Current Projects

National Training and Technical Assistance Center on Domestic Violence, Trauma and Mental Health (NTTAC)

The Domestic Violence & Mental Health Policy Initiative (DVMHPI) is pleased to announce the creation of a National Training and Technical Assistance Center on Domestic Violence, Trauma and Mental Health (NTTAC), funded by the US Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Children, Youth and Families. The new Center will provide the resources, tools and consensus building opportunities necessary to fill the critical gap in services for survivors with unmet mental health and advocacy needs, to develop more comprehensive and culturally-relevant responses to the range of trauma-related issues faced by domestic violence survivors and their children, and to develop strategies for addressing both the social and psychological conditions that perpetuate abuse and violence across generations.

Our goal is to provide the infrastructure and resources to enable domestic violence and mental health agencies and training programs nationwide to be able to work more effectively with individuals who are dealing with both domestic violence and mental health issues. The NTTAC has three major objectives:

1. Promote dialogue to raise awareness, examine current practice, discuss needs, barriers and concerns, share experience, advance knowledge, generate theory, develop new practice models, and build consensus on how domestic violence programs can best respond to the trauma and mental health needs of domestic violence survivors and their children and on strategies for interfacing with the mental health and other service systems.

• Create a resource library/clearinghouse and list serve
• Convene a series of critical issue symposia
• Work with Institutes on Domestic Violence in the African American Community, Alianza, Asian Pacific Islander Institute on Domestic Violence, and Sacred Circle, National Resource Center to End Violence Against Native Women
• Convene forums with DV advocates to facilitate dialogue and consensus building at the national, state and local levels
• Produce and disseminate meeting proceedings, critical issue reports and consensus documents

2. Enhance the capacity of domestic violence programs to serve women and children who have mental health needs in a trauma-sensitive, culturally competent manner.

• Disseminate guidelines, training, curricula and educational materials
• Conduct pilot trainings on curricula, including:
  -- Risking Connection-Domestic Violence: A Curriculum for Working with Survivors on Domestic Violence and Lifetime Trauma
  -- Working with Individuals with Psychiatric Disabilities within the Domestic Violence Setting
  -- Working with Survivors of Domestic Violence in the Mental Health Setting
  -- Child Trauma Training Curriculum for Mental Health Clinicians
  -- Child Trauma Training Curriculum for Domestic Violence Advocates
  -- IDCFS Child Trauma Training Curriculum for Child Welfare Professionals and Foster Parents (A partnership between IDCFS, Northwestern University and DVMHPI)
• Work with Institutes on Domestic Violence in the African American, American Indian, Latino and Asian Pacific Islander communities to tailor curricula and educational materials on identifying and responding to trauma and mental health
• Provide technical assistance

3. Influence Policy by generating recommendations and developing strategies for building the research and resource base necessary to meet the trauma and mental health needs of domestic violence survivors and their children.

• Maintain linkages with domestic violence and mental health policy groups
• Convene a national meeting(s) among state and national domestic violence advocacy and mental health policymakers/organizations
• Plan a meeting of key stakeholders to develop recommendations for addressing DV survivors’ experience

There is a growing recognition that domestic violence can have serious mental health consequences, yet the systems to which survivors turn are frequently unprepared to respond to these needs. Despite decade-long efforts to improve the health care response to domestic violence, there has been no concurrent, systematic approach to domestic violence within the mental health system. Within the advocacy community there is not yet a coordinated and consistent strategy for addressing the mental health consequences of abuse or the needs of women dealing with mental illness and domestic violence. Ultimately, these innovative, multidisciplinary projects will address the needs of domestic violence survivors and their children by creating a platform for partnership and innovation, building the capacity of domestic violence advocacy and mental health service systems, and influencing policy in ways that support safety and recovery and ultimately lead to the prevention of domestic violence and its traumatic effects across generations.

DVMHPI – CDPH Pilot Project
The DVMHPI – CDPH - MODV Pilot Project (Pilot Project) is a joint effort of DVMHPI, the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH), the Mayor’s Office on Domestic Violence (MODV) and three Chicago DV programs (Rainbow House, Chicago Abused Women Coalition and Family Rescue.) CDPH has committed to creating “Centers of Excellence” on trauma and domestic violence at 3 geographically distributed community mental health centers (Woodlawn, Lawndale and Northwest). Each has partnered with one of the 3 participating DV programs. Direct service enhancing features of this project include: access to mental health/trauma treatment services within 24-48 hours for women and children from partner DV programs, referral to DV programs for clients receiving services at paired community mental health centers, onsite consultation by an Adult Trauma Specialist, cross-consultation and joint staffing between agencies, and possible co-location of services.

Additionally, the Pilot Project involves developing and field-testing a DV-Trauma Core Curriculum that will lay the groundwork for building broader DV-trauma intervention capacity in Chicago and throughout the state. The curriculum will be created in conjunction with consultants from the Traumatic Stress Institute (TSI) and the Sidran Foundation, authors and publishers of a nationally recognized trauma curriculum (Risking Connection) that provides an accessible in-depth approach to working with adult survivors of childhood abuse while attending to both provider and survivor concerns. The original curriculum is being revamped to address the specific issues faced by DV survivors across diverse communities. The new version is designed to assist community agency providers to better serve survivors of domestic violence and lifetime trauma by addressing current gaps in knowledge and skills. It will have two tracks, one for clinicians and one for DV advocates and will provide a basic foundation for understanding the intersections of culture, trauma and domestic violence and the effects of trauma across the lifespan.

