Intergenerational transmission of violence - Effectiveness of "MDC-K Friesland" from the perspective of parents, children and professionals

“MDC-K Friesland” has been one of the first multidisciplinairy- interagency approaches to the prevention and treatment of child maltreatment in the Netherlands. Police, the public prosecutors office, “Veilig Thuis”... [ view full abstract ]

“MDC-K Friesland” has been one of the first multidisciplinairy- interagency approaches to the prevention and treatment of child maltreatment in the Netherlands. Police, the public prosecutors office, “Veilig Thuis” (the national child abuse hotline), Medical Center Leeuwarden, GGZ Friesland (organisation for mental health care) and Fier (an expertise and treatment center for victims, witnesses and perpetrators of violence in relationships) work together on the most complex cases of child abuse and neglect. The MDC-K approach assumes that a lean strategy (less bureaucracy) and collaboration with parents and children are key to successfully achieving three main goals: 1) creating permanent safety in families, 2) preventing and treating any harm (that has been inflicted) and 3) achieving a promising future. 

A previous case file study (N = 40) completed by Jelsma (2015) suggested that the lean strategy has shortened the time in which professional support was provided to the families. In 2015, professional care was initiated within an average of 33 workdays after registration, whereas it still took 120 days on average in 2013. Progress has also been made with regard to the speed at which parents were first contacted. While it took one to twenty workdays to contact parents in 2013, in 2015 75% of the parents was contacted within ten workdays.

In the presentation at ISPCAN the latest insights of the study on effectiveness will be presented. Focus groups and interviews will be organized and further elucidate whether the aforementioned three goals are achieved according to parents, children and professionals involved in the multidisciplinairy approach. In addition, the results will shed light on the elements of the multidisciplinairy approach that contribute to effectiveness.