Kearney, L., Fox, S., & Glorney, E.

Interventions for children impacted by intimate partner violence (IPV) predominantly focus on improving the relationship between non-abusive parents and their child. However, abusive parents often live with their children or have continued contact; this has been found to impede intervention effectiveness. Whole family interventions for IPV impacted families are gaining traction and are a recommended area for research in the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines for multi-agency working with domestic violence (NICE, 2014). Multisystemic Therapy (MST) is an intensive whole family intervention designed for children who present with antisocial behaviour. As child behaviour problems frequently co-occurs with family violence (Van Eldik et al., 2020). MST practitioners often work in the context of IPV. This study investigated how MST can best meet the needs of families where there are concerns of IPV. Eight MST practitioners and four parents were interviewed using semi-structured interviews. Interviews were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis and produced three themes and nine subthemes. Theme one was barriers to MST process and consisted of barriers posed by the impact of IPV on parents, impact of IPV on the family, and the impact of IPV on the MST process. Theme two was facilitators to change and included the subthemes of principles of MST and MST practitioners experienced as containers. Theme three was amendments which described the changes made by practitioners to meet the needs of families. This consisted of hypervigilance to increasing risk, safety planning on-going IPV risk, increased multi-agency working and increased length of intervention. The study demonstrated the acceptability of MST for working with families impacted by IPV and gives credence to the systemic perspective of the inclusion of abusive parents.