the project run smoothly.

Assistant Researcher: $30,000 is the estimated budget for assistant researcher, as they will working together with Researcher under his supervision.

Interview Room Cost: $200 per day, price for booking a room in “Belmont Public Library”. As our interview will be conducted on that venue.

Transcriber: $450 for transcribing the data and information collected.

Counsellor: $35/ hr, will be given to Counsellor as they are the crucial part of the team who will provide support and guidance when participant or focused group get traumatized.

Final Copies Printing: $150 for 10 final copies (1 copy for $15O)

Hence, the estimated budget will be around $93,835 for 12-month project.

Dissemination of Results

The dissemination of research findings is a crucial step in the research process because it guarantees that others will benefits from the work that has been done (Maria, et al., 2014). Research findings can be shared in a variety of ways. Most frequently, refereed academic journals or books are the formal publication of research findings, however this is not always the case. In every medium of communication, including conferences, public performances, and public exhibitions, these components of the framework are applicable to all ways of disseminating research findings (Maria, et al., 2014). Thus, I, as a researcher, will publish the final report of this research in different journals, books, conference presentations and papers, exhibition, media interviews, social media and newspaper articles, as well as send it to various youth agencies, youth community organisations, health care professionals, caregivers, local government, social workers, child protection departments, and so on. As a result, dissemination of the findings will be predominant to educate youth learners on the value and applicability of knowledge, to provide practical information for problem solving, and to raise understanding of youth community member’s right, privileges, and duties all around Perth, Western Australia.

References

Bell, C.C., & Jenkins, E.J. (2004). Traumatic Stress and Children. Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved 2(1), 175-185. doi:10.1353/hpu.2010.0089.

Bryson, M.J., Edwards, H.L., Van Slyke.D. M. ( 2017). Getting Strategic about Strategic Planning Research. Journal of Public Management Review. 20(3). 317-339. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2017.1285111

Corr, Mary-Louise., Gadd, D., & Butler, Ian. (25 March 2013). Young teenagers’ experiences of domestic abuse. Journal of youth studies, 510-526. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2013.780125

Dang, N.B., Westbrook, A.R., Njue, M.S., Giordano, P.T. (2017). Building trust and rapport early in the new doctor-patient relationship: a longitudinal qualitative study. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-017-0868-5

Groves, B. M. (2004). Mental Health Services for Children Who Witness Domestic Violence. The Future of Children, 9(3), 122–132.

https://doi.org/10.2307/1602786

Itzin, C., Bailey, S., & Bentovim, A. (2008). The effects of domestic violence and sexual abuse on mental health. Psychiatric Bulletin, 32(12), 448-450.

https://doi.org/10.1192/pb.bp.107.018804

Kaplow, J. B., & Wisdom, C. S. (2007). Age of onset of child maltreatment predicts long-term mental health outcomes. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 116(1), 176–187. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-843X.116.1.176

Lynskey, M., White, V., Hill, D., Letcher, T., (13 May 2008). Prevalence of illicit drug use among youth: results from the Australian School Students’ Alcohol and Drugs Survey. Journal of Public Health. 23(5), 519-524 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-842X.1999.tb01309.x

Maria, E., Teresa, S. (2014). Guidelines for Initiating a Research Agenda: Research Design and Dissemination of Results. Journal of Distribution of results. https://doi.org/10.29074/ascls.27.4.237

Munford, R., Sanders, J., Conder, J. (2008). Ethics and Research: Searching for Ethical Practice in Research. Journal of ethics and Social Welfare. 2(1). 50-66. https://doi.org/10.1080/17496530801948754

Park, J. M., Metraux, S., Brodbar, G., & Culhane, D. P. (2004). Child Welfare Involvement Among Children in Homeless Families. Child Welfare, 83(5), 423–436.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/45400340

Rossman, B. B. R. (2001). Longer term effects of children’s exposure to domestic violence. Domestic violence in the lives of children: The future of research, intervention, and social policy (pp. 35–65). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/10408-003

Westers, J. N., Planer, L. P. (2019). Managing risk and self-harm: Keeping young people safe. Journal on Child Psychology and Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1359104519895064