Why Do Mothers Stay? Honouring Resistance, Understanding the Impact of Professional Attitudes and Making Better Decisions About Children Who Experience Domestic Violence
Tracks
Room 1 : In-Person and Online
| Wednesday, November 27, 2024 |
| 9:45 AM - 10:05 AM |
| Room 1 |
Overview
Kate Alexander, Victim Survivors Advisory Council Victoria
Speaker
Ms Kate Alexander
Senior Practitioner
Department Of Communities And Justice
Why Do Mothers Stay? Honouring Resistance, Understanding the Impact of Professional Attitudes and Making Better Decisions About Children Who Experience Domestic Violence
Abstract
Children who experience domestic violence are frequently reported to child protection services. Those children often live in chronic fear with impacts as harmful as other forms of child maltreatment. There is copious evidence about the need to improve the assessment approaches of statutory systems so that the experiences of children, and the perspectives of their mothers, are better understood to inform decision making.
This presentation will describe an innovative research project undertaken in NSW to improve assessment approaches for children at risk because of domestic violence. The researcher works within the statutory system in NSW and was able to recruitment a large sample of the child protection workforce (n = 1, 041) to participate in an empirical study.
The research will be described in three stages. The first considered whether combining a standard safety assessment tool, Structured Decision Making (SDM), with a holistic approach for understanding interpersonal violence, Response-Based Practice (RBP), improved the quality of assessments about the safety for children at risk of domestic violence. A filmed vignette experiment, was used to compare assessments of practitioners who watched an interview guided by SDM alone with those who watched one guided by a combined SDM and RBP approach.
The second stage sought to understand the attitudes of the workforce to domestic violence and whether individual characteristics, including age and gender, impacted. The attitudes of the workforce were also compared with those of the public. The third stage considered the impact of practitioner attitudes on assessment decisions and whether the combined assessment approach (SDM+RBP) moderated any impact of practitioner attitudes.
The findings include that focusing on the resilience and expertise of mothers who are victims of violence influenced the assessment of child protection caseworkers. The results are of critical importance to those working in child protection and domestic violence.
Key Learnings:
1. The value of focusing on resilience as a dignified approach
2. The impact of professional attitudes
3. Assessment approaches
This presentation will describe an innovative research project undertaken in NSW to improve assessment approaches for children at risk because of domestic violence. The researcher works within the statutory system in NSW and was able to recruitment a large sample of the child protection workforce (n = 1, 041) to participate in an empirical study.
The research will be described in three stages. The first considered whether combining a standard safety assessment tool, Structured Decision Making (SDM), with a holistic approach for understanding interpersonal violence, Response-Based Practice (RBP), improved the quality of assessments about the safety for children at risk of domestic violence. A filmed vignette experiment, was used to compare assessments of practitioners who watched an interview guided by SDM alone with those who watched one guided by a combined SDM and RBP approach.
The second stage sought to understand the attitudes of the workforce to domestic violence and whether individual characteristics, including age and gender, impacted. The attitudes of the workforce were also compared with those of the public. The third stage considered the impact of practitioner attitudes on assessment decisions and whether the combined assessment approach (SDM+RBP) moderated any impact of practitioner attitudes.
The findings include that focusing on the resilience and expertise of mothers who are victims of violence influenced the assessment of child protection caseworkers. The results are of critical importance to those working in child protection and domestic violence.
Key Learnings:
1. The value of focusing on resilience as a dignified approach
2. The impact of professional attitudes
3. Assessment approaches
Biography
Kate has recently completed a PhD researching assessment approaches for children who are at risk because of domestic violence. Her research has been published in three international journals. Kate leads the Office of the Senior Practitioner in the child protection system in NSW. She has been a social worker for over 30 years. Kate was award a Public Service Medal in 2019, and a Churchill Fellowship in 2010. Kate's research considers the impact of professional attitudes on decisions made about children who experience domestic violence
