Over the past year, RSI has been working on a project researching and exploring whether and how an online tool could improve the frequency and competency with which mediators screen for intimate partner violence (IPV) prior to mediation. Under a planning grant from the Family and Interpersonal Resilience and Safety Transformation (FIRST) Fund, RSI has been able to study the current landscape of screening tools, survey experts in IPV dynamics (as well as lawyers, judges and mediators) about the divergence between best and actual practices, and convene those experts to explore how to close that gap. As a result of that work, we have published this extensive report, which outlines the features of RSI’s proposed solution and the steps needed to actualize it.
Among the many findings in the report, we note that it is critical to develop a tool geared towards new mediators and those who mediate on an infrequent schedule. These are the mediators who our research found would be most receptive to an online screening tool. Also, because adequate screening is essential to ensuring parties will be safe and able to exercise self-determination throughout the mediation process, the use of such a tool by new and intermittent mediators would greatly improve the mediation services their parties receive. Accordingly, we advocate for developing a tool that has low barriers to use (e.g. does not required significant specialized training) and is provided free of cost to mediators to encourage its wide adoption.
We recognize that there a number of existing protocols, such as SAFeR and MASIC (both of whose creators provided valuable input to our research), which serve as high-quality screening tools. However, no existing solution we found provided mediators a free, easy-to-use, guided process to screen parties for IPV. The reality, confirmed by our survey of the field, is that screening does not happen at the level and with the expertise that the seriousness of IPV demands. One of the next steps will be to determine if there are funders who are enthusiastic about developing this tool.
Thank you to the FIRST Fund and all the expert voices who assisted RSI in the development of this report.
