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Invisible Practices: working with fathers who use violence

Posted by: admin Posted on: May 25, 2019

Invisible Practices was an action research project that involved the domestic and family violence-informed Safe & Together™ Model that capacity built participating organisations in NSW, Queensland, Victoria and WA in working with fathers who use violence. A multi-disciplinary, interagency Community of Practice (CoP) was established in each site, supported by the researchers, consultants and resources from the Safe & Together Institute. Project Advisory Groups (PAGs) were established in each state with membership drawn from senior levels of child protection, family services, specialist domestic and family violence (DFV) services and others. As a result of work undertaken by all participants, practice guidelines for this challenging area of work were developed and published.

Researchers:

Principle Investigator: Cathy Humphreys

Project manager: Lucy Healey

Anna Bornemisza (University of Melbourne);

Susan Heward-Belle; Lesley Laing; Cherie Toivonen (University of Sydney);

Menka Tsantefski; Patrick O’Leary; Amy Young; Tracy Wild (Griffith);

Donna Chung; Damian Green; Mark O’Hare (Curtin).

Funders: Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS)

Partners: Safe & Together Institute

Project Dates: 2017 – 2018

Participating Organisations in IP

NSW

  • CatholicCare
  • Department of Family and Community Services,
    Sydney, South Eastern Sydney and Northern Sydney Districts
    Gosford, Central Coast and Lakemba offices
  • Jannawi Family Centre

QLD

  • Centre Against Domestic Abuse, Caboolture
  • Churches of Christ (Intensive Family Services)
  • Department of Child Safety, Youth and Women, Caboolture
    Statutory CP and Intensive Family Services*
  • Mercy Community Services (Men’s Behaviour Change)
  • Partnership Response at Domestic Occurrences, Caboolture
  • Probation and Parole, Caboolture
  • Queensland Police Service

VIC

  • Anglicare Victoria
  • Berry Street Victoria
  • Bethany Geelong
  • Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare
  • Children’s Protection Society
  • Department of Health and Human Services Child Protection (statutory CP)
  • DV Vic.
  • Lifeworks
  • No To Violence
  • Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency
  • Windermere

WA

  • Department for Child Protection and Family Support

Contact: Cathy Humphreys

Publications:

Invisible practices: Intervention with fathers who use violence (Research report, 04/2018).

Invisible Practices: Intervention with fathers who use violence: Key findings and future directions (Research to policy and practice, 04/2018).

Invisible Practices: Working with fathers who use violence. Practice guide.

STACY: Safe and Together Addressing ComplexitY

Posted by: admin Posted on: May 25, 2019

The STACY Project aims to investigate and develop practitioner and organisational capacity to work collaboratively across services providing interventions to children and families living with domestic and family violence (DFV) and where there are parental issues of mental health (MH) and alcohol and other drug use (AOD) co-occurring. The expertise of practitioners will be harnessed through Communities of Practice (CoP), which will be capacity built through training and coaching provided by the US-based, Safe & Together Institute’s resources and consultants. Researchers will work alongside each CoP in each of the three states involved (NSW, Qld and Vic) to support and investigate changes in professional practice, inter-agency working, and the organisational change necessary to support ongoing development. The expertise of Project Advisory Group members situated in each state will be drawn on to develop practitioner and organisational guidance for improved collaborative working in this complex area.

Researchers:

Principle Investigator: Cathy Humphreys

Project manager/ Chief Investigator: Lucy Healey

Jasmin Isobe (UoM)

Susan Heward-Belle; Lesley Laing; Cherie Toivonen; Erin Links (University of Sydney);

Menka Tsantefski; Patrick O’Leary; Amy Young; Tracy Wild (Griffith)

Funders: Department of Social Services

Partners:

Safe & Together Institute (USA)

QLD  – Caboolture offices/branches

  • Institute for Urban Indigenous Health Family Wellbeing Service (IUHI)
  • Lives Lived Well Drugs and Alcohol Service
  • Queensland Health (Acute Care Mental Health Team)
  • Queensland Police Service
  • Queensland Corrective Services, Probation and Parole
  • Uniting Care Men’s Behaviour Change Program
  • Centre Against Domestic Abuse (CADA), Domestic Violence Service
  • Department of Child Safety, Youth and Women
  • Walking with Dads
  • Women’s legal service
  • Mercy community services, Caring Dads program

