Domestic Violence Practice Guide for Child Protective Services
In 2013, the Colorado Department of Human Services released its first ever Domestic Violence Practice Guide for Child Protective Services. The Guide was created by a wide group of stakeholders via the Domestic Violence/ Child Protective Services Coordinating Council, including staff from Violence Free Colorado & member organizations.
Over 1,600 workers throughout Colorado now have guidance for when child maltreatment and domestic violence co-occur! Since 40%-60% of child welfare cases involve domestic violence, this is excellent news.
The Practice Guide is built on this guiding principle:
The guide provides tools for addressing domestic violence at each point of Child Welfare involvement:
- Screening (referrals, Differential Response)
- Assessment (interviews, documentation, decision making)
- Ongoing (Family Services Planning, case closure)
In addition, the guide devotes a section to Building a Coordinated Community Response to Domestic Violence and emphasizes the value of linking adult victims with community-based advocacy organizations.
So what exactly is in there? A few of the tools include:
- A chart of perpetrator tactics (p. 20-21)
- A chart of ways children are impacted by domestic violence (p. 34-36)
- The five Core Components of a domestic violence assessment (p. 50)
- Key questions for supervising domestic violence assessments (p. 58)
- Family services planning guidelines (p. 72), and sample plans (p. 109-116)
Check it out for yourself!
The guide is available here: Domestic Violence Practice Guide for Child Protective Services.
For more information, please contact us at info@nullviolencefreeco.org.