Kids First Caring Dads and ODysseY House (KODY), an all-of-family response to co-occurring substance misuse and domestic violence: trialling an enhanced intervention with men and their family members to investigate its impact on safety and wellbeing for women and children

The trial intervention (KODY) intervenes with men who use both violence and alcohol and other drugs, through an enhanced "Caring Dads" intervention, aiming to improve the safety and well-being of the men’s children and their (ex)partners. "Caring Dads" is a 17 session, empirically-based and manualised group parenting intervention for fathers who use violence, with a focus on engaging men to examine their fathering, increasing child centred fathering, including respect and support of children’s mothers, and changing patterns of harmful fathering. [Scott, K. L., Kelly, T., Crooks, C. & Francis, K. (2018). Caring Dads: Helping Fathers Value their Children, 2nd Edition. London, ON, Canada.] Allocation of participants to the trial intervention will be based on eligibility, particularly that fathers must be receiving support through Odyssey House Victoria clinicians. All eligible participants will be allocated to the trial program, based on service availability and participant choice. Components of KODY include: Group work - “Caring Dads standard” program with specialist AOD facilitation of group sessions and AOD-focussed content incorporated into the “Caring Dads” curriculum. For example, discussions of each curriculum topic will include, consideration of violent behaviour (“Caring Dads standard” ) and also men’s use of AOD and its interaction with violent behaviour and impact on family. Extra sessions will not be added. The intervention uses a combination of motivational interviewing, psychoeducation, cognitive behavioural therapy and group-based processing to focus on engaging men to examine their fathering, increasing child centred fathering, including respect and support of children’s mothers, and changing patterns of harmful fathering. The group is conducted in weekly 2-hour sessions over 3-4 months, with a maximum of 12 participants in each group. Two ‘booster’ (group) sessions are also offered, at 4 and 8 weeks after the group program finishes – to review and support participants’ ongoing change progress and application of program content. Case Coordination - Collaborative case coordination for fathers by, consisting of regular weekly meetings of the Caring Dads facilitators with other KODY DV and AOD practitioners. In addition, all-of-family case management by a family support program (Kids in Focus) whose staff specialise in DV and AOD, will be integrated with Caring Dads case coordination. Services for mothers and children - mothers of children with whom fathers have contact are provided support and safety planning through a Child and Family Wellbeing Practitioner. Contact is offered at least four times, and is agreed between the practitioner and each mother. Participants in the ‘Caring Dads standard’ program do not have access to the Kids in Focus program. Kids in Focus (KIF) for mothers, children and fathers - a specialist child, parenting and family support service for families where a parent has an alcohol and/or other drug problem. Families are visited in their home at least weekly, typically for an hour. However, depending on needs and goals of each family, visits may be more frequent and longer. As the individual needs of each family and its members differ, service design is not standardised across families but is tailored to each individual, drawing on the following components, as appropriate for each family. - The Parents under Pressure (PUP) program consisting of 12 psycho-educational modules covering parenting, child behaviour and parental emotion regulation within a case management model, and is tailored to each family and delivered in their own home. - My Kids and me - a manualised psycho-educational seven session course (weekly, 2 hours, maximum group size 10 participants) for parents whose children have been removed from their care due to parental substance misuse or dependence, and who are involved with the Family Drug Treatment Court, a program within the Family Division of the Children’s Court of Victoria. Rather than practical parenting help, this program aims to enable reflection and ‘moments of change’. - Information and referral - Advocacy and support in relation to other services such as child protection - Domestic and Family violence assessment and intervention - Individual Counselling - Therapeutic family camps (12-17 families) Monitoring adherence and participation: Session attendance sheets will be kept for participants in all group programs. In addition, participation charts will be developed for fathers, mothers and children, to record what services they have received from the Child and Family Wellbeing Practitioner and from Kids in Focus, including frequency of professional contact.