Connection & Accountability: Lessons Learned from Working with Families Where Domestic Violence and Child Abuse Co-

1. Connection & Accountability: Lessons Learned from Working with Families Where Domestic Violence and Child Abuse Co-Occur CBCAP/PSSF Grantee Meeting March 12, 2008 Marylouise Kelley, Ph.D., Director Family Violence Prevention & Services Program U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

2. Family Violence Prevention & Services ProgramU.S. Department of Health & Human Services • Primary federal funding stream dedicated to domestic violence shelter and support services • Each year distributes $128 Million to support: • State and Tribal formula grants for over 1,500 domestic violence programs that offer: • Shelter and services for over 240,000 women, men, and children • Responses to over 1.4 million crisis hotline calls • National Domestic Violence Hotline which responds to 17,000 calls each month

3. Family Violence Prevention & Services ProgramU.S. Department of Health & Human Services • National Resource Center on Domestic Violence and a network of national resource centers and culturally-specific institutes • Discretionary Grant Programs: • Runaway & Homeless Youth and Relationship Violence Collaborations • Enhanced Services for Children Exposed to Domestic Violence • Indian Health Care Domestic Violence Initiative

4. Why Are We Concerned? • Domestic violence and child abuse co-occur (40-60%) • Girls who are victimized as a child and adolescent have a much greater risk of being victims of domestic violence and sexual assault as an adult • Boys who witness domestic violence as children are 2-10 times more likely to abuse their adult partner

5. Studies Also Tell Us That… • The U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse suggests that domestic violence may be the single major precursor to child abuse and neglect fatalities in this country. • In a national survey of more than 6,000 American families, 50 percent of the men who frequently assaulted their wives also frequently abused their children. • School-age children who witness violence exhibit a range of problem behaviors including depression, anxiety, and violence towards peers.

6. Control Entitlement Possessiveness Create role models that perpetuate violence Undermine mother’s authority Retaliate against her for efforts to protect children Sowing divisions within the family Using the children as weapons Characteristics of Men Who Batter (Bancroft, 2002)

7. “Over the past 30 years… prominent reforms reveal… (a) mixture of positions on the choices of battered women. These positions can be roughly organized into three categories: policies that deny the choices of battered women, policies that empower women by giving or even requiring them to make choices, and policies that evaluate the decisions made by battered women, mostly in hindsight, and punish allegedly bad ones.” Chiu, 2001

8. Protection Strategies • Avoidance • Intervention • Survival Tactics • Vigilance • Defending • Custody & Visitation

9. What’s the Link?

10. Why Wasn’t This Fixed Years Ago? • Domestic violence advocates only care about women. • Battered women won’t protect their children. • Child welfare workers only care about children. • Everyone is afraid of abusive men. • Lack of effort • All of the above • None of the above

11. Early Responses to Domestic Violence and Child Maltreatment • Hospital- Based Programs • AWAKE – Boston’s Children’s Hospital (Mid-80’s) • Determined they are “not creating safety for children if they sent them home to situations where their mothers aren’t safe.” • MA DSS created first battered women’s advocate in Child Protection Division • Child Witness to Violence Project – Boston Medical Center (1992) • Therapeutic treatment for abused women & their children together

12. Child Welfare System Innovations • MI Family Independence Agency Family Preservation Services • Annie E. Casey Family to Family Initiative • Community Partnerships for Protecting Children • Nicholson v. Scoppetta (2002)

13. How Child Welfare Workers Can Help(NC Division of Social Services & Jordan Inst. For Families, 2003) • Support the child’s mother by helping her establish a safety plan and by connecting her to resources that promote her independence • Identify and support those factors that shield children living in violent homes from harm. Protective factors include: • Child is old enough and mature enough to carry out a safety plan when violence occurs at home • Child has a positive relationships (with parent, family members, neighbors, and friends) that will support him during a crisis • Child is self-reliant and willing and able to seek help • Child’s caretaker is willing to seek help for domestic violence • Caretaker is concerned for the safety of the child • Adult victim has good parenting and coping skills

15. Greenbook Initiative: Approaches to Change “There are no short cuts to relationship-building” • Protocols • Screening • Safety Planning • Reasonable Efforts Checklists • Changing Practice • Staff co-location • Cross Training • Shadowing • Team Decision Making • Collaborative relationships and case-staffing • Domestic violence specialists

