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Social Workers

Substance Abuse Treatment and Domestic Violence

12.00 - CE credit hours training

$75.00 - Cost of course

This page contains important information about the course, including training details, a comprehensive course description, learning objectives, and source references. We encourage you to review each section to gain a clear understanding of the course content, educational goals, and supporting materials before beginning your training and taking the POST TEST below.

Target audience and instructional level of this course: foundational
There is no known conflict of interest or commercial support related to this CE program.

Substance Abuse Treatment and Domestic Violence

Follow the link below, read the material and then take the 35 question post test

Read the Course Material:
Substance Abuse Treatment and Domestic Violence

35 Questions

1. This Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) focuses on heterosexual men who abuse their domestic partners and on women who are abused by men, because these individuals constitute a significant portion of the population seeking substance abuse treatment. Though domestic violence encompasses the range of behaviors above, the TIP focuses more on physical, or a combination of physical, sexual, and emotional, violence. Therefore men who abuse their partners are referred to throughout as batterers; women who are abused are called survivors.
2. In the United States, a woman is beaten every 15 seconds. At least 30 percent of female trauma patients (excluding traffic accident victims) have been victims of domestic violence, and medical costs associated with injuries done to women by their partners total more than $44 million annually.
3. Witnessing or experiencing family violence during childhood is a risk factor as is a history of childhood aggression.
4. Failure to address domestic violence issues does not interfere with treatment effectiveness and does not contribute to relapse.
5. Data suggest that substance abuse often begins at an early age and may become part of a self-destructive coping style that is sometimes seen in incest victims. It is not unusual for the abuser to foster the child's initiation into alcohol and drugs in order to make the child more compliant.
6. A discussion of substance abuse in the client's history should cover her current use, her treatment history, and alcohol or other drug use in her family of origin. In addition, patterns and frequency of alcohol or other drug use by her batterer are keys to understanding the relationship of substance abuse to the violence.
7. Treatment providers should not establish strong linkages to domestic violence referral and intervention services and they need not necessarily hire staff members who are thoroughly familiar with local and State laws regarding domestic violence and with the unique needs of the domestic violence survivors.
8. While it may be necessary to attend to pressing legal and financial concerns before chronic health problems can be addressed, medical staff should be available to assess the client's most immediate physical, emotional, and mental health needs.
9. When a woman presents for treatment with obvious signs of or complaints about physical battering or sexual abuse, staff should consider enlisting a forensic expert to help the survivor client obtain proper medical documentation of her injuries. Forensic medicine programs have been employed successfully in adult populations and are now being expanded to include adult victims of abuse.
10. Health concerns that do not need immediate attention in treatment include screening and care for pregnancy and STDs.
11. A key aspect of treatment for substance abuse is encouraging the client to assume responsibility for her addiction. The survivor client must realize that she does not and cannot control her partner's behavior, no matter what he says. A counselor can point out that her efforts reflect determination, creativity, resourcefulness, and resilience, many of the same qualities that will equip her to take responsibility for her substance abuse.
12. Counselors should help patients identify these stressful situations and rehearse alternative responses, just as they should for substance use triggers.
13. Survivors of domestic violence usually fake a strong emotional reaction when they stop abusing alcohol or other drugs, in order to get attention. Counselors are advised not to encourage patients who fake such reactions.
14. The very concept of "safety" may itself seem "unsafe" to a survivor of domestic violence. For these clients, feeling safe from the perpetrator, even if he is dead or incarcerated, is equated with letting one's guard down and making oneself vulnerable to attack. Survivors tend to be hyper-vigilant and are accustomed to always being on guard. The substance abuse treatment provider needs to understand and respect the domestic violence survivor's concept of and need for safety.
15. Physicians should weigh carefully the risks and benefits of prescribing drugs to battered women for symptom relief. For battered women who use or are dependent on alcohol or other drugs, the drug may affect their awareness, cognitive reasoning, or motor coordination, which can, in turn, reduce their ability to protect themselves from future incidents of physical abuse.
16. In characterizing substance abuse and domestic violence, practitioners have observed that the two problems are separate but similar, and they each interact and exacerbate each other. For example, both problems are passed on from generation to generation; both involve denial, with substance abusers and batterers blaming victims for their behavior; usually, neither problem decreases until a crisis occurs; and secrecy is often the rule, with victims of abuse (wrongly) blaming themselves for their partner's substance abuse or violent behavior.
17. Although batterers are a heterogeneous group, research has uncovered a number of characteristics that differentiate men who batter from men who don't. Many batterers (particularly those who engage in severe physical assaults against their partners) witnessed parental violence when they were children.
18. Antisocial batterers generally confine their violence to their families where as Typical Batterers are extremely abusive and may be violent outside the home.
19. Researchers have found that one fourth to one half of men who commit acts of domestic violence also have
20. Batterers -- like survivors -- often turn to substances of abuse for their numbing effects. Batterers who are survivors of childhood abuse also frequently say that they use drugs and alcohol to block the
21. Some of the questions raised during the assessment process are:
22. Barriers to addressing domestic violence in the treatment setting include:
23. When a client presents for substance abuse treatment and informs staff that she is a victim of domestic violence, treatment providers should focus on:
24. Other needs that must be addressed immediately include:
25. Survivors are likely to face symptoms such as:
26. One of the first steps in the process of empowering the survivor client is to help her develop, strengthen, focus, or validate her:
27. One of the additional problems, surviving clients can encounter is:
28. Emotional and psychological trauma from childhood abuse is often repressed and may surface once the client is in a setting such as:
29. Helping a client rebuild a more appropriate general level of trust is an important
30. Practical concerns that overwhelm many survivors of domestic violence after they become abstinent include
31. While a survivor client will likely need help and advice about creating a new nondrug, nonviolent social milieu, treatment providers should:
32. Emotional and behavioral effects Of violence on children include:
33. Substance abuse treatment counselors must understand that the mother may be involved with multiple agencies, all of which make demands on her limited time and energy. To help her focus on her abstinence, treatment providers should:
34. Batters may hurt others because they:
35. In addition to inflicting physical pain and injury, a batterer may also abuse his partner:
Course Description

