Team Decisionmaking and Domestic Violence

1
Team Decisionmaking and Domestic Violence

• An Advanced Training for
• TDM Facilitators and
• Child Protection Supervisors

2
Agenda

• Introductions
• Domestic Violence, Child Maltreatment, and Family
  to Family Team Decisionmaking
• Foundations of a Good DV TDM Meeting
• Engagement and Assessment
• Developing Ideas and Reaching a Consensus
  Decision
• Planning Next Steps

3
True or False

• The TDM maxim of Nothing about us without us
  means that the entire family should be invited to
  the TDM meeting, regardless of the concerns.
• It is not appropriate for the TDM facilitator and
  worker to meet privately with a family member in
  advance of the TDM meeting.
• When domestic violence becomes known to the child
  protection staff for the first time in the TDM
  meeting where both parents are present, the TDM
  facilitator should list domestic violence as a
  concern and ask for more information from the
  family or worker.

4
Domestic Violence

• Domestic violence is a pattern of behavior in
  which one person attempts to control an intimate
  partner through threats or actual use of physical
  violence, sexual assault, verbal and
  psychological abuse and/or economic coercion.

5
Overlap of Child Abuse DV

• Most studies found 30 to 60 overlap, 41 was
  median
• High rates of overlap found in
• Child fatality reviews (41 - 43)
• Abused child studies
• Battered mother studies
• Edleson (1999), Appel Holden (1998)

6
How are children exposed to DV?

• Directly witness assault, rape
• Hear the violence, name calling, intimidation,
  threats, disrespect
• Feel the tension
• See the aftermathbroken furniture, bruises on
  their mother, father being taken away by police
• Forced to participate in or watch the abuse of
  their mother
• Intervene to protect their mother

7
How are children exposed to DV?

• May have their own safety or well-being
  threatenedthreats to kill, threats to call CPS
  (removal), threats of kidnapping, never seeing
  their mother again
• Physically placed in harms way
• After separation, may be used to relay messages,
  keep tabs on mother, harass mother
• Seriously injured or killed during an assault
• Witness homicide of mother

8
Problems Related to Exposure

• Over 100 studies available
• A third separated abused from exposed children
  and found similar outcomes
• Generally show
• Behavioral and emotional problems
• Cognitive functioning problems
• Longer-term problems
• Edleson (1999)

9
Impact of Exposure

• In infants and young children, exposure may
• Interfere with developmental tasks (physical,
  cognitive, emotional, and social)
• Cause trauma responses/alter brain chemistry
• Weaken coping skills

10
Impact of Exposure

• In infants and young children may show up as
• Low birth weight
• Exaggerated startle response
• Somatic complaints
• Regression in toileting or language
• Sleep disturbances
• Difficulty attaching to caregiver
• Hyper-vigilance
• Separation anxiety
• Eating disorders

11
Impact of Exposure
In school-aged and older children, exposure can
result in

• Aggression
• Delinquency
• Anti-social behavior
• Hyperactivity
• Conduct disorders
• Academic problems
• Attitudes supporting the use of violence
• Substance abuse

• Depression
• Anxiety
• Low self-esteem
• Social withdrawal
• Somatic complaints
• Trauma (some PTSD)

Slide 11
12
Impact of Exposure

• Exposure to DV may have emotional and physical
  consequences for children depending on
• Frequency, severity, chronicity, proximity to the
  violence
• Age and developmental stage at which exposure
  begins
• Multiple forms of violence (child abuse,
  community violence, exposure to DV)

13
Impact of Exposure

• Exposure to DV may have emotional and physical
  consequences for children depending on
• Presence or absence of loving and supportive
  adults
• Presence or absence of supportive community
• Childs individual temperament
• Opportunities for healing and success

14
Resiliency in Children Exposed

• Childrens resilience to trauma is linked to the
  presence of a healthy parent or adult in their
  lives. (Margolin, 1998)
• Childrens emotional recovery from exposure to DV
  depends more on the quality of their relationship
  with the non-battering parent than any other
  single factor. (Bancroft Silverman, 2002)

15
Resiliency in Children Exposed

• 70 of abusive parents were abused as children
  themselves
• BUT
• 70 of abused children do not become abusive
  parents
• (Center for the Study of Social Policy, 2005)

16
Forms of Intimate Partner Violence

• Battering
• Reactive/Resistive violence
• Situational violence
• Pathological violence
• Anti-social violence
• (Praxis International, 2006)

17
Safety Ground Rule

• We create a place of physical and emotional
  safety for all who participate in the TDM.

18
Facilitator Explanation

• This meeting needs to be a place of physical and
  emotional safety for all who participate, and we
  want that safety to continue after we complete
  the meeting. Examples of how we ensure safety
  are
• We respect restraining orders and other court
  orders prohibiting contact between people.
• We give permission for each person to keep
  themselves safe during the meeting (for
  instance, if a family member needs to take a
  break at any time, they can do so).

19
Facilitator Explanation

• I might, as the facilitator, suggest a time-out,
  that we take a break, or that we move into
  separate meetings if I believe that someone is
  feeling unsafe and
• We adhere to Nothing about us without us except
  when there is a safety concern for a
  participant.

