This handbook guides practitioners with practical exercises and techniques to help them make the most of limited client contact with perpetrators of domestic violence.Engaging with Perpetrators of Domestic Violence: Practical Techniques for Early Intervention provides guidelines for initial interviews and risk assessment and then outlines techniques for: building a working alliance, encouraging disclosure, analysing incidents of abuse to aid safety planning and raising awareness of the impacts on victims. It draws on a range of ideas from theory and practice, including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), narrative therapy and the feminist Duluth Model. The interventions outlined are designed to be suitable for use by social workers and other professionals in brief, safety-focused interventions aimed at planning for safety and motivating clients as they start the process of change.Child protection and family workers can complete training without learning about how to work with domestic abuse perpetrators - but intervening at an early stage can make a real difference to increasing family safety.This concise book equips practitioners with the knowledge and techniques they need to make the most of limited client contact with perpetrators. It outlines how to briefly assess perpetrators, how to prepare them for a perpetrator programme, and describes a range of interventions that can be used to reduce the risk they represent in the meantime. Drawing on approaches from motivational work, anger management, CBT and feminist models, but written in practical and easy to follow language, the book provides guidance for carrying out interviews and assessing risk, how to use safety plans, signals and time outs, understanding the impact of abuse on victims, how to analyse incidents of abuse and how to make an effective referral.This reliable guide is a useful reference for any child protection worker wanting to make the most of the valuable opportunity they have to engage with domestic violence perpetrators.
Section 1. Introduction. 1.1. Contextualising the Model. 1.2 Theoretical Influences. Section 2. Assessment. 2.1 Assessment Interview. 2.2. Risk Assessment. Section 3. Interventions. 3.1. Safety Plans, Signals and Time Outs. 3.2. Taking Responsibility. 3.3. Extending the Definition of Abuse. 3.4. Abusing Cultural Privilege. 3.5. Analysing Incidents of Abuse. 3.6. Building Awareness of Impacts of Domestic Violence. 3.7. Conflict Resolution. Section 4. What Next? 4.1 Referencing Onwards. Index.
This is a key text for any frontline child protection worker. It will help them to pro-actively engage with the perpetrator, briefly assess them and consider low-risk interventions. It highlights the challenge of developing a working neutral relationship with the perpetrator and offers guidance on how best to achieve this. The questionnaires and checklists are extremely useful to use as tools during direct sessions with the perpetrator, in particular the story boards. Importantly, this book does not lose sight of the child at the heart of the situation. Overall this should be seen as an essential read for social workers and practitioners from other settings to develop their learning and understanding of domestic violence.