Improve your understanding of the connections between substance abuse and domestic violence with this course. Domestic violence is a pattern of abusive behavior in any relationship that is used by one person to gain control over another. It includes acts of physical aggression, sexual coercion, psychological abuse and controlling behavior exerted against children, adults and elders. Domestic violence has no boundaries and occurs across all socio-economic, political and cultural contexts. A plethora of factors influences domestic violence, one of which is substance abuse.

The association between domestic violence and abuse and dependence has been investigated by various authors (Gilbert et. al, 2001; Miller et. al, 2000) but a causal relationship cannot be inferred. While there is no direct cause-and-effect link, it appears clear the use of alcohol and other drugs is a major risk factor for domestic violence. Some studies support the idea that this is due to the similarity between the behaviors of perpetrators of domestic violence and substance dependence (Irons and Schneider, 1997). Common characteristics include loss of control, maintenance of behavior despite adverse consequences, minimization and denial. Others state that, by reducing inhibitions and distorting perceptions, alcohol and substance abuse encourage open aggression.

Substance Abuse Treatment and Domestic Violence

Center for Substance Abuse Treatment

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Training material:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK14419/

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Learning Objectives

After completing this training the health care professional will be able to:

  • Identify the key stages: from drinking and transition to early and ongoing recovery.
  • Describe the therapeutic tasks and pitfalls that characterize Domestic Violence and Substance Abuse.
  • Implement interventions with individual family members, as well as the system as a whole, helping to restructure roles, interactions and beliefs that have been shaped by addiction and abuse.
  • Outline the importance of facilitating the family's use of outside sources of support.
  • Apply knowledge from this course to practice and/or other professional contexts.
Keith C Klostermann, Ph.D.
RTI International