Safety organized, traumainformed and solution-focused
domestic violence practice in
child protection:
Engaging families to promote
change
Christine Minerva
Consultant, National Resource Center for Child Protective Services
Fernando Mederos
Consultant and Trainer,
Fatherhood, Domestic Violence and Child Welfare
July 16, 2013
Learning objectives
• Understand what constitutes a safety
organized, trauma informed, solution
focused approach to engaging individual
family members in domestic violence (DV)
cases in child welfare
• Know the resources available to support
continued learning about these
approaches and enhance development of
DV practice
Webinars in this series
• June: Focused on key issues for intake,
assessment and intervention;
organizational capacity
Available at www.nrccps.org
• TODAY: Focus on engagement of the
children, non-offending parent and DV
offender
• August 20, 2013: Focus on safety
planning and case planning
Agenda
• Overview: Safety organized, trauma
informed, solution focused approaches
• Engagement of the non-offending parent
(adult victim of domestic violence)
• Engagement of children
• Engagement of the DV offender (person
using violence and abuse in the
relationship)
Framework for Engagement
• Trauma Informed: “Acknowledges and responds
to the varying impact of traumatic stress on
children, caregivers, families, and those who have
contact with the system.”
• Safety Organized: Ongoing and continuous
engagement that explores risks, protective factors,
and strategies to create safety.
• Solution Focused: Individualized, case-specific.
Utilizes Miracle questions, Exception questions,
Coping questions, Scaling questions to generate
planning and change.
Domestic Violence
• Domestic violence (DV) is a pattern of coercive
and violent behavior used by a person to
establish control over an intimate partner.
• May include: physical violence, sexual
violence/coercion, economic abuse,
verbal/emotional abuse, psychological
abuse/threats, using children, using systems
such as CPS/courts.
Mothers who have
Experienced Domestic
Violence
Multi-abuse Trauma
CPS/ other
Systems
Lack of Social
Supports
Coping Abuse
NOP
Oppression
Active Abuse
Trauma Responses
• In response to a danger or perceived risk, a person
may experience a Fight- Flight- Freeze Response
(National Resource Center on PTSD).
• Survivors may have re-experiencing symptoms,
avoidance symptoms, or hyper-arousal symptoms
(National Resource Center on PTSD).
• How a survivor acts when triggered or in the
context of DV might not make sense to an outsider
and may seem counterintuitive.
How Non-Offending Parent
May Present
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Laughing or nonchalant
Distraught or flooded with emotion
Indecisive or ambivilant
Collected and calm
Angry
Expressing that the abuse is her fault
Dissociative, numb, or "flat“
May appear to be "lying about abuse"
May appear to be "minimizing abuse"
Goals of Engagement with
Non-Offending Parents
• Identify risks, safety strategies/protective
factors, and supports.
• Understand how DV is impacting the child and
identify what’s helping promote the child’s
resiliency.
• Partner with NOP around CPS involvement in
order to minimize risks.
Building Rapport with the NonOffending Parent
• Arrange a safe interview - communicate the
message that CPS is concerned about the safety
of both the NOP and the children
• Dispel myths about CPS
• Explain limits of confidentiality
• Acknowledge that CPS involvement may
increase risks
• Communicate with empathy and respect
Identifying Risks
• Avoid asking “Is there domestic violence?” and
instead ask open-ended questions about the
relationship and the abuse. “Tell me about
your relationship. What happens when you
disagree?”
• Ask about and listen for behaviors that
indicate a pattern of power and control. In
order to understand risk, we need to
understand more than a snap shot of a DV
incident.
Identifying Risks & Protective
Factors
• Ask specific questions related to frequency,
duration, and severity of abuse.
• Ask about and listen for indicators of
dangerousness: weapons, strangulation, threats
of suicide/homicide.
• Explore what’s helped her to stay safe in the
past, what resources she may have used, and
any potential barriers she may face.
Assessing Children’s Exposure
• Partner with NOP to understand how the
children have been impacted by witnessing
DV. Normalize that it can be difficult to talk
with children about abuse.
