Show abuse and who it is aimed at
Abuse is drawn as a red zigzag line with an arrowhead that points at the person who was harmed. This article explains how to choose the kind of abuse and how to make sure that the arrowhead points the right way.
McGoldrick, Gerson and Petry (2020) distinguish emotional, physical and sexual abuse, and the editor provides a line for each. All three lines have a direction, because a record of abuse must show who caused the harm and who suffered it. The direction is set by the order in which the two people are clicked, and it can be reversed afterwards.
Procedure
- 1
Hover over the person who caused the harm, and click Emotional relationship, the heart button to the right of Parents on the ring.
- 2
Click the person who was harmed. The list of relationship lines opens.
- 3
Click Emotional abuse, Physical abuse or Sexual abuse under Abuse.
- 4
Confirm that the arrowhead points at the person who was harmed.
- 5
If the arrowhead points the wrong way, click the line, and then click Swap direction in its toolbar.
- 6
If the line needs a note, such as “until 2015”, click Label in the toolbar, and type the note.
The editor has no line for neglect. Neglect can be recorded with a Distant line and a label, or with a line of your own, as described in Make your own kind of line.
Information about abuse is sensitive. If the chart describes a real family, follow the confidentiality policy of your course or agency, and replace the names with numbers before the chart is shared, as described in Replace names with numbers.
The three abuse lines
Each abuse line ends in an arrowhead at the person who was harmed. Emotional abuse has an open arrowhead, while Physical abuse and Sexual abuse have a filled one. Sexual abuse is also drawn between two straight lines.
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