NSW

  • NSW Health Central Coast and Western Sydney offices
  • CatholicCare
  • Yerin, Eleanor Duncan Aboriginal Health Centre
  • The Glen Centre
  • Kamira Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Services
  • Jannawi Family Services
  • Kildare Road Medical Centre, Blacktown
  • Family and Community Services, Community Service Centre, Auburn
  • Domestic Violence NSW

VIC (asterisked agencies participating in PAG only)

  • Anglicare Victoria
  • Berry Street
  • Bethany Community Support
  • Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare*
  • Child Protection
  • Domestic Violence Victoria*
  • Kids First
  • McAuley
  • No to Violence*
  • Barwon Health
  • Alfred Child & Youth Mental Health Service
  • Early in Life Mental Health Service, Monash Health
  • Youth Support and Advocacy Service
  • Orange Door, Family Safety Victoria
  • Odyssey House
  • Uniting/Kildonan

Project Dates: 2018 – 2019

Contact: Cathy Humphreys

Publications:

Practice Guide: Working at the intersections of domestic and family violence, parental substance misuse and/or mental health issuesDownload
Summary Practice Guide: Working at the intersections of domestic and family violence, parental substance misuse and/or mental health issuesDownload
Final Report: Working at the intersections of domestic and family violence, parental substance misuse and/or mental health issuesDownload

Isobe, J., Healey, L. & Humphreys, C. (2020). A critical interpretive synthesis of the intersection of domestic violence with parental issues of mental health and substance use. Health and Social Care in the Community, 28(5), 1394–1407.

PATRICIA: PAThways and Research Into Collaborative Inter-Agency practice – Collaborative work across the child protection and specialist domestic and family violence interface

Posted by: admin Posted on: May 25, 2019

This project explored the relationship between statutory child protection and specialist domestic and family violence services in order to discern the elements that facilitate differential pathways and appropriate integrated service system support for the safety and well-being of women and children living with and separating.  Children’s service pathways were examined using NSW, Western Australian and Victorian administrative datasets. The findings, together with an international scoping review, case studies of good practice in five states, and a case reading process (developed by the Safe & Together Institute) of 25 child protection files (five per state) was undertaken. Findings were synthesised and a collaborative framework developed to strengthen the co-design of service systems.

Researchers:

Principle Investigator: Cathy Humphreys

Project manager: Lucy Healey

NSW: Lesley Laing; Susan Heward-Belle, Cherie Toivonen (USydney); Ilan Katz

Qld: Menka Tsantefski, Patrick O’Leary; Amy Young, Tracy Wilde (Griffith);

SA: Sarah Wendt (Flinders); Fiona Buchanan (USA);

Vic: Marie Connolly, Aron Shlonsky, Jennifer Ma, Christine Eastman, Colleen Jeffreys, Anna Bornemisza (UoM); Deb Kirkwood (DVRCV); Michelle Macvean, Robyn Mildon (Parenting Research Centre)

WA: Donna Chung, Damian Green, Sarah Anderson (Curtin).

Funders: Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS)

Partners:

Department of Health and Human Services Child Protection
Domestic Violence Resource Centre Victoria
DV Vic.
No To Violence
Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency
Women’s Legal Service Victoria
Department of Family and Community Services
University of Sydney
Women’s Legal Service NSW
Department for Child Protection and Family Support
Women’s Council for Domestic and Family Violence Services (WA)
Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services
The Gold Coast Domestic Violence Integrated Response
Domestic Violence Prevention Centre Gold Coast
Family Safety Meeting group, Limestone Coast, SA
Berry Street Victoria
Family Safety Teams, Kimberley

Project Dates: 2015 – 2016

Contact: Lucy Healey

Publications:

The PATRICIA Project: PAThways and Research In Collaborative Inter-Agency working: State of knowledge paper.

The Collaborative Practice Framework for Child Protection and Specialist Domestic and Family Violence Services – the PATRICIA Project: Key findings and future directions.

PAThways and Research Into Collaborative Inter-Agency practice: Collaborative work across the child protection and specialist domestic and family violence interface – The PATRICIA Program, Research Report.

A Collaborative Practice Framework for Child Protection and Specialist Domestic and Family Violence Services: Bridging the research and practice divide.

Intervening with children living with domestic violence: Is the system safe?

Case reading as a practice and training intervention in domestic violence and child protection.

Facilitating the collaborative interface between child protection and specialist domestic violence services: a scoping review.

