Building Peaceful Homes

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Building Peaceful Homes

• June, 2004

Elena P. Cohen, Educational Services, Inc.
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AGENDA

• Definition/dynamics of domestic violence
• Impact on children
• Involving men in prevention, early intervention
  and treatment
• Strong and Supportive Relationships
• Supporting staff, families and communities

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Chronic exposure to violence in home and/or
community
How much children are affected by violence
Isolated traumatic direct exposure to violence in
home and community
Exposure to real world violence shown in the media
Entertainment violence and violent toys in
popular culture
Adapted from Teaching Young Children in Violent
Times by Diane Levin, 1994
Proportion of affected children
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Domestic Violence

• A pattern of coercive behavior exerted by one
  adult family member over another. It is a learned
  behavior. This behavior is PURPOSEFUL and
  DELIBERATE, and has the goal of establishing and
  maintaining POWER and CONTROL..

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Why Victims Stay
physical
sexual
Power and Control
economic
psychological
Foundation Supports
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Dispelling Myths About DV

• Domestic Violence is not caused by mental
  illness, alcohol or drug use, out of control
  anger, or stress.
• Children are not too young to be impacted.
• People who are abused do not ask for the abuse or
  get something out of it.
• A victims behavior does not cause the abuse.

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Scope of Domestic Violence

• 25 of women and 8 of surveyed men said they
  were raped and/or physically assaulted by a
  current or former spouse, cohabiting partner, or
  date at some time in their lifetime.
• (Findings From the National Violence Against
  Women Survey research report, National Institute
  of Justice and the Centers for Disease Control
  and Prevention, July 2000)  
• 85 of victims are women. (Department of Justice)
• Between 3.3 and 10 million children are exposed
  to domestic violence each year.

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Scope

• Children under the age of five are
  disproportionately present in households
  experiencing domestic violence.
• Head Start and Early Head Start programs report
  between 17 and 40 percent of families they serve
  are affected by domestic violence.
• Youth between 16 and 24 and parenting teens are
  the most at risk. A study in Chicago found that
  55 of teen mothers on welfare had experienced
  intimate partner abuse in the previous 12 months.
  (Jody Rafael, Domestic Violence and Birth
  Control Sabatoge a Report from the Teen Parent
  ProjectCenter for Impact Research, February
  2000.)
• Risk for child abuse and neglect60 overlap.

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Impact on Victims

• May display symptoms typical of response to
  trauma, including
• substance abuse,
• numbing,
• hypervigilance,
• low-self esteem,
• depression or anxiety,
• disruption in sleeping patterns.

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Impact

• 31-40 of women whove experienced domestic
  violence develop post-traumatic stress disorder
  (compared to 1 of US women in general)
• 63-81 of victims experience depression (compared
  to 7 of US women in general). (Gleason, W.J.
  1993. Mental disorders in battered women An
  empirical study. Violence and Victims. 8(1),
  53-68.)
• Victims should typically be seen as people in
  crisis, not as mentally ill.

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The Children Are Watching
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Reprinted from Silent Realities Supporting
Young Children and Their Families Who Experience
Violence by Elena Cohen and Barbara Walthall.
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How a child reacts to violence can depend on many
things, including

• Age and developmental stage
• Closeness and intensity
• Frequency
• Family and community environment
• Temperament
• Gender

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Resiliency
The ability to recover readily or bounce back
from adversity and stressful events. Researcher
s have found that resilient children and their
families share certain qualities, called
protective factors, that protect them from the
damaging effects of negative life circumstances
and events.
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• How do we help build peaceful families, homes
  and communities?

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What do children need to feel safe?

• A safe and nurturing environment.
• Response to individual childs needs.
• Referrals when they have significant problems.
• Staff that know how to respond to difficult
  situations.

Adapted from Children Living with Domestic
Violence the Role of Early Childhood Programs by
Elena Cohen and Jane Knitzer.
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What can staff do to support families?

• Assist families in creating safe, stable, and
  nurturing environments.
• Help parents be more effective nurturers by
  providing individualized parenting skills
  training.
• Make sure that services are accessible,
  appropriate, and available.

Adapted from Children Living with Domestic
Violence the Role of Early Childhood Programs by
Elena Cohen and Jane Knitzer.
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Supporting families (cont)

• Be prepared to help caregivers/teachers address
  confidentiality and child maltreatment reporting
  issues.
• Expand the competencies of early childhood staff
  to prevent and address problems related to
  domestic violence.

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Staff supporting families

• Help identify children and families in need of
  more intensive interventions and make the
  appropriate referrals and follow-up.
• Develop linkages and coordinating services with
  domestic violence agencies and other human
  service providers in the community.

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• Recognize signs of abuse and talk to families in
  a manner that supports safety for everyone.
• Be sensitive to ethnic and cultural strengths and
  customs, and facilitate understanding among
  different ethnic and cultural groups.

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How can administrators do to support staff and
families?

• Maximize available sources of funding to
  identify, support, and link children, staff, and
  families to specialized services.
• Ensure that families and staff have a stake in
  designing the service delivery strategies.

Adapted from Children Living with Domestic
Violence the Role of Early Childhood Programs by
Elena Cohen and Jane Knitzer.
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Administrative support

• Hire a mental health consultant to provide
  regular, on-site consultation to staff and
  families.
• Promote staff peer-to-peer support and
  opportunities for fun and positive experiences as
  well as opportunities for reflective supervision.

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Administrative supports (cont)

• Redo the agency mission to include support to
  children affected by domestic violence.
• Develop interagency protocols with
  community-based resources and supports for
  victims of domestic violence as well as
  program-specific policies, procedures, and
  approaches for responding to disclosures.

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Administrators

• Increase the capacity of staff by providing
  ongoing competency-based, culturally sensitive
  training about domestic violence.
• Join and provide leadership to community
  partnerships to promote closer collaboration
  among domestic violence and early childhood
  agencies, child protective services, and emerging
  networks of early childhood mental health
  consultants.