services to intact families

[woochan schola shim <wsshim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear all listserve members,

My school and the local child welfare agencies along with the local
domestic violence service agencies recently began a monthly meeting
as a collaborative effort to develope a "best practice" protocol for
dealing with cases where domestic violence and child abuse and neglect
coexist.  Today, we came across with with an area where a conflict might
arise and I would like to ask you for information on how other states
or child welfare and domestic violence agencies deal with such a case
described below.

The children remain in the family where there is clearly domestic violence
going on between two adult couples, and a child welfare service agency is
providing services for this family.  The adult DV victim, however, does
not admit DV, does not confront the batterer, does not wish to leave the
batterer, but is willing to and would only agree to a joint counseling
services with the abusive partner. In such a case:

What is your best practice protocol in terms of providing services to
this family?  Is couple/concurrent/family counseling or therapy perceived
as an appropriate modalities for DV cases?  Do you know of any agency or
state where it is NOT allowed to provide couple counselings for DV cases
in their protocols?  

I couldn't think of any better/clearer way to address this issue.  I would
appreciate any comment from you, and please ask questions if things need
to be explained more.  Thank you.

Sincerely,

Woochan Shim, M.S.W.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
School of Social Work
Univ. Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
1207 W. Oregon St. MC#140, Urbana, Il 61801
O) 217-244-5213		H) 217-359-4614
E) wsshim@uiuc.edu  or wsshim@eudoramail.com