Implementation of Innovations in Intimate Partner Violence Service Delivery: Shifting from Direct Service to Social Network Interventions

Background: In the United States, intimate partner violence (IPV) services have been largely characterized by individualized direct service delivery for victims/survivors of violence, remedies prioritizing separation of victims/survivors from abusive relationships, and law enforcement interventions for perpetrators of violence. A newer, innovative trend is to consider interventions to domestic violence that are community-based or turn to social networks of victims/survivors or perpetrators of IPV as central actors in violence intervention. While there have been significant state-level and national efforts to shift the IPV field in the direction of community-based, social network and non-criminalization interventions over the past 15 years, implementation has been elusive.

Purpose and Methods: This paper provides an analysis of a statewide initiative to shift IPV service delivery towards inclusion of community-based or social network approaches to IPV intervention. Using an organizational change framework adapted from Prochaska’s transtheoretical model of change and building upon implementation and dissemination research, this study examines organizational factors that impact “readiness” for implementation of community-based or social network interventions. The study analyzes pre-post training survey data and follow-up interviews with participants of nine IPV provider organizations.

Results: The study reveals that six of nine organizations adopted certain aspects of a community-based or social network model following the training including such elements as a volunteer training segment on these approaches or adoption of organizational values aligned with this shift in practices. However, only one organization implemented new service delivery components that expanded the organization in the direction of these approaches. An analysis of factors inhibiting implementation included loss of key personnel committed to such a shift, lack of technical assistance support and lack of funding facilitating this innovative change.

Conclusions and Further Research: While these results echo findings from the literature on organizational change and implementation and dissemination of new intervention areas, they are significant in their implications for the adoption of community-based or social network interventions in the IPV field during a time when demands for such innovations are rising. Research on IPV, in particular, has been slow in its inclusion of implementation and dissemination research. The use of this study in analyzing the results of a statewide initiative to implement community-based or social network interventions represents expansion into both a novel intervention arena and a promising yet underutilized research framework.