RE: Caring Dads evaluation

[Guest guest]

Dear Toity

very good to know that this evaluation is being done. Hopefully it will provide

a useful guide for others, or at least show possible areas for improvement.

Programme evaluations often relate effectiveness to the specific target of the

programme or processes unique to the setting and context but you have to start

somewhere. Maybe there are others in SENATE who know of similar programmes for

comparison?

Nice to hear from you.

Dr Coles PhD BA RHV RGN

Honorary Senior Research Fellow

Department of Child Health

Cardiff School of Medicine

Cardiff University

Heath Park

Cardiff CF14 4XN

>>> Toity Deave <toity.deave@...> 26/11/2008 10:19 >>>

Hi

One of my current projects is evaluating the 'Caring Dads' programme for dads

who have, or are at risk of, domestically abusing. Some undertake the 22 week

programme because of pressure from the Child Protection Plan but others do not.

I will be interested to see what it shows!

With best wishes

Toity

Dr Toity Deave

Research Fellow

Centre for Child & Adolescent Health

University of the West of England, Bristol

Hampton House

Cotham Hill

Bristol BS6 6JS

Tel: +44 117 3310752 (direct)

Tel: +44 117 3310893 (office/a'phone)

Fax: +44 117 3310891

Email: toity.deave@...

http://www.bristol.ac.uk/ccah

Re: Fw: NSPCC statement re child abuse baby death

Hello SENATE

Anger management was available where I was working as a health visitor for men

convicted of violent crimes and referred by judicial process to a group run by

NSPCC. I never found any source of help to prevent escalation to a state of

being convicted. I also gather that some doubt has been thrown on the usefulness

of this trype of help for the long term.

It is probably diifficult to build into a service ways to assist people who

recognise the problem themselves or are assesed as at risk and I suspect

services are patchy if there is no quick fix intervention with clear outcomes. I

often felt these grey areas of service provision needed creative approaches,

preferably in a research mode to assess effectiveness, but services did not

stretch/could not afford such imaginative input. Does anyone know if there is a

model of excellence that could be put forward for general use?

>>> <M.Rigler@...> 12/11/2008 08:23 >>>

I hesitate to make any contribution at all to this discussion but having worked

as a GP Locum in several practices where domestic violence was common

I came across several violent men - who came to see me with their

girlfriends/lovers - who were seeking " anger management " help .

NHS psychiatric departments seem unwilling ( ? unable ) to even consider

this type of work and I often had to hunt long and hard in some places to find

any agency able to offer such help. Certainly in the places where I worked

the Health Visitors knew nothing of such services.

Is this not part of the problem that people seeking help for their known

outbursts of rage find it hard to find help to understand what is happening

to them ?

Malcolm

Dr Malcolm Rigler

Mobile 07771 983580

On Nov 11 2008, hwood@... wrote:

I read the safeguarding committee report on the Haringey website.

They do seem to have put the effort in in terms of contacts, but

staff training and understanding to work with complex situations

isn't so clear.

Health input (apart from the locum paediatrican) isn't clear either.

Media keeps on about 'health workers', which might mean anything.

Like Maggie, I suspect they're deploying a mixed workforce with

limited skills and asking health visitors to cover massive caseloads

in areas where there are high levels of families with extra support

needs. I suspect it's hard to be anything other than 'optimistic'

when you've got another 7-8 contacts to do today and you're rushing

from one appointment to the next.

There is one strange little reference to HVs 'needing to start to use

percentile charts', which I cannot believe needs to be introduced to

practice at this stage - surely any health visitor would do this

anyway? But I wish I was more certain that we'd learned about the

inportance of violent & domineering men moving into vulnerable

families with small children. My training never mentioned this, let

alone how to assess risks. I was struck by the powerlessness of

women to protect their children in reality.

Such cases are rare. Most families are not murderous, but there's a

lot chaotic ones more struggling to cope. How do we tell the

difference?

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