NCJ Number
92754
Date Published
1984
Length
15 pages
Annotation
The Family Trouble Clinic of Detroit, developed by Family Service of Detroit and Wayne County (Michigan), is designed to demonstrate effective cooperation between the police and social workers in cases of spouse abuse and a wide variety of other family problems.
Abstract
The police handle the acute crisis and then refer the clients to the clinic. On-call staff are available to conduct an interview with the client at the time of the crisis. The program operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Although most crisis interviews take place over the telephone, personal interviews can also be arranged. The staff encourage clients to continue service in order to develop a nonviolent way of life. The clinic maintains a family-oriented approach and tries to serve assailants as well as victims. The Detroit Police Department trains its own staff on crisis intervention and the nature of spouse abuse. The police and social workers operate as a partnership and on the basis of mutual respect. The program grew out of a 1977 effort called the Police Referral Project and began in April 1978. The clinic's administrator is a district supervisor who devotes half of her time to direct practice. The staff includes two caseworkers and two graduate social work students. Other caseworkers provide telephone interviews whenever the clinic is not open. The clinic handles spouse abuse cases, parent-child problems, problems between other family members, neighborhood arguments, and other problems. The police role is to stop or prevent the immediate violent activity, while the social workers aim to help the family establish nonviolent behavior. The main services are telephone interviews, home visits, and individual, couple, and family interviews. A variety of organizations have acclaimed the program as a successful demonstration project. Twenty-four references are listed.