RESEARCH REPORT Safe & Together Addressing ComplexitY for Children (STACY for Children)
The “STACY for Children” project was conducted across three research sites in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria by a collaborative, multi-disciplinary team of researchers. The project involved two studies that investigated whether there was emerging evidence that the Safe & Together™ Model, where it is implemented holistically (with an authorising environment and strong collaborative practice), leads to better outcomes for children and families living with domestic and family violence (DFV) and parental challenges of mental health, and/or problematic use of alcohol and other drugs.
The practitioners who were trained in the Safe & Together Model, and coached in implementing the Safe & Together Model, showed an increasing recognition of the importance of assessing children, parenting and family functioning as part of any DFV intervention. They reported an increase in the degree to which they recognised the centrality of children in perpetrator patterns of power and control and the multitude of ways that children are impacted by DFV and parental AOD and MH challenges. This is a significant shift away from historic representations of children as incidental, silent or invisible victims of DFV, whose risks and needs are conflated with those of their mothers.
The research found that practitioners involved in implementing the Safe & Together Model reported their direct practice to be moving ahead of that of their organisations’, in relation to creating visibility of children, holding a focus on adult clients as parents, and keeping all family members in view around tactics of coercion and control.
Publication details
This work is part of the ANROWS Research reports series. ANROWS Research reports are in-depth reports on empirical research produced under ANROWS’s research program.
Authors
PROFESSOR CATHY HUMPHREYS
Professor of Social Work, Department of Social Work, University of Melbourne
DR ARNO PAROLINI
Research Fellow, Department of Social Work, University of Melbourne
DR LUCY HEALEY
Honorary Research Fellow, Department of Social Work, University of Melbourne
DR MARGARET KERTESZ
Research Fellow, University of Melbourne
DR MENKA TSANTEFSKI
Senior Lecturer, Department of Human Services and Social Work, Griffith University
DR SUSAN HEWARD-BELLE
Senior Lecturer, School of Education and Social Work, University of Sydney
PROFESSOR PATRICK O’LEARY
Griffith University
JASMIN ISOBE
Research worker, University of Melbourne
DR WEI WU TAN
Research Fellow, University of Melbourne
COLLEEN JEFFREYS
Research Fellow, University of Melbourne
ANNA BORNEMISZA
Research worker, University of Melbourne
DR AMY YOUNG
Research worker, Griffith University
LARISSA FOGDEN
Research worker, University of Melbourne
ISBN: 978-1-925925-63-0 (print) | 978-1-925925-64-7 (online)
122 pp.
Suggested citation
Humphreys, C., Kertesz, M., Parolini, A., Isobe, J., Heward-Belle, S., Tsantefski, M., … Healey, L. (2020). Safe & Together Addressing ComplexitY for Children (STACY for Children) (Research report, 22/20). Sydney: ANROWS.