CONTENTS

About This Course

Table of Contents

1. Introduction to the Issues
2. Understanding Alcohol Abuse
3. Understanding Violence Against Women
4. Alcohol and Domestic Violence
5. Alcohol, Sexual Assault, and Rape
6. Prevention and Early Intervention
7. Screening and Assessment
8. Diagnosis and Treatment
9. Legal and Ethical Issues

Supplements
Fact Sheets
Videos
Resources

Silence Hurts
Alcohol Abuse and Violence Against Women

Timing for Batterer Intervention/Relapse Prevention

Some substance abuse counselors wait 90 days before enrolling a man in a batterer's intervention program. However, violence is a powerful relapse trigger than can sabotage recovery, especially in the early stages. There are other concerns regarding partner abuse intervention:

• Clients may be resistant to counseling and may not appreciate the confrontational nature of batterers' groups.
• Some clients may be neurologically impacted by alcohol and drugs and may not be able to participate fully in a group setting.
• Clients may have some cognitive and educational deficiencies, which can impact their capacity to take responsibility for the violence.
• Denial is a strong component in both substance abuse and batterer programs.

Relapse prevention seems to work best when the client looks at batterer intervention programs as a way to stay sober. Professionals can stress to clients that being held accountable for a violence-free life and sobriety are linked in a number of ways:

• In the Twelve Steps of AA/NA, inventory steps emphasize that the person needs to hold himself/herself accountable by admitting "to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs." In the eighth and ninth steps, participants are required to make a "list of persons we have harmed" and become "ready to make direct amends to them all."²⁶
• The cognitive-behavioral approach helps men recognize the relationship between their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
• Most religious traditions have some form of "Golden Rule." Stress the importance of spirituality and relationships in ways that emphasize the destructive quality of violence and addiction.

For more information about addiction or any other mental health topic, go to www.e-help.com and www.samhsa.gov/centers/csat.