Voices from young people living with fathers who use violence (a sub-project from Fathering Challenges)

Posted by: admin Posted on: May 25, 2019

The Young People’s Voices Project sought the perspectives of young people aged 9-21 years who have experienced family violence about what makes a good father, the impact of having a father who uses violence on his children as well as  how/whether a father who uses violence can make it up to his children. Young people were asked for their views about the degree of involvement they believe young people should have if their father attends a MBC Program and how young people think their voices could be included in these programs as well as the key messages they would like to give to fathers who attend.

There are three video resources from this project.  Note due to privacy issues the files should not be downloaded.  They can be publicly viewed through Vimeo.

https://vimeo.com/182793691

https://vimeo.com/182793710

Researchers: Dr Katie Lamb (PhD project), Prof Cathy HumphreysProfessor Kelsey Hegarty, Dr Kristin Diemer

Funders: Luke Batty Foundation, ARC Linkage

Partners: Bethany Community Support

Project Dates: 2014-2016

Contact: Kristin Diemer

Worried About Sex And Pornography Project – WASAPP

Posted by: admin Posted on: May 25, 2019

The aim of the WASAPP project is to synthesise current evidence and generate new evidence about secondary prevention of harmful sexual behaviour, and to apply that evidence to the co-design of a Stop it Now! service or online website response to young people worried about their sexual behaviours.

The research questions are:

  1. What is known about intervening early in harmful sexual behaviour for children and young people?
  2. What are the components of a service response for children and young people worried about their sexual thoughts and behaviours?

How could this intervention be incorporated into an Australian Stop It Now! service?

Researchers: Dr Gemma McKibbin; Prof Cathy Humphreys; Prof Kelsey Hegarty; Dr Mohajer Hameed

Funders: N/A

Partners: Jesuit Social Services

Project Dates: June 2019 – June 2020

Contact: Gemma McKibbin

Safe And heard about Risk And safety – the SARA project

Posted by: admin Posted on: May 25, 2019

The aim of the SARA project is to explore how children experiencing domestic and family violence (DFV) can act as consultants to research projects and how they wish to be talked to by professionals about risk and safety. The study has two objectives: (i) develop a model for how children and young people living with DFV can consult to research projects; and (ii) generate new knowledge about how children and young people want to be talked to about DFV by professionals. The outcome of the project will be a co-designed model of how children and young people can be consulted by researchers about DFV, and a child-friendly guide to assist professionals in talking with children and young people about DFV.

Researchers: Dr Gemma McKibbin; Prof Cathy Humphreys; Prof Kelsey Hegarty; Dr Rhian Parker; Dr Mohajer Hameed; Larissa Fogden

Funders: Melbourne School of Health Sciences

Partners: Melbourne Alliance to End Violence against women and their children

Project Dates: May 2019 – May 2020

Contact: Gemma McKibbin

Humphreys, C., Diemer, K., Bornemisza, A., Spiteri‐Staines, A., Kaspiew, R., & Horsfall, B. (2019). More present than absent: Men who use domestic violence and their fathering. Child & Family Social Work.

Posted by: admin Posted on: May 24, 2019 ,

Abstract: An earlier article referred to the “absent presence” of the perpetrator in the lives of children and their mothers who have lived with domestic violence. It identified the ways in which the shadow of the perpetrator continued and was evidenced in the “symptoms of abuse” that both women and children experienced in spite of his absence. The current article argues that fathers who use violence are actually more present than absent in the lives of children (and women), even following separation. A mixed method approach surveyed men in Men’s Behaviour Change Programs (N = 101), and interviewed women who had experienced violence (N = 50). The studies reported that the majority of men in both the quantitative men’s study (80%) and the qualitative women’s study (77%) had substantial contact with children. The women’s interviews highlight the problematic fathering that many of their children experienced, both before and after separation. They reported very high levels of child abuse and poor attitudes to both women and children.

The article concludes that the family violence and child welfare systems are poorly configured to address fathers who use violence and continue to hold substantial parenting roles, including following separation.

To view the original publication, click here.

Researchers: Humphreys, C., Diemer, K., Bornemisza, A., Spiteri-Staines, A., Kaspiew, R. & Horsfall, B.

Year: 2018

Smith, J., & Humphreys, C. (2019). Child protection and fathering where there is domestic violence: Contradictions and consequences. Child & Family Social Work, 24(1), 156-163.

