Parenting Coordination In Cases Involving Intimate Partner Violence.

Parenting Coordination is a "hybrid legal‐mental health role that combines assessment, education, case management, conflict management, dispute resolution and, often times, decision‐making functions (AFCC, 2019, https://www.afccnet.org/Portals/0/PublicDocuments/Guidelines%20for%20PC%20with%20Appendex.pdf?ver=2020-01-30-190220-990). This article addresses issues that arise when the case has allegations or findings of intimate partner violence (IPV). Considerations of the type of IPV, the severity, timing, perpetrator and effects on coparenting are discussed in the context of the parenting coordinator's role. Through screening and assessment, we differentiate the kinds of cases with the presence of IPV where a PC may be effective as opposed to other IPV cases that may not predict success for retaining a PC. Key Points for the Family Court Community: Parenting coordination works in some cases with IPV and is ill‐advised in other IPV cases.Screening for IPV should occur in all parenting coordination cases and is best done first as part of the parenting coordinator's (PC's) intake process before the stipulation and order appointing the Parenting Coordinator is signed or the case proceeds. Screening is an ongoing process and not a one‐time event at intake.If a screening is positive for IPV, an assessment or further information gathering is warranted again, optimally before the PC work begins.It is highly probable that parenting coordination is incompatible in cases of IPV involving coercive control, with or without physical abuse, and in cases with a history of chronic battering.Parenting coordination will more likely be helpful in high conflict families in which the aggression is more conflict‐instigated (as defined herein) and the "control" issues between the coparents are more typical of divorcing couples and not characterized by intimidation, fear, and one partner controlling the other partner's life with the goal of eliminating or diminishing their personal liberty or parental role.Identifying whether parenting coordination will work for families with domestic violence or not, will involve an intake IPV assessment of the behaviors associated with the aggression, the context for the aggression, the meaning of the aggression, and the effects of the aggression.Ultimately the focus needs to be on the structure of the parenting coordination process to help provide safety in the IPV cases while helping the coparents lower the conflict with the other coparent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]