• “What do you think the children understand
about the abuse? Did your children ever see
or hear the fighting? How do you think this
has affected them?”
• Ask about the children’s strengths.
Exploring Protective Strategies
• “Moms who are being abused are often doing
many things to keep their kids safe and support
them. Can you tell me ways you try to protect
your children? How have these strategies
worked?”
• Ask about and listen for protective strategies
such as encouraging the children to go to a
neighbor’s house, stay out of the argument, call
911, or staving off arguments until the children
are asleep.
Safety Organized & Solution
Focused CPS Partnership
• Explore NOP’s perspective on how CPS should
intervene with her partner (what will escalate
risk and what will reduce risk).
• Explore NOP’s perspective on how to maintain
ongoing contact and how she can safely discuss
concerns with you in the future.
• Throughout the case, recognize that CPS
involvement may create additional risks for both
the NOP and the child.
Children and Youth Exposed to
Domestic Violence
Children/Youth and DV
• In the past year, 6.6% of US children
were exposed to physical IPV, which is
more than 5 million children.
• In the past year, 5.7% were exposed to
psychological/emotional IPV, or about
4.3 million children.
Futures Without Violence
Effects of DV on
Children/Youth
•
•
•
•
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Physical
Emotional
Behavioral
Effects on values
Effects on parenting
Children/youth are impacted
differently
Age, Gender
Frequency,
Severity, &
Duration of
Abuse
Presence of
Protective
Factors
Additional
Traumas or
Lack of
Opportunities
to Build Self
Esteem
Presence or
Absence of
Supports
Child’s Coping
Strategies
Overall
Impact of
Exposure
Access to ageappropriate
information
about abuse
Trauma Informed
Perspective on Interviews
• Children/youth have various reasons for not
disclosing abuse or wanting to talk about DV.
• Perspectives are impacted by the dynamic of
DV.
• Children may present with disjointed and nonlinear reporting, or magical thinking.
• Children and youth, like adults, may have
experienced layers of trauma and abuse
(multi-abuse trauma).
Tips for Engaging Children/Youth
• Build rapport by asking about their likes/dislikes
school, pets, friends, etc.
• Let them know it is okay to talk about what’s
happening in their family and in their own
relationships.
• Never meet with the child/youth to discuss DV
in front of the DV offender.
• Identify risks, safety strategies, resiliency, and
supports.
• Safety plan & check-in after the interview.
Trauma Informed and Safety
Organized Interviews
• Normalize that all families argue. “What
happens in your family when grown-ups argue?
How do the grown-ups try to keep you safe?”
• ALWAYS TELL CHILDREN/YOUTH THAT THE
ABUSE IS NOT THEIR FAULT.
• Explore child’s or youth’s perspective on how
his/her parents would react if they knew we
were talking about the abuse in the home.
Safety Organized Assessment
• “What do you do when grown-ups are arguing?
How do you stay safe? How do you know to do
that?”
• Listen for protective strategies
• If the child/youth discloses that they try to
stop the argument, discuss safety and tell kids
that they best way they can help is by staying
safe. If child/youth discloses an appropriate
safety plan, such as calling 911, reinforce.
Trauma Informed Tips for
Engaging Children/Youth
• Assess how the child is being impacted by the
abuse. “How do you feel when grown-ups are
arguing? Do you have any worries about what
might happen when grown-ups argue?”
• Identify coping strategies. “What kinds of
things make you feel better when you feel
(angry, sad, scared…)?”
Solution Focused Engagement
with Children/Youth
• Listen for existing supports. “Have you ever
talked with anyone about what’s happening
in your family? Who takes care of you? How
can we help your family?”
• Look for ways to build resiliency. “What are
the things that you are most proud of? What
kinds of things do you think you are really
good at?”
