Make A Change: An evaluation of the implementation of an early response intervention for those who have used abusive behaviours in their intimate relationships.

Abstract

Introduction: The Make a Change (MAC) intervention was developed by Respect and Women’s Aid to provide an earlier response to domestic abuse than traditional domestic abuse perpetrator interventions enable. It is designed to address the needs of people concerned about their behaviour, before it escalates to the point where intervention is mandated by courts or by child protection orders. The MAC model has four components: a group-based intervention for people who are worried about their behaviour and/or have used abusive behaviours; integrated one-to-one support for partners / ex-partners; Recognise, Respond, Refer training to improve domestic abuse awareness of practitioners in public, voluntary and private sector organisations; and a community strand that aims to raise awareness of domestic abuse, to address the barriers faced by those seeking help, and to change the social context that enables it to go unchallenged. The evaluation of Make a Change used mixed methods to assess its impact on client, service and implementation outcomes (Proctor et al., 2011). The analysis combined quantitative outcomes data, interviews with people who used the service, qualitative focus groups with key stakeholders, interviews with project staff and implementation managers, action learning sets and a training impact evaluation.