Domestic Violence Home Visit Intervention (DVHVI)
About This Program
Target Population: Families with children from birth to 18 years old living in home that have reported incidents of intimate partner violence (IPV) to police
Program Overview
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.
Program Goals
The program representative did not provide information about the program’s goals.
Logic Model
The program representative did not provide information about a Logic Model for Domestic Violence Home Visit Intervention (DVHVI).
Essential Components
The essential components of the Domestic Violence Home Visit Intervention (DVHVI) include:
- Home visits conducted by team including police officer and advocate or clinician
- Home visit outreach conducted as soon as possible following interpersonal violence (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 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 [CFTSI], Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy [TF-CBT], Child-Parent Psychotherapy [CPP], or other long-term treatment)
- Ongoing advocacy and case management for families that require assistance in implementing safety plans provided during follow-up visits
Program Delivery
Child/Adolescent Services
Domestic Violence Home Visit Intervention (DVHVI) directly provides services to children/adolescents and addresses the following:
- Trauma-related symptoms
Parent/Caregiver Services
Domestic Violence Home Visit Intervention (DVHVI) directly provides services to parents/caregivers and addresses the following:
- Parent experiencing IPV with children from birth to 18 years old living in the home
Recommended Intensity:
This program provides a single initial home visit to all referred families. The number of additional visits ranges from 0 to 14. Most families receive 1 or 2 visits, with the initial home visit 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.
Delivery Setting
This program is typically conducted in a(n):
- Birth Family Home
Homework
This program does not include a homework component.
Resources Needed to Run Program
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
Manuals and Training
Prerequisite/Minimum Provider Qualifications
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 a Master's of Social Work (MSW) degree 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.
Manual Information
There is a manual that describes how to deliver this program.
Training Information
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 Type/Location:
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).
Implementation Information
Pre-Implementation Materials
The program representative did not provide information about pre-implementation materials.
Formal Support for Implementation
The program representative did not provide information about formal support for implementation of Domestic Violence Home Visit Intervention (DVHVI).
Fidelity Measures
The program representative did not provide information about fidelity measures of Domestic Violence Home Visit Intervention (DVHVI).
Implementation Guides or Manuals
The program representative did not provide information about implementation guides or manuals for Domestic Violence Home Visit Intervention (DVHVI).
Research on How to Implement the Program
The program representative did not provide information about research conducted on how to implement Domestic Violence Home Visit Intervention (DVHVI).
Relevant Published, Peer-Reviewed Research
Child Welfare Outcome: Child/Family Well-Being
Stover, C. S., Poole, G., & Marans, S. (2009). The Domestic Violence Home-Visit Intervention: Impact on police-reported incidents of repeat violence over 12 months. Violence and Victims, 24(5), 591–606. https://doi.org/10.1891/0886-6708.24.5.591
Type of Study:
Pretest–posttest study with a nonequivalent control group (Quasi-experimental)
Number of Participants:
512
Population:
- Age — 15–63 years
- Race/Ethnicity — 53% African American, 30% Hispanic, and 17% Caucasian
- Gender — 100% Female
- Status — Participants were women seeking emergency services who had participated in the Domestic Violence Home Visit Intervention (DVHVI).
Location/Institution: New Haven, Connecticut
Summary:
(To include basic study design, measures, results, and notable limitations)
The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Domestic Violence Home Visit Intervention (DVHVI) in engaging a sample of women experiencing domestic violence. Participants were divided into four groups: high-dosage (women who received more than 20 minutes total during police home-visits), low-dosage (less than 20 minutes total), no-contact (women who were targeted to receive the intervention, but no contact was made), and a nontreatment control group (women who lived in the designated police districts, but for whom no attempts for service were made). Measures utilized include clinical and police record data were collected and repeat calls to the police were tracked for 12 months. Results indicate that women who engaged with the DVHVI were more likely to contact the police for subsequent events than those who received no or minimal DVHVI contact. Hispanic women served by Spanish-speaking advocate-officer teams were the most likely to utilize services and call the police for subsequent incidents. Limitations include lack of randomization, lack of assessment measures to evaluate participants, and the median length of intervention was limited (many women participated for 20 minutes or less in the intervention).
Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: 1 year.
Stover, C. S., Berkman, M., Desai, R., & Marans, S. (2010). The efficacy of a police-advocacy intervention for victims of domestic violence: 12-month follow-up data. Violence Against Women, 16(4), 410–425. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077801210364046
Type of Study:
Pretest–posttest study with a nonequivalent control group (Quasi-experimental)
Number of Participants:
107
Population:
- Age — Mean=30 years
- Race/Ethnicity — 54% African American, 28% Hispanic, 13% Caucasian, and 5% Other
- Gender — 100% Female
- Status — Participants were women seeking emergency services who had participated in the Domestic Violence Home Visit Intervention (DVHVI).
Location/Institution: New Haven, Connecticut
Summary:
(To include basic study design, measures, results, and notable limitations)
The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Domestic Violence Home Visit Intervention (DVHVI) in engaging a sample of women experiencing domestic violence. Participants were divided into an intervention or control group and interviewed at 1, 6, and 12 months following a police reported domestic incident to assess repeat violence, service utilization, and symptoms. Measures utilized include the Conflict-Tactics Scale-Revised (CTS2), Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI), Posttraumatic Checklist-Civilian Version (PCL-C), Traumatic Events Screening Inventory including the Parent Report Revised version (TESI; TESI-PR), Resource Utilization Questionnaire (RUQ), Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), and the UCLA Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Reaction Index-Parent Report Version (PTSD-RI). Results indicate that women who received the DVHVI were more satisfied with the police and likely to call them to report a nonphysical domestic dispute in the 12 months following the initial incident than women in the comparison group. DVHVI participants were significantly more likely to use court-based services and seek mental health treatment for their children. Limitations include lack of randomization and concerns about the generalizability of the findings.
Length of controlled postintervention follow-up: 1 year.
Additional References
Berkman, M., Casey, R., Berkowitz, S., & Marans, S. (2004). Police in the lives of children exposed to domestic violence: collaborative approaches to intervention. In: Jaffe, Baker, & Cunningham (eds.) Ending domestic violence in the lives of children and parents. New York: Guilford Press.
Berkman, M., Stover, C. S., & Marans, S. (2007). Domestic violence home visit intervention project: Guidelines for police-advocate visits. New Haven, CT: National Center for Children Exposed to Violence.
Contact Information
- Colleen Vadala
- Agency/Affiliation: National Center for Children Exposed to Violence
- Department: Yale Child Study Center
- Email: colleen.vadala@yale.edu
- Phone: (203) 785-2975
- Fax: (203) 785-4608
Date Research Evidence Last Reviewed by CEBC: June 2023
Date Program Content Last Reviewed by Program Staff: December 2015
Date Program Originally Loaded onto CEBC: January 2008
