The information in this program outline is provided by the program representative and edited by the CEBC staff. The Domestic Violence Home Visit Intervention (DVHVI) program has been rated by the CEBC in the area of: Domestic/Intimate Partner Violence: Services for Women and their Children.

• Type of Maltreatment: Exposure to Domestic Violence
• Target Population: Families with children from birth to 18 years old that have reported incidents of intimate partner violence (IPV) to police. Children need not have been physically present at the violent event, but there must be children living in the home for the family to be eligible for the service. All levels of violence are targeted, with specific interventions determined by the level of ongoing danger.

The DVHVI is a joint project of the Yale Child Study Center and the New Haven Police Department. The project provides enhanced law enforcement, community-based advocacy, and mental health services to families affected by domestic violence, in an effort to increase children’s safety and decrease negative psychological effects of exposure to domestic violence. The project conducts outreach home visits by teams of advocates and patrol officers. At the initial home visit, the team and non-offending parent identify issues affecting family safety. The team provides information related to judicial processes, available community resources, and children’s responses to violence and trauma. Ongoing intervention, including referrals for child-focused clinical treatment, is determined by the unique needs of each family.

• Home visits conducted by team including police officer and advocate or clinician.
• Home visit outreach conducted as soon as possible following IPV incident reported to police.
• Safety assessment conducted by team at initial visit.
• Specific safety plan jointly created by team and parent at initial visit
  
• Explanation of relevant criminal justice process provided at initial visit, including court orders of protection.
• Information on available community services provided at initial visit.
• Psychoeducation about children’s responses to IPV provided at initial visit.
• Trauma symptom screening for all children, based on parent report, conducted at initial visit.
• Individualized service plans are developed based on the needs and wishes of each family.
• Referrals to child-focused clinical evaluations given at initial visit.
• Symptomatic children referred to Childhood Violent Trauma Clinic for evaluation and appropriate treatment (Child and Family Traumatic Stress Intervention [a brief parent-child treatment developed by Stephen Berkowitz and Steven Marans], TF-CBT, Parent-Child Psychotherapy, or other long-term treatment)
• Ongoing advocacy and case management for families that require assistance in implementing safety plans provided during follow-up visits.

Domestic Violence Home Visit Intervention (DVHVI) was designed with a child component that addresses the following presenting problems and symptoms:

• Trauma-related symptoms.

Age range: 0 – 17

Developmental Delays:

This program was not developed for children with developmental delays, and has not been tested for children with developmental delays.

Domestic Violence Home Visit Intervention (DVHVI) was designed with a parent/caregiver component that addresses the following presenting problems and symptoms:

• Parent experiencing IPV with children from birth to 18 years old.

Domestic Violence Home Visit Intervention (DVHVI) was not designed to be conducted in a group setting, and has not been tested for use in a group setting.

Recommended Intensity:

This program provides a single initial home visit to all referred families. The number of visits ranges from 1 to 15. Most families receive 1 or 2 visits, with the initial home visits ranging in length from 5 minutes to 2 hours, with a median of 20 minutes. For those families that do engage in ongoing services, frequency of contact with program advocates ranges from daily to monthly.

Recommended Duration:

Individual service plans are determined by specific family needs and wishes. Duration of contact ranges from a single visit to more than a year of advocacy service with the total time spent ranging from 10 minutes to more than 100 hours. Most families receive less than 1 hour of total service.

This program is typically conducted in a(n):

• Birth Family Home

This program does not include a homework component.

Domestic Violence Home Visit Intervention (DVHVI) does not have materials available in a language other than English.

The typical resources for implementing the program are:

• Support for program from police and clinical agency leadership
• Police officers to identify cases of IPV in families with children and to conduct home visits with program advocates (number of officers and time required depends on size of community or district where the program is implemented and specific case characteristics identified as referral criteria (e.g., level of violence))
• Advocate(s) to conduct home visits (number of staff depends on scope of program as with police)
• Clinical supervisor to administer and direct program and supervise advocate(s)
• Access to clinical resources for referral of symptomatic children
• Support staff to enter and maintain client information in database

Advocates must have knowledge of domestic violence dynamics; principles of child development and children's response to trauma; relevant local resources for legal services; basic needs; and social support. Advocates need not have advanced degree. Clinical supervisor must have at least MSW and must have knowledge and experience in working with battered women, traumatized children, clinical case management, and knowledge of community resources. Police must have basic knowledge of domestic violence dynamics and good understanding of relevant judicial processes in the jurisdiction.

There is a manual that describes how to implement this program, and there is training available for this program.

Training Contact:

• Colleen Vadala
  National Center for Children Exposed to Violence, Yale Child Study Center
  colleen.vadala@yale.edu
  phone: (203) 785-2975
  230 South Frontage Rd.
  New Haven, CT 06520-7900

Training is obtained:

Initial training in the program is provided at the National Center for Children Exposed to Violence in New Haven, CT. Follow-up consultation is provided by phone and e-mail, with site visits to the new site arranged as the new program develops.

Number of days/hours:

For those communities that have existing police-mental health partnerships based on the Child Development-Community Policing (CD-CP) program model, training in this program as an additional component takes place in a 1- day seminar, followed by site-specific consultation. For communities where there is no existing partnership program between police and a mental health agency, training in the CDCP model takes place in phases (initial visit to New Haven by replication site team; site visit to the new site by CDCP team; 4-day training in New Haven with observations and police ride alongs; ongoing consultation for program development).

This program is rated a "3 - Promising Research Evidence" on the Scientific Rating Scale based on the published, peer-reviewed research available. The practice must have at least one study utilizing some form of control (e.g., untreated group, placebo group, matched wait list study) establishing the practice's benefit over the placebo, or found it to be comparable to or better than an appropriate comparison practice. Please see the Scientific Rating Scale for more information.

Child Welfare Outcome: Child/Family Well-Being