Child Abuse in the Context of Intimate Partner Violence- an Integrated Intervention

Authors & Presenters/Organisation

Jo Elvidge (Portfolio Manager and Violence Prevention Service Lead, Ministry of Health)
Dr Pat Tuohy (Chief Advisor - Child and Youth Health, Ministry of Health)

Following the Office of the Commissioner for Children Report into the Death of James Whakaruru, the Ministry of Health became aware that there was a gap in national and provider policy and practice on abuse intervention. The report identified many opportunities for intervention for James and his mother that may have prevented James' tragic death. The report provided a graphic example of the increased risk to children whose mother's are also victims of abuse.

Child abuse and intimate partner violence (IPV) have been recognised as co-occurring in 30- 60% of cases. This co-occurrence provides a challenge to implement practical policies that effectively identify both child abuse and IPV, and protect both children and their mothers.

The Ministry of Health developed the Family Violence Intervention Guidelines: Child and Partner Abuse in 2002 which include a dual identification risk assessment and intervention for child abuse and IPV. Since 2001 more than 3,500 health professionals have received training in the implementation of these guidelines. This presentation describes the steps we took to develop policy to protect children and support mothers, and describes the outcomes of this programme to date. Primary care contracts have been let to train midwives, general practitioners, well-child and sexual health organisations. The New Zealand College of Midwives, the Royal New Zealand Plunket Society, New Zealand College of Nurses, the Australasian College for Emergency Physicians and the Royal College of General Practitioners have featured workshops and presentations on family violence and passed policy affirming their members professional commitment to intervene. The Ministry has supported the establishment of a national network of DHB Family Violence Intervention co-ordinators. Twelve DHBs have self-funded family violence co-ordinators to compliment the four positions that the Ministry of Health has funded. Baseline evaluation data for the clinical intervention programmes shows that the most effective programmes are in DHBs that have a paid co-ordinator, and whose family violence intervention programmes have been in place for the longest time. The second year of evaluation results will be available at the time of the presentation, and will also be reported on.

Biographies

Jo Elvidge has worked in violence prevention for the past ten years; most recently as a Project Manager for the Ministry of Health. She was responsible for developing and implementing the Ministry of Health Family Violence Intervention Guidelines: Child and Partner Abuse, and rolling out the child and partner abuse intervention in the health sector. She was the project manager for the development of the Te Rito Family Violence Prevention Education framework and has developed the Ministry of Health programme to implement this framework in schools, churches, workplaces etc.

Dr Pat Tuohy is a specialist paediatrician with a particular interest in community child health. Pat is a former Director of Child Health Policy and National Paediatrician for the Plunket Society. He is currently the Ministry of Health Chief Advisor, Child and Youth Health. His responsibilities include coordination and leadership of child and youth health with respect to the Ministry of Health, District Health Boards and health service providers.