How Can Child Health Services Identify and Respond to Family Violence

Family violence has severe impacts on children's health and development. Early identification of family violence is imperative to facilitate timely interventions. In Sweden, the Child Health Services (CHS) has a main aim to promote children's health and development and prevent ill health. The Swedish CHS program reaches almost 100% of families and includes 18 scheduled visits characterized by a health-promoting approach focusing on the child and the parents' wellbeing. The CHS offers a unique setting to identify family violence among families with young children. However, there is a paucity of knowledge on how questions about family violence should be addressed within CHS. The aim of the study is to increase knowledge of the effectiveness of an evidence-based program within the Swedish CHS to identify family violence. The specific research question is: How can practice within CHS contribute to identification of family violence on routine or indication compared to treatment as usual? A three-armed pragmatic randomized controlled trial (RCT) was conducted in 2017-2019 where all CHS's (n=120) in Region Stockholm were invited to participate. A total of 85 nurses from 22 CHC's participated in the trial of which 32 nurses from 10 CHS's were assigned the routine arm, 25 nurses from 5 CHS's were assigned the evidence based indication arm and 28 nurses from 7 CHS's were assigned to the treatment as usual group. Randomization was performed on CHS level so that the same approach was followed at each CHS when the first nurse was randomized. Only nurses in the routine and indication groups received training and supervision. The group that was assigned treatment as usual was offered the same training after the study was completed. The nurses completed questionnaires on the outcome knowledge, attitudes, and practices to identify and deal with family violence at three time points. Nurses in the two intervention groups also documented their practices and any identified cases of family violence during the intervention. The findings of the study can contribute to knowledge on how children exposed to family violence can be identified and adequate measures be put in place.