Child Trauma Capacity Building Projects
DVMHPI has several interrelated projects designed to build service system capacity in Chicago and Illinois to address the impact of child exposure to DV and other childhood trauma. The Child Trauma Project (CTP) is a collaborative project between DVMHPI and the Illinois Department of Human Services – Division of Mental Health (DMH). The primary focus of the CTP) is to better address the impact of child exposure to violence and trauma by offering training, technical assistance, and consultation to community-based children’s mental health providers within the DHM-funded system and across child-serving systems. In May-June, 2004, CTP conducted a child trauma screening pilot with 4 community-based mental health agencies in the Chicago area. The Child Trauma Project has also convened an Advisory Group (CTAG) that meets quarterly to set direction and to review progress.

DVMHPI is also in the process of developing a Child Trauma Core Curriculum in conjunction with national child trauma consultants. In 2005, the curriculum will be field-tested with several provider partners from the Child Trauma Project and with mental health and DV partners from the DVMHPI-CDPH Pilot Project to expand that Pilot to include a child trauma and parenting component (see DVMHPI-CDPH Pilot Project for further detail). A Child Trauma Specialist will provide onsite consultation, training, and technical assistance to direct practice staff and supervisors at the partner sites to enhance the development and efficacy of the training curriculum.

Addressing Trauma and Domestic Violence in the Lives of People Living with Psychiatric Disabilities
This project is designed to assist domestic violence, disability rights, mental health and consumer advocacy providers in Chicago and throughout Illinois respond more sensitively and effectively to abuse survivors living with psychiatric disabilities. Women with serious mental illness (SMI) are more vulnerable to abuse by a partner and more likely to experience multiple forms of abuse across their lives. The SMI project will by provide training and technical assistance to public mental health agencies, state psychiatric hospitals, and domestic violence, consumer advocacy and disability rights programs in Chicago and across Illinois. It will train mental health providers and mental health consumer advocates to recognize and address domestic violence among women with psychiatric disabilities, and train domestic violence and disability rights programs to better serve survivors with serious mental health needs.

The project will also create 2 curriculum manuals: Addressing Domestic Violence in Mental Health Settings and Serving Women with Psychiatric Disabilities in Domestic Violence Settings. It will also develop assessment tools for mental health clinicians, practice guidelines for mental health domestic violence and mental health providers ands well as informational packets for consumers on trauma and DV.

Culture, Trauma and Domestic: Issues facing Immigrant and Refugee Women and Their Families
DVMHPI is planning a Symposium on Culture, Trauma and Domestic Violence: Symposium on Culture, Trauma and Domestic Violence: Issues facing Immigrant and Refugee Women and Their Familiesduring the coming year. The symposium will bring together key stakeholders and providers to discuss these issues from variety of perspectives and to develop common language and strategies for addressing the multiple layers of trauma experienced by women and girls in leaving their countries of origin and resettling in the US - often under highly adverse conditions. It will also address the intersection of domestic violence, torture and asylum, trafficking as well as the similarities and differences in current approaches to both service and prevention. Discussants will address trauma/mental health, legal, social support, economic justice, advocacy, community and policy issues and will generate recommendations for future cross-sector work in this area.

Working Groups

DVMHPI has convened two sets of working groups, Regional Groups and Critical Issue Groups, comprised of clinical and administrative representatives from local domestic violence, mental health, and substance abuse programs as well as from City and State government offices. The goal of the Regional working groups is to improve delivery of services that address the mental health impact of domestic violence on battered women and their children. The Critical Issue working groups meet regularly to explore and respond to issues of central concern to the Initiative and its partners. The groups endeavor to develop materials, such as training curricula and recommendations, for improving existing services and creating new services. The Critical Issue working groups include: Women and Trauma, Serious Mental Illness and Substance Abuse, Children Who Witness Domestic Violence and Culture, Community and Spirituality.

Women and Trauma: The goal of the Women and Trauma group is to increase agencies’ capacity to identify and respond to the mental health complications of domestic violence and other lifetime trauma. The Women and Trauma group has drafted tools for screening and assessment of domestic violence and trauma. Two sets of tools are in development for utilization in mental health agencies and domestic violence agencies. Ongoing meetings will provide a venue for offering training, consultation and discussion on trauma and DV developed for the DVMHPI-CDPH-MODV Pilot to our broader constituency of DV and MH providers.

Addressing Domestic Violence in the Context of Serious Mental Illness and Substance Abuse: This working group has developed recommendations for making services responsive to the needs of trauma survivors in a variety of settings that serve persons with serious mental illness, including those with co-occurring substance abuse. Current activities include: examining policy issues that guide mental health and domestic violence agencies’ approach to trauma, DV and SMI, discussing up-to-date clinical and research literature on these issues, discussing ongoing work of participating agencies and providing feedback for the new Addressing Trauma and DV Among People Living with Psychiatric Disabilities project.

Children Exposed to Domestic Violence and Trauma: This group is comprised of clinical and supervisory staff working in domestic violence agencies and mental health settings. Current focus includes discussion of clinical literature, review of research findings, and effective practice in treating children exposed to DV and trauma (and their parents). Group members have presented cases to highlight ongoing work and discuss challenges faced by participants and their agencies.