A day in the life of a Men’s community DV support worker

So, my day always starts with waking up around 6.45am, making my way down the stairs to be greeted by somebody who is always happy to see me and who makes me smile with love and affection no matter how I am feeling, my English bulldog Stanley! Kettle on, cuddles on the sofa and then off we go for a quick walk.

My working day usually starts around 8.15am, whether that be at the office or at home.

There is always a large inhale of breath before the phone and the laptop gets turned on as you never know what may have happened whilst your phone has been off the previous night.

Hopefully if all seems well, my day will consist of checking my emails, texts and voicemails. A quick check of the diary to see what I have got on for the day! Every day can be very different, I could be attending court, following up on a meeting with other professional services, liaising with the children and young adults support worker, providing safety planning and emotional support and of course making my calls to my service users and attending face-to-face meetings with them.

Talking to a stranger about intimate and often embarrassing incidents is so difficult. A big part of my job is listening and building-up trust. I need to make a connection. It sounds insensitive but humour and common ground always helps.

Its hard to say what my typical day is as no two days are alike: it’s stressful, frustrating and upsetting, but I am passionate about what I do because it’s about providing a better quality of life for victims and their families. One-in-six men will suffer from domestic abuse at some point in their life.

The end of the day is always a welcome sight, I make sure my to do list for the next day is done and then it’s lights out and time to head home to relax and put the day behind me and get ready for the next!