Invisible practices: Intervention with fathers who use violence

The project delivered an evidence-informed Practice Guide for workers and highlights the need for organisations to undertake systemic change to embed new practice approaches.

Structured interventions with men who use violence mostly occur through the criminal justice system and specialist men’s behaviour change programs. While other services, such as child protection and family support services, work with fathers who use violence, this work has never been documented or formalised. In other words, to date, this work has been largely “invisible”.

The project’s findings are structured around four themes:

• key skills identified for working with fathers who use violence and control;
• key factors identified in partnering with women;
• key skills in ensuring a focus on children and young people; and
• the role of organisations and practitioner capacity building.

The project built upon earlier ANROWS research, including the PATRICIA (PAThways and Research Into Collaborative Inter-Agency practice) project, which investigated fostering collaboration between child protection and specialist DFV services.

The Invisible Practices project also draws on evidence from other existing research, the expertise of practitioners in four states and the technical skills and knowledge of the US-based Safe & Together Institute’s consultants David Mandel and Kyle Pinto.