‘Wraparound’ solution needed for family violence

‘Wraparound’ solution needed for family violence

Addressing family violence that costs multi-millions and scars thousands in immeasurable ways should be a top government priority, says a Massey University clinical psychologist who has worked with domestic violence and child abuse victims here and in the US for the past 30 years.

Dr Ruth Gammon says there is a need to build a sense of hope for those shattered by family violence by better coordinating services to turn around New Zealand’s chronic family violence problem.

In order to achieve this the government needs to prioritise funding for carefully targeted “wraparound” services to effectively help those afflicted by family violence, she says.

Dr Gammon is clinical director at the University’s School of Psychology clinic and an experienced practitioner who has worked extensively with Women’s Refuge and advising on some of Child, Youth and Family’s most complex cases. She will be presenting her research on wraparound services at a conference this weekend in Wellington and has already addressed Treasury officials about how best to help families dealing with violence.

The statistics – staggering and horrifying ¬¬– are not declining in real terms, Dr Gammon says. “I don’t believe rates [of family violence and child abuse] are going down because so much is un-reported.”

New Zealand has the third worst child abuse record after Mexico and the US out of 31 OECD countries. Between 2000 and 2004, 39 children were murdered, with most aged less than one year. In the year ending June 2014, there were 146,657 reports of concern to Child, Youth and Family. Of these, there were 16,289 children with substantiated abuse findings.

What is wraparound?

While the solutions sound academic, Dr Gammon says concepts such as “multi-systemic, evidence-based wraparound services” shaped by a “system of care” based on the “theory of change” have been introduced and deployed successfully in the US and are being trialled by Auckland and Waitemata District Health Boards.

She helped shape the US National Wraparound Initiative, which began in 2003, and believes the approach needs to be adopted more widely across New Zealand. A better understanding of what wraparound services means is a prerequisite, she says.

Dr Gammon will be speaking this weekend at the Australasian Human Development Association conference, where she will outline her research in a presentation and discussion titled: Is it really Wraparound? What is the model? How and why it works.

“Wraparound is not a package of services wrapped around families as it is defined in many New Zealand programmes, nor is it simply a funding stream,” she says.

“It is a philosophical approach to care planning with specific guiding principles, a model of delivery and a theory of change – it is the combination of these factors which make wraparound effective, not the services per se.”

An effective wraparound model requires multiple agencies working together to provide tailored support specific to the needs of a family as a whole, and for each of the individuals involved.

“It can include community support from extended family, sports coaches and the like, and addresses issues such as housing, jobs, education, mental health and substance abuse,” Dr Gammon says. “The goal is for the family to ultimately become self-sufficient and be able to resolve their own problems – to get families functioning at the best they can be.”

Long-term impact of child abuse

Dr Gammon is particularly concerned that long-term damage to the mental health and overall wellbeing of those affected by child abuse and family violence is not adequately addressed in New Zealand. Such effects have been extensively researched and documented in studies such as the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study of 17,000 people in the US. It is one of the largest investigations of the links between childhood maltreatment and later life health and wellbeing.

Based on the ACE findings, healing the trauma of family abuse is a long-term commitment, she says. “Trauma is going to affect every aspect of a person’s life. It’s not going to be fixed in six to 10 sessions. It may take six to 10 sessions just to get the family on board and engaged. But the cost to society is so much higher if we don't do it.”

“Child abuse and neglect costs New Zealand $2 billion, or over one per cent of Gross Domestic Product each year. This figure includes the direct costs of health care and child welfare services, ongoing costs related to long term health and crime impacts and also the indirect cost of lost productivity,” she says.

Dr Gammon is also leading research projects on women’s experiences with the Family Court, and has worked with the national office for Women’s Refuge to develop a risk assessment tool on home safety for women affected by partner abuse, which is being piloted in Auckland, Christchurch and Tauranga.

ENDS

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