Intervention Research Project to Design & Test Treatment for Children age 3-17 and their Mothers Who are Exposed to Domestic Violence, in Collaboration with Parents and Children Together

The Safe Start Promising Approaches Project will develop and support practice enhancements and innovations to prevent and reduce the impact of children's exposure to violence in their homes and communities. The project will help communities implement collaborative and evidence-based practices across the services continuum for children and their families. Exposure to violence includes being a victim of violence or a witness to violence, and encompasses abuse, neglect or child maltreatment, domestic violence, and community violence.

This program is authorized by Sections 261 and 262 of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, as amended (42 USC 5665-5666). The 10 pilot sites will test various evidence-based enhancements and practice innovations such as AF-CBT, TF-CBT, Strengthening Families Program, Coping Resources and other interventions in community-based settings such as DV shelters, libraries, Head Start, community mental health clinics and afterschool clubs. NCA/NCF

OJJDP has a specific mission to develop and disseminate knowledge about what works to prevent juvenile delinquency and violence and improve the effectiveness of the juvenile justice system. The Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, 42 U.S.C. § 5601 et seq authorizes the Administrator of OJJDP to conduct research or evaluations and undertake statistical analyses on a wide range of juvenile justice matters. OJJDP also provides funding to states and localities to carry out research, evaluation, and statistical analyses.

Numerous authors, scholars and practitioners have pointed to the potential for a modular (or practice element) approach to evidence based services. The Hawaii State Department of Health Child and Adolescent Health Division (CAMHD) has adopted the practice element approach to monitoring and evaluating its treatment services. In two separate studies of Hawaii children (mean age of 14) with either disruptive behavior disorders (ODD or CD) or with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, the number of evidence-­based practice elements used in treatment sessions (specific and detailed training in child management techniques, therapist praise and reward, teaching ignoring and differential reinforcement of alternative behaviors) predicted faster and greater rates of functional improvement, even after controlling for dosage, e.g. number of sessions, cost of services.

Modular Cognitive Behavior Therapy (MCBT) will be infused into an existing intervention called Haupoa (meaning: to make the ground soft for planting). Haupoa is a group therapy intervention for children and parents that is based in community domestic violence program. Haupoa was found to have statistically and clinically meaningful effects on parenting skills and child outcomes. MCBT is a flexible application (i.e., modular versus manualized) of evidence-­based treatment practices for child emotional and behavioral problems. MCBT adds age and developmentally appropriate content and parent's identification of child's treatment issues to Haupoa. MCBT is an evidence-­based approach that has demonstrated positive child outcomes.

CA/NCF

This program furthers the Department's mission by providing grants and cooperative agreements for research and evaluation activities to organizations that OJJDP designates.

The Safe Start Promising Approaches project supports the development and study of the practice enhancements and innovations to prevent and reduce the impact of children's exposure to violence in their homes and communities. The eight continuation projects serve as the practice pilots for a multi-site national evaluation using experimental and quasi-experimental research design to test the effectiveness of new approaches to improve outcomes for children exposed to violence in real world community-based settings. The national evaluation is being conducted by RAND and supported through OJJDP research funding. The project helps communities implement collaborative and evidence-based practices across the service continuum.

It is estimated that 25 percent of women will experience intimate partner violence in their lifetimes, with up to 10 million of their children witnessing such acts and sometimes being victimized themselves. Since 1999 the Safe Start initiative has highlighted promising community practices to address the urgent needs of children exposed to violence. Towards that end, the University of Hawaii at Manoa and Parents And Children Together, Family Peace Center (PACT-FPC) propose to collaborate on the design of a practice innovation that will infuse Modular Cognitive Behavior Therapy (MCBT). MCBT is a treatment employed in evidence-based services for children in Haupoa, PACT-FPC's existing intervention for children exposed to domestic violence based in Honolulu. UH and PACT will partner with local child welfare, criminal justice, mental health, and other social service agencies in this effort. UH and PACT also will closely collaborate with OJJDP to implement Haupoa+MCBT, an evidenced-based treatment model for children ages 3-17 and their mothers. A unique feature of the project site is that in Hawaii, the majority of participants are of Asian, Pacific Islander, or Native Hawaiian descent. Performance measures will focus on increasing access to services and reducing the impact of exposure to violence, while keeping children and their mothers safe.
NCA/NCF