Fathers with a History of
Domestic Violence
Part I: Who are these men-CPS
• Low income,  men of color
• Challenging backgrounds—poverty,
exposure to community violence,
trauma in family of origin
• Poor manhood modeling
• Positive fatherhood visions
• Desire to do better
• Have pathways for change
Trauma Bond: Exposure To
Community & Family Violence
• Exposure to & involvement w/violence—
defensive/aggressive posture—
reactivity
• Substance abuse, triggers, depression,
rigid manhood
• Shut down, withdrawal, “wearing the
mask”/protecting inner world
• Highly sensitive to issues of respect and
coercion
Part II: Who are these men--DV
•
•
•
•
Men with history of DV
Vast range of dangerousness, strengths
& capacity to change
4070% moderate; can change
3040% chronic re-assaulters—
jealous, obsessed, sub abuse
generally violent
15% potentially lethal—high control,
high violence or both
Implications of levels of DV &
strengths
• Differential approaches, careful
management of safety
• Consider different levels of access to
children, levels of supervision
• Always look for strengths as key to positive
engagement
• Positive relationships with children can be
source of strength
Pathways to engagement
• Positive fatherhood vision
• Education on impact of DV on children—
crucial parallel engagement—impact of DV
on children=impact of DV on self as child
• Concern for children—opening: “You
cannot hurt or disrespect their mother
w/out also hurting your kids. You cannot
separate this.”
• Modeling issue: sons & daughters,
powerful impact, differential
Safety: Things to do…
• Speak to the father alone. If the mother is
present, it can escalate things or lead to
retaliation.
• Check your feelings. Don’t look for
confession or confront him harshly or
aggressively.
• Build a relationship with him. If he can feel a
sense of respect and interest, it will pay off.
• At the beginning, focus on getting him to
reflect on the impact of his behavior on the
children.
Safety
• Focus on strengths that may help him in
the change process.
• Figure out your approach. Are you
moving toward having him engage in
services that address DV and some form
of safe contact/visitation with his
children? Or do you think that his risk
level and/or the children’s level of
trauma are too high to move toward
contact/visitation?
What to Say…
• What is your relationship to your children? How do want
them to look back at you 10-15 years from now?
• I am concerned about what has happened. Many men
don’t realize it, but knowing that your dad has hurt your
mom can scar children. This is not about your intentions, but
about your impact. You can change that.
• What was your experience with your father or father figure
as a child? What do you carry now?
• Talk about the impact of witnessing DV on children in detail.
Differentiate by age groups and by gender. You can say,
“When a man hurts his partner, he hurts the children.
• It doesn’t matter what triggered you. You may have felt
justified at the moment.
What to say…
• (After he’s been violent.) What you do now will be very
important to them… If you don’t change, they will feel you
turned your back on them. It’s not just about your partner.
Talk about getting help: attending batterer intervention
program or other options…
• You are very important to your children. Research indicates
boys will get their sense of manhood and fatherhood from
you and that girls will develop a sense of what to expect
from men. Both of them will get a sense of healthy
relationships and of how to resolve conflict from your
example. You matter a great deal. If you can change your
behavior, it will make a big difference to them.
Resources
• National Center on Domestic Violence,
Trauma & Mental Health – practical tips
www.nationalcenterdvtraumamh.org/
• National Resource Center on PTSD
www.ptsd.va.gov
• “Real Tools: Responding to Multi-Abuse
Trauma” Edmund and Bland, 2010.
Alaska Network and Domestic Violence
and Sexual Assault. www.andsva.org
Resources
• Chadwick Trauma-Informed Systems Project
www.chadwickcenter.org/CTISP/ctisp.htm
• Futures Without Violence
www.futureswithoutviolence.org
• National Resource Center for Domestic
Violence
www.nrcdv.org/
Resources
• National Council of Juvenile and Family Court
Judges—Family Violence Dept
www.ncjfcj.org
• Culturally specific DV institutes AND
State examples of DV practices
all available at
www.nrccps.org/specialinitiatives/domestic-violence/
Webinar Recording, PowerPoint
Slides and Handouts
• The recording of the webinar, along with
the PowerPoint slides used today and all
of the featured handouts will be available
by the end of the week at the NRCCPS
website: http://nrccps.org/peernetworks/slo-support/slo-webinars
• The archived recording of the June
webinar and PowerPoint handouts are
currently available at the same site.