Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention Advance Access originally published online on September 3, 2007
Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention 2007 7(4):345-363; doi:10.1093/brief-treatment/mhm015
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From Culture Clash to New Possibilities: A Harm Reduction Approach to Family Violence and Child Protection Services
From the Bell Canada Child Welfare Research Center, Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto (Shlonsky, Lambert) and Department of Communication Disorders, CSULA Child Abuse and Family Violence Institute, California State University (Friend)
Contact author: Aron Shlonsky, Associate Professor, Director, Bell Canada Child Welfare Research Center, University of Toronto, Faculty of Social Work, 246 Bloor Street West, Toronto, Ontario M5S1A1, Canada. E-mail: aron.shlonsky{at}utoronto.ca.
This article examines the separate but sometimes overlapping foci of domestic violence (DV) and child protection services. When these sectors interact, the resulting tension becomes part of a complex dialectic and multiple opposing propositions that are explored here with respect for how they affect practice. A review of 30 years of DV discourse leads to systematic examinations of the DV literature for battered women, mental health, children, and offenders. The article proposes a radical shift by pairing a harm reduction approach with an evidence-based practice model when DV and child protection intersect. The implications of Stage of Change theory are considered in relationship to the harm reduction approach.
KEY WORDS: Domestic violence, Child maltreatment, Child abuse, Harm reduction, Evidence-based practice