16. Greenbook: Lessons Learned • Policy emerges from practice • Institutional audits • Case consultations • Team Decision Making • Expand Survivor/Child Involvement in Planning and Safety Strategies • Recognize protective strategies of mothers • Safety Planning • Family Team Conferencing

17. Greenbook: Lessons Learned • Community Engagement • Differential Responses • Therapeutic & Support Services for Battered Mothers

18. Greenbook: Lessons Learned • Accountability for Men Who Batter & Engaging Men as Allies in Protecting Children • Batterer compliance efforts • Individualized separate service plans for fathers and men involved in children’s lives • Safety precautions, e.g., Family Team Conferencing considerations • Batterer intervention efforts in child welfare agencies • Changing batterer behavior by appealing to role as father

19. Fathering After Violence • Something My Father Would Do • Family Violence Prevention Fund • Scott’s Story

20. Accountability and Connection with Abusive Men: A New Child Protection Response to Increasing Family Safety • Fernando Mederos, MA DSS Domestic Violence Unit • Characteristics of Abusers • Dangerousness Assessment • Interviewing • Clinical Evaluation • Appropriate Interventions and Service Planning

21. Moderately Violent Abusers Batterer Intervention Program Attention to children’s safety and trauma Intensify monitoring if psychological abuse/threats are severe Obsessed Abusers Pose great risk of injury or homicide Use supervised visitation programs Watch for escalation if partner leaves Include BIP in plan Ongoing safety planning critical Abuser Characteristics & Practice Issues

22. Dangerousness Assessment • Ongoing process, not one-time determination • Collateral sources of information • Danger assessment criteria • Partners are often the most accurate source • Safety planning must address assessed risks

23. Interviewing • One-on-one interviews to assess: controlling or abusive behaviors, commitment to change, assess parenting capacity, propose appropriate services • Recognize the impact of workers’ fear • Safety, prudence, respect, attention to race/ethnicity/class, fatherhood issues, limit-setting documentation, accountability

24. Clinical Evaluation • Clinical or psychological evaluations should not be employed to determine whether a client is an abuser • BIP is treatment of choice unless there are compelling contraindications • A forensic model should be used • Clinicians who evaluate physically abusive men should understand domestic violence and dangerousness assessment procedures • Clinical evaluations can assess abuser’s psychological function and capacity to parent without resorting to abusive conduct

25. Interventions & Service Planning • Batterer Intervention Programs are the optimal and best-researched intervention for this population • BIPs work best when there is monitoring of abuser and consequences for non-compliance • Individual psychotherapy, anger control groups, medication, couples counseling or substance abuse treatment are not acceptable substitutes • Mental health and substance abuse issues may be treated concurrently • Forensic model

26. Resources • Family Violence Prevention Fund http://www.endabuse.org/programs/children/ • Steps Toward Safety: Improving Systemic and Community Responses for Families Experiencing Domestic Violence • Accountability and Connections with Abusive Men by Fernando Mederos • MINCAVA: http://www.mincava.umn.edu/library/exposure/ • Greenbook http://www.thegreenbook.info/

27. Domestic Violence Resources • Hotlines: • National Domestic Violence Hotline (24 Hours) • 800-799 SAFE (7233) – Crisis intervention and referrals for services throughout the country • National Teen Dating Abuse Helpline (24 Hours) • 866-331-9474 • www.loveisrespect.org • Break the Cycle – Advice, legal information, and referrals • 888-988-TEEN • www.breakthecycle.org

28. Domestic Violence Resources • State Domestic Violence Coalitions • Referral to domestic violence services • See www.nnedv.org/state_coalitions/ for complete listing • National Resource Center on Domestic Violence • 800.537-2238 • www.nrcdv.org • VAWNET: National Online Resource Center on Violence Against Women • www.vawnet.org

29. Marylouise Kelley Family Violence Prevention & Services Program Family & Youth Services Bureau Administration on Children, Youth & Families Administration for Children & Families U.S. Department of Health & Human Services 202-401-5756 marylouise.kelley@acf.hhs.gov