Empowering Families to Face Domestic Violence

This paper describes best practices from research done by the Laboratory of Violence Analysis & Prevention (LAPREV) of the Universidade Federal de São Carlos in fighting and preventing domestic violence in the city of São Carlos in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. It was chosen in a competition organised by the Office of Health of Indigenous Populations of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) called “Best Practices that Incorporate the Gender/Ethnicity Equality Perspective in Health”. The project sought a health intervention approach based in gender equality: to help women free themselves of domestic violence; to teach men conflict resolution skills based on a gender and human rights perspective; to work with children from domestic violence-dominated households; and to teach university students and health professionals about intervention utilising an evidence-based model.

This project began through the Women’s Police Station in São Carlos, established to support women who are victims of violence. Psychology students from the university provided psychotherapy and collected research findings for presentation at national conferences. The university established counselling space and a lab replicating a home environment for teaching mothering skills to abused women, with the ultimate goal of preventing behaviour problems in children who are exposed to violence. LAPREV published a booklet for its Project Pareria - 8 sessions of therapy on violence and empowerment for change and 8 sessions on mothering skills - which includes: 1) “A life free from violence”, and 2) “Positive parenting of your child”. University students continued research and, in 2007, the university held a conference on domestic violence. In addition, it annually endorses activities that mark November 19th as the World Day to Prevent Child Abuse.

Lessons learned include the following:

• Health professionals and university students, through education and therapy, "can make a difference in terms of curbing violence against women in a systematic way, by involving several partners and the community in general to intervene with all family members..."
• "...[P]revention is the key in all its modalities: universal (such as having gender and human rights education in the school curriculum from a very young age); selective (working with adolescents from poor and violent communities); and specific prevention projects (working with abusive males and with women who suffer intimate partner violence). It is also important to work in an interdisciplinary manner, and have familiarity with the major areas involved in violence intervention and prevention: health, education, the judiciary and protective agencies, the police, and the media."
  
• Results of advocacy include national legislation, "more local research on the area topic, more books and publications, more media coverage, more help available in the community, and less leniency from society for this... human rights violation."
  
• The men's group was populated by referrals from judges. Also, research has shown that if women press charges and appear with partners in the legal system, future victimisation is less likely.
•  LAPREV has concluded that: 1) it progressed further by combining and integrating a research paradigm with a practical intervention evidence-based approach; 2) conference attendance has fostered learning and decreased isolation; and 3) "encompassing the two areas of child abuse and violence against women under the same umbrella has been beneficial..."