Intimate Partner Violence and Maternal Health: Evidence-Based and Promising Interventions

Description: In this 4-session Learning Collaborative (LC), participants will learn how to apply the evidence-based CUES intervention to prevent and respond to intimate partner violence (IPV) and trauma within settings that serve pregnant and birthing people with a spotlight on community health centers. It will include frameworks and tools to better promote health equity as well as strategies to help health center staff feel more present during patient encounters. Adaptable protocols, PDSAs, MOUs, and other resources to build and strengthen connections between health centers and domestic violence programs that provide supportive services to mothers and birthing people will be shared. 

Learning Objectives:

As a result of this Learning Collaborative, participants will be better able to:

1. Strengthen their understanding of the prevalence of IPV, birthing outcomes disparities, and histories of medical harm among pregnant and birthing people.  

2. Provide an effective alternative to disclosure driven practice (screening for IPV) by implementing the evidence-based CUES intervention.  

3. Develop and implement action plan by using the PDSA (Plan, Do, Study, Act) model to support the implementation of CUES, an evidence-based prevention and intervention practice 

4. Apply three tools for health centers to formalize and expand their partnerships with community-based programs, including domestic violence advocacy programs.  

5. Identify organizational policies, and individual level practices that support the long-term success for staff experiencing vicarious and secondary trauma or burnout. 

Learning Collaborative Dates and Times: 

• Wednesday, Feb 22nd at 8am HT/10am PT/ 11 am MST/ 12 pm CST/1 pm ET (60 mins) 

• Wednesday, March 1st at 8am HT/10am PT/ 11 am MST/ 12 pm CST/1 pm ET (60 mins) 

• Thursday, March 9 at 8am HT/10am PT/ 11 am MST/ 12 pm CST/1 pm ET (60 mins) 

• Wednesday, March 15 at 8am HT/10am PT/ 11 am MST/ 12 pm CST/1 pm ET (60 mins)

The learning collaborative curriculum includes the following topics: 

Session 1: Introduction to addressing IPV and ACES in maternal health settings. 

The first session will begin with an introduction to the learning collaborative, our faculty and cohort participants. We will provide a brief overview of IPV and its health impacts, and discuss the intersection of IPV and maternal health. The CUES intervention will be introduced to participants where we will discuss the shift from disclosure-driven screening to universal education, ensuring that all families receive information about healthy relationships and safety planning regardless of what they choose to share. This approach helps to address health equity in maternal and birthing people care.  Participants will have an opportunity to practice the intervention and consider policies and protocols necessary to implement CUES in their health centers.  

Session 2:  Best practices and policies to support health equity, healthy relationships and healthy babies 

The second session will provide a series of roadmaps and tools to help participants start implementing the tools and strategies discussed in the first session. We will share frameworks to better promote health equity as well as strategies to help health center staff feel more present during patient encounters. Evidence based and innovative promising practices to address IPV in maternal health care will also be discussed, including Centering Pregnancy, the JJ Way, basic universal income, and expanding the care team to include home visitation, doulas, Community Health Workers/promotores WIC, and Fatherhood programs, among others. We will also work with participants to develop and implement an action plan by using PDSA (Plan, Do, Study and Act) model to address IPV in maternal health care.  

Session 3: Creating meaningful partnerships between maternal health providers and community based domestic violence programs to improve outcomes. 

Maternal and birthing care providers deserve supports so they can better serve families experiencing IPV. Knowing who to call and what to do when disclosures occur increases the likelihood health center staff will feel confident talking with all patients about complicated relationships in meaningful ways. Bidirectional referrals between community based DV organizations and health centers, elements of an effective MOU, and accessing culturally specific community-based solutions will be discussed. We will present an example from Washington state to highlight an innovative partnership between domestic violence advocates, home visitors, and health centers. We will consider the unique opportunities to address reproductive coercion and IPV during the postpartum period.   

Session 4: Healing Centered Engagement and Vicarious Resilience to Support Staff and Patients. 

This final session will explore how health centers and community partners can strengthen their approaches to being present with themselves and their patients/clients to reduce staff burnout.  Questions considered include: Do we stop and take time to notice how we are before and after an interaction with patients and clients? Are we set up to listen fully to the person in front of us? A healing centered approach combined with the Facilitated Attuned Interactions (FAN) is a powerful and an effective tool to create safer spaces for patients/clients to share their experiences with IPV.  We will also highlight the ongoing opportunities to stay connected to our work, and summarize the key resources to guide health center system change on IPV to create a system that is responsive to the needs of both staff and patients.

Learning Collaborative Faculty and Presenters: 

• Virginia Duplessis, MSW (she/her), Associate Director, Health, Futures Without Violence

• Leigh Hofheimer (she/her), Senior Program Director, Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violenc

• Rebecca Levenson, MA (she/her), Senior Health Policy Consultant, Health Partners on IPV + Exploitation, Futures Without Violence  

• Carina Sanchez (she/her), Case Manager- Parent as Teachers Program, Yakima Valley Farm Worker’s Clinic 

• Megha Rimal, MSW (she/her), Program Specialist, Health, Futures Without Violence  

Deadline: Wednesday, February 8th– Midnight at your local time zone 

Note: If you need any accommodations to best support your participation, let us know on the registration page by Feb 3rd. We will do our best to accommodate requests made after Feb 3rd. 

For any questions, contact Megha Rimal, mrimal@futureswithoutviolence.org