Intimate Partner Violence: Evidence-Based Interventions Part II

Course overview

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a worldwide phenomenon and many victims face complex barriers to seeking and receiving help. Mental health and human services professionals play a key role in offering compassionate care that helps mitigate the complex and multilayered effects of IPV. Because victims present with unique experiences and needs, treatment must be individualized-addressing safety, emotional well-being, and family dynamics. Clinicians can assist with developing safety plans and provide other interventions tailored to victims, perpetrators, and children. Effective approaches incorporate cultural values, beliefs, and traditions to ensure relevance and trust with diverse clients. This series equips professionals with strategies to identify IPV and support individuals affected by it. This IPV series is comprised of 5 parts. This is part 4. Individuals who experience intimate partner violence (IPV) often do not seek help from professionals until the violence has become so severe that there is a concern for survival of self or children. When survivors do seek help, practitioners can be most effective when they are aware of the complexity of the varied and multi-dimensional impact on survivors, perpetrators, and their children. Practitioners who operate from trauma-informed knowledge and skills are most effective in approaching treatment of all family members exposed to violence. Clinicians who understand the short- and long-term aspects of violence can use a variety of techniques and approaches when helping survivors, perpetrators, and children. The target audience for this learning material is social workers, psychologists, marriage and family therapists, and counselors-all of whom are very likely to work, knowingly or unknowingly, with victims of IPV. Mandatory reporting duties of all professionals are therefore discussed. The purpose of this learning material is to familiarize clinicians with selected practice frameworks and evidence-based treatment approaches in their work with survivors. Specific intervention strategies include trauma-specific approaches in assessment and treatment. Rather than examination of treatment programs, the focus of this learning material is to examine specific clinical skills that can be used to implement interventions for survivors, perpetrators, and children at different levels of practice, including practice with individuals, couples, and families.