20
Minimum DV TDM Safety Standards

• Do not violate court orders
• Do not increase danger to the child
• Therefore do not increase danger to the mother,
  which can lead to increased danger for the child
• Do not share disclosures of mother or child with
  the perpetrator

21
Minimum DV TDM Safety Standards

• Worker holds pre-meeting planning conversation
  with non-offending parent
• Conduct safety check-in just before the TDM
  meeting
• Hold separate meetings for non-offending parent
  and perpetrator, or make alternative arrangements
  for his participation

22
Minimum DV TDM Safety Standards

• Establish safety for mothers and kids together
  whenever possible
• Facilitator interrupts any discussion of DV not
  known to the facilitator in advance of the TDM
  meeting
• Postpone the meeting if necessary for safety

23
Better DV TDM Safety Standards

• (In addition to Minimum Standards)
• Avoid increasing risk (potential for future harm)
  to the child and battered mother
• Hold perpetrator of violence accountable, with
  regular check-ins with mother to determine impact
  on safety

24
Challenges to CPS Assessment

• Confirmation bias the tendency to conform the
  world to our perceptions of it, rather than
  seeing things as they actually are
• One-sidedness an over-emphasis on what is wrong
  or scary

25
Challenges to CPS Assessment

• False neutrality of assessment. How and when
  we ask questions what we DONT ask and where we
  focus our energy all have an impact on families
• Lack of awareness of how dominant culture values
  shape our view of families

26
Improving CPS Assessments

• Nurture an agency culture of
  self-reflection that learns from successes,
  failures, and near misses
• Collaborate with providers
• Partner with families
• Rigorously search for both safety and danger

27
Improving CPS Assessments

• Enhance critical thinking
• Notice habitual assumptions
• Be clear about what information is needed
• Be self-reflective re race and culture
• Search for exceptions to abuse/neglect
• Authorize designated doubters

28
DV Assessments

• Assumption
• Hes just under a lot of stress he has anger
  management problems he just lost it.

• Alternative explanation
• If this was about stress, hed be abusive with
  everyone, not just his family. Does he hit his
  boss when hes angry at work? The cashier who
  gives him incorrect change? His probation officer
  who is disrespectful to him?

29
DV Assessments

• Alternative explanation
• She loves and wants to be with him. Its his
  abuse she wants to stop.
• She cant make it on her own financially.
• She is new to this country or community, and she
  feels lonely and isolated. He is her connection
  to her previous life.
• She is in more danger when they are separated.
• He has threatened to hurt the children if she
  doesnt go home.

• Assumption
• She always goes back.
• She always lets him back into the house.

30
DV Assessments

• Assumption
• She chooses men who abuse her.

• Alternative explanation
• She chooses men for love. They choose to abuse
  her.
• Abusive men prey on vulnerable women.
• She has not had positive role models for
  relationships.

31
DV Assessments

• Assumption
• She chooses her partner over her children.

• Alternative explanation
• She protects the children by attending to his
  needs.
• She wants her children to have their father in
  their lives.
• In her culture, family is everything.
• He promises her that he will change he seems
  remorseful.
• Her family arranged the marriage. Leaving would
  disgrace her family.

32
DV Assessment Focus

• How dangerous is he? (What are we worried about?)
• What has mother (or others) done to create
  safety? (What is working? What is not working?)
• What additional resources or services can
  increase physical and emotional safety? (What
  needs to happen?)

33
Parenting by Men Who Batter

• Behavior negatively affects children
• More controlling and abusive parenting
• Perpetrators involve children in violent events
• Continued threats and violence after separation
• Good under observation
• (Bancroft Silverman, 2002)

34
Why work with the violent partner?

• If we dont, mothers end up being held
  responsible for everything. This is unfair,
  ineffective and potentially very dangerous
• Working with him can increase safety for the
  children and their mother
• He may be willing to go into a batterer
  intervention program, and may be able to change
  his behavior
• Fathers who use violence often have both legal
  and illegal contact with their children

35
Why work with the violent partner?

• Development of empathy for his children can be a
  protective factor against further abuse
• He may want to be good father. Positive
  involvement by a father figure can be very
  beneficial to childrens development
• The mother may want her children to have a safe
  and healthy relationship with their father
• Abuse is a learned behavior and therefore can be
  unlearned

36
Why hold a separate TDM meeting?

• Managed well, a separate TDM can increase safety
  for the children and their mother
• The meeting can provide a forum in which a father
  can feel heard, and have his role validated
• The possibility of children being put into foster
  care can be a strong motivator for some men
• Provides an opportunity for assessing his
  motivation to change based on the impact of his
  behavior on his children

37
Why hold a separate TDM meeting?

• Facilitator and others can model effective
  engagement balanced with appropriate
  accountability for workers
• If his family is invited, possibility of
  expanding the role of the natural support system
  to help him change his behavior
• If the BI program can be at the TDM, making the
  connection with him at the meeting can increase
  the odds of him going to the program

38
Key Elements of Safe Practice

• Check in with his partner about how to approach
  him
• Use third party information about his violence
  whenever it is available (police or court report,
  from family members or friends)
• Pay attention for opportunities to use HIS
  descriptions of his own behavior to explore his
  violence or the impact on his family
• If using information provided by his partner or
  the children, SAFETY PLAN in advance

39
Key Elements of Safe Practice

• Assess his willingness to take responsibility for
  his behavior. CAUTION Check what he says against
  actual behavior following the intervention
• Expand network of support to hold him responsible
  for violence and to support him as he changes his
  behavior
• Keep her informed, and check in with her about
  safety after contact with him
• Create a coordinated response to addressing his
  behavior with other systems (police, courts,
  batterer intervention, visitation programs, etc.)

40
www.endabuse.org