Basic interventions for violence in families

Because there are few training programs for dealing with violence in families, clinicians often do not understand the phenomenon and have few coping strategies. As a companion piece to the preceding article, the author describes five stages of intervention in cases of intrafamilial violence. They include crisis management, an initial assessment and the making of a contract to avoid further violence, a more complete evaluation, brief treatment, and longer-term treatment. In most cases the stages are sequential, although clients may regress to the first or second stage during the course of treatment. Most clients drop out immediately after some symptom remission, usually following brief treatment. Long-term treatment occurs with only a minority of the cases.