Welcome to Domestic Violence Training

NASW Domestic Violence Committee c/o Ann Fleck-Henderson
Phone: 617.521.3913
E-mail: AFleck@Simmons.edu  

This is a self-paced domestic violence training program geared to social workers at all levels of experience. We created it because domestic violence, like substance abuse, is an issue every social worker will encounter in her or his work. All social workers should have basic knowledge about domestic violence.

Learning objectives: After completing the course you will:

1. Understand what constitutes an abusive intimate relationship and develop skills in interviewing survivors and assessing risk, with attention to client safety and strengths. 
2. Understand resources available to survivors within the community and the legal/criminal justice system, with particular attention to Massachusetts laws and resources.
3. Learn about the relationship between domestic violence and child abuse, and how to intervene with children who witness violence.
4. Gain an understanding of the perpetrator - including theories about why they abuse, appropritae interventions and how to assess future risk of abuse.

The training program has eight units.
The first seven units consist of text, broken down into short topics, and a quiz. You can move through the topics in each unit by clicking on "Next" or by going to the table of contents for that unit and selecting the next topic.

At the end of each of the first seven units, there is a quiz.
The "Take the quiz" link will take you to ten multiple choice questions. The quizzes are not timed.
When you finish each quiz, you can view the results, which consist of our preferred answers and your score. You can retake quizzes if you wish. They are for your learning only, so use them in any way you find useful. They are not part of the CE process. The eighth unit consists of short vignettes to which you are asked to respond, followed by our thoughts about the vignettes.

We have partnered with NASW Massachusetts Chapter to offer 3 CEs for the completion of the course. If you would like to earn CEs click here.

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To begin: Start by clicking on "Training Materials," then click on "unit 1".
Read through each topic, clicking on "Next" or going to the table of contents to move through the unit. At the end of the unit, take the quiz and view the results. Return to "Training Materials" for Unit 2, and so on.

We suggest doing 2-4 units at one sitting.
Since completion of all eight units will take up to three hours, we recommend that you do not take on the entire curriculum at one time.