Caring Dad's Intervention Group

Evidenced Based Program 

This Program is for Fathers (including biological, step, and common-law) who have who have physically abused, emotionally abused, or neglected their children; exposed their children to domestic violence; or who are deemed to be at high-risk for these behaviors

For Fathers of children ages: 0 – 17 who still maintain contact and visits with their children 

Program Overview

The Caring Dads program combines elements of parenting, fathering, and child protection practice to address the needs of maltreating fathers. Program principles emphasize the need to:

• Enhance Father's Motivation

• Promote child-centered fathering

• Address a Father's  ability to engage in respectful, non-abusive co-parenting with children's mothers

• Recognize that children's experience of trauma will impact the rate of possible change

• Work collaboratively with other service providers to ensure that children benefit (and are not unintentionally harmed) as a result of Father's participation in intervention

The program uses a combination of motivation enhancement, parent education (including skills training and behavioral practice), and cognitive behavioral therapy to:

• Improve Father's recognition and prioritization of children's needs

• Improve Father's understanding of developmental stages

• Improve Father's respect and support for children's relationships with their mothers

• Improve Father's listening and using praise

• Improve Father's empathy for children's experiences of maltreatment

• Identify and counter the distortions underlying men's past, and potentially ongoing, abuse of their children and/or children's mothers

Program Goals

The goals of the Caring Dads: Helping Fathers Value Their Children are:

• Ensure the safety and well-being of children who have been impacted by their Father's abuse or neglect, including domestic violence

• Develop sufficient trust and motivation to engage Fathers in the process of examining their fatherhood

• Increase Father's awareness and application of child-centered fathering

• Eliminate Fathers' use of abuse and neglect towards their children and to promote respectful and non-abusive co-parenting with children's mothers

• Promote Father's appreciation of the impact of their past abuse on their children and family and help them take responsibility for their own behaviors

• Provide supportive outreach to children's mothers to provide information about the program, safety planning, and referral, as necessary

• Work with other professionals to plan for the future safety and well-being of children who have been impacted by abuse, neglect, and/or domestic violence

Essentials of the Program

• 1. 17 intervention sessions, 15 in group and 2 individual (weeks 10 and 14)

  2. 8 to 12 fathers recommended group size

  3. Motivational interviewing is used to engage men in examining their fathering.

     1. Examination of their unique experiences as fathers (e.g., historic, cultural differences) and of being fathered to develop discrepancy between their current and desired relationships with their children and families

     2. Introduction of the idea that their experience of their father included their father's treatment of their mother

     3. Setting of initial goals for intervention between fathers and group facilitators

     4. Beginning of homework assignments

  4. Parenting education, skills training, role modeling, and behavioral practice to develop child-centered fathering (6 group sessions):

     1. Presentation of the parent to child-centered needs continuum to help monitor and shift behaviors towards those meeting child needs

     2. Education and application of information on child development and on the impact of abuse, neglect, and trauma on children

     3. Role modeling and practice in listening to, playing with, and reading to children

     4. Emphasis placed on the need for respectful co-parenting with children's mothers and for supporting the mother-child relationship

  5. Cognitive behavioral therapy to set and track individual goals for change among fathers (6 sessions):

     1. Self-identification of abusive and unhealthy parent-centered behaviors that fathers need to change in order to improve their relationships with their children

     2. Recognition of the integral connection between the safety and well-being of children and their mothers

     3. Individual goals set with Father's in the group, or ideally, in individual meetings. Goals target empirically supported risk mechanisms for fathers' maltreatment of their children and/or children's mothers. Such mechanisms include: anger/hostility/overreactivity; family cohesion/coparenting/domestic violence; perceptions of the child as a problem, use of corporal punishment, harsh discipline and other aversive parenting behaviors, overall quality of parent-child relationships, self-centeredness and misuse of substances

     4. Assignment of individualized homework and fathers' progress is tracked and modified as necessary by the group

  6. Consolidating learning, setting realistic expectations, and planning for the future (3 sessions):

     1. Support is given while fathers consider the potentially long-term traumatic impact of their past behavior on their children and/or their children's mothers and in setting reasonable relationship expectations

     2. Planning for maintenance of gains made

     3. Support and referral provided for additional services, as necessary

• Associated program components

  1. Systematic outreach to mothers to ensure safety and freedom from coercion:

     1. Contact with children's mothers by devoted program staff or by those working in partnership to ensure women are informed about the program

     2. Collaboration between professionals and with women to anticipate and work to avoid potential unintended negative consequences of men's involvement in intervention

     3. Provision of referral and of safety planning to children's mothers, as necessary

  2. Collaborative case management of fathers with referrers and other professionals involved with men's families:

     1. Clear community-based model for accountability to ensure that child safety and well-being is enhanced as a result of fathers' involvement in intervention

     2. Open communication between Caring Dads program and other professionals working to ensure the safety and well-being of members of the family

     3. Joint meetings and planning in response to ongoing or rising risk presented by father

     4. Commitment to working collaboratively to support children