RP.20.01
WRAP around families experiencing adolescent violence in the home (AVITH): Towards a collaborative service response
18 months
Recent research indicates that families experiencing adolescent violence in the home (AVITH) often manage multiple complexities and have limited access to service support. Previous research, including the PIPA project, found that “one size fits all” approaches can result in punitive responses towards children, highlighting the need for multi-disciplinary interventions.
Research also shows that the majority of existing interventions focus primarily on AVITH, without an opportunity to respond to the complexity across families. Little is known about prior service support, impacts on siblings or the extent to which addressing women’s experiences of intimate partner violence may mitigate the emergence of AVITH. This project will fill a gap in evidence and future practice, supporting the development of a whole-of-family, collaborative practice framework which services across Australia can employ.
Research aim/s
The “Whole-of-family Responses to AVITH Program (WRAP) around families experiencing AVITH” (the WRAP Around project) aims to develop a framework for holistic, evidence-based and collaborative practice. The research will identify and track support needs from marginalised populations who may be experiencing AVITH amid a range of co-occurring needs.
Methods
The WRAP Around project’s mixed methods approach will involve an updated scan of literature and analysis of secondary service data across the breadth of partner organisation drummond street services. This will include data captured from a new, multi-disciplinary service response to AVITH.
This analysis will inform focus groups with practitioners working in connection with this response to identify early gaps and opportunities, and the data will be triangulated with a qualitative review of 40 case files drawn from this targeted response. Interviews with a sample of service users will further support identification of “what works” in assessing and responding to risk and complex needs across family ecosystems.
Collaborative practitioner workshops will then inform development of a whole-of-family, collaborative practice framework.
Significance
The WRAP Around project addresses the challenge of supporting families experiencing AVITH. The PIPA project highlighted the complexity of needs across many families who may experience AVITH as one component of this challenge. The collaboration is therefore designed to capture data from service responses which work primarily with families from marginalised populations and those who are experiencing complex needs.
Capturing data across family ecosystems, the WRAP Around project will provide new evidence to support the development of interventions which can address all family members. This includes the development of a whole-of-family, collaborative practice framework which can be adopted by services responses around Australia.
Researchers
Project lead
Elena Campbell, Associate Director, Centre for Innovative Justice, RMIT University
Research team
Dr Silke Meyer, Associate Professor, Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre
Riley Ellard, Senior Researcher, Centre for Innovative Justice, RMIT University
Beth McCann, General Manager, Centre for Family Research & Evaluation
Madeline Gibson, Research Officer, Centre for Family Research & Evaluation
Axel Garay, Research Assistant, Centre for Family Research & Evaluation
Research partners
drummond street services
Budget
$80,539.75
This project is funded by Australian Commonwealth, state and territory governments under ANROWS’s 2020–2022 Core Grant round.
See also
Project
The PIPA project: Positive Interventions for Perpetrators of Adolescent violence in the home
Find out moreSPECIAL COLLECTION
Working across sectors to meet the needs of clients experiencing domestic and family violence
Find out more