Posted by: admin Posted on: May 24, 2019 ,

Abstract: Children live in different contexts of protection and vulnerability when exposed to domestic violence. The negative impacts for many children are consistent and widely acknowledged. However, the implication that this requires men who use violence to address their fathering has been slower to emerge. This article draws from 69 in‐depth qualitative interviews with men, women, and workers across four men’s behaviour change programmes in rural Victoria, Australia. Particular attention is given to men’s attitudes to their fathering and the formal and informal consequences they experienced as a result of their violence and its impact on their fathering. Although most men came to recognize that their violence impacted their children, they failed to make the connection that the involvement of statutory child protection services in their lives was a direct consequence of their abusive behaviour. This article explores this disconnection by fathers who use violence, their attitude to the involvement of statutory child protection services, and identifies the implications for social work practitioners in addressing this issue.

To view the original publication, click here.

Researchers: Smith, J. & Humphreys, C.

Year: 2018

McLindon, E., Humphreys, C., & Hegarty, K. (2018). “It happens to clinicians too”: an Australian prevalence study of intimate partner and family violence against health professionals. BMC women’s health, 18(1), 113.

Posted by: admin Posted on: May 24, 2018 ,

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to measure the prevalence of intimate partner and family violence amongst a population of Australian female nurses, doctors and allied health professionals. Methods: We conducted a descriptive, cross-sectional survey in a large Australian tertiary maternity hospital with 471 participating female health professionals (45.0% response rate). The primary outcome measures were 12 month and lifetime prevalence of intimate partner violence (Composite Abuse Scale) and family violence.

Results: In the last 12 months, one in ten (43, 11.5%) participants reported intimate partner violence: 4.2% (16) combined physical, emotional and/or sexual abuse; 6.7% (25) emotional abuse and/or harassment; 5.1% (22) were afraid of their partner; and 1.7% (7) had been raped by their partner. Since the age of sixteen, one third (125, 29.7%) of participants reported intimate partner violence: 18.3% (77) had experienced combined physical, emotional and/or sexual abuse; 8.1% (34) emotional abuse and/or harassment; 25.6% (111) had been afraid of their partner; and 12.1% (51) had been raped by their partner. Overall, 45.2% (212) of participants reported violence by a partner and/or family member during their lifetime, with 12.8% (60) reporting both.

Conclusion: Intimate partner and family violence may be common traumas in the lives of female health professionals, and this should be considered in health workplace policies and protocols, as health professionals are increasingly urged to work with patients who have experienced intimate partner and family violence. Implications include the need for workplace manager training, special leave provision, counselling services and other resources for staff.

To view the original publication, click here.

Download a PDF of this publicationDownload

Researchers: McLindon, E., Humphreys, C. & Hegarty, K.

Year: 2018

Kertesz, M., Humphreys, C., Larance, L. Y., Vicary, D., Spiteri-Staines, A., & Ovenden, G. (2019). Working with women who use force: a feasibility study protocol of the Positive (+) SHIFT group work programme in Australia. BMJ Open, 9(5), e027496.

Posted by: admin Posted on: May 24, 2019 ,

Abstract:

Introduction
This study assesses the feasibility of the Positive Shift (+SHIFT) programme in the context of legal responses and social welfare provision in the state of Victoria, Australia.

The +SHIFT programme, adapted from the Vista curriculum, is a group work and case management programme for women who use force. Building on traditional survivor support group strengths, the programme facilitates participants’ engagement with viable alternatives to force while promoting healing. The study also aims to increase understanding about the characteristics and needs of women who use force in Australia.

Methods and analysis
This feasibility study will assess the +SHIFT programme’s appropriateness in addressing women’s use of force in the Victorian context. Process evaluation will be undertaken to identify recruitment, retention, women’s participation, barriers to implementation, the appropriateness of proposed outcome measures and other issues. The feasibility of an outcome evaluation which would employ a longitudinal mixed methods design with measures administered at preprogramme, programme completion and 3 months postprogramme time points, along with semistructured interviews with participants, programme staff and referring professionals, will also be assessed.

Ethics and dissemination
Research ethics approval was obtained from the University of Melbourne Human Research Ethics Committee. Results of the study will be communicated to the programme providers as part of the action research process evaluation methodology. On completion, final results will be reported to programme providers and funding bodies, and published in academic journals and presented at national and international conferences.

To view the original publication, click here

Researchers: Kertesz, M., Humphreys, C., Yound Larance, L., Vicary, Dave., Spiteri-Staines, A. & Ovenden, G.

Year: 2019