1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«Children are often at the heart of family violence situations. In Canada, the exposure of children to intimate partner violence (IPV) is, along with negligence, one of the most frequent forms of maltreatment […]. In the Province of Québec, the Youth Protection Act underwent some changes in 2007, denoting the government’s acknowledgement that IPV exposure is a form of psychological maltreatment liable to compromise children’s health and safety [19]. The changes made to the law recommend an approach based on a sharing of responsibilities between the different resource services working in maltreatment cases. Nonetheless, the operationalization of this principle is not entirely straightforward, since collaboration between the different services remains awkward. […] This article presents the results of our testing of this process.» (p. 651)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
«The study population was composed of practitioners from different organizations working with one or more members of families affected by IPV [intimate partner violence] and CM [child maltreatment]. This research is based on a total of 115 participants […] including 57 different practitioners, taking into account that some practitioners have participated for more than one clinical situation as a provider or as an external expert.» (p. 654) Le recrutement des participants a eu lieu dans la région de Québec.

Instruments :
Questionnaire

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique
Analyse de contenu

3. Résumé

«One of the evaluation results […] was the impact of the concertation strategy on the practice of psychosocial workers from different fields working with the affected families. First of all, the results highlight the consensus and difference of opinions concerning the approaches to be taken with these families. Second, they emphasize the concertation structure required to foster collaboration between the different organizations and limit power struggles. Third, they point to different avenues for improving concertation in complex family situations, especially when there is IPV. Finally, they show that concertation can lead practitioners to consider collaborating with their partners in other fields.» (p. 660-661) «In families where there is both IPV and CM, the practitioners are often confronted with other issues, such as poverty, addiction, and mental health problems. Several studies have moreover noted the extent to which complex family situations lead practitioners to divergent readings of the issues and needs of these family members. It is, thus, interesting to see how the proposed concertation strategy allowed the practitioners to influence each other in their readings of these situations. Accordingly, the results of our evaluation indicate that, after a concertation meeting, the practitioners were more aware of the usefulness of drawing the largest portrait possible of the family situation so as to better outline the issues and more effectively meet the families’ needs.» (p. 662)