Who is present?

• Learn more about the conflict with reflections and open-ended questions.
• Ask closed ended screening questions about family violence: “Are you concerned about your safety or your child’s safety?”
• Learn about mom’s concerns about the conflict
• Provide resources and referrals
• Build your relationship with mom
• Teach Positive Partner Communication if it would be useful

Depending on the age of the child, you may want to see if the child can go into another room so you can talk to mom alone

If there is a conflict between Mom and another adult that is not severe, and you have a good relationship with both people:

• Consider reflecting the stress that both family members are experiencing to reduce the tension level
  • For example “It sounds like the two of you are under a lot of stress right now. It’s really normal for families to disagree when there is a lot of stress.” This is the easiest way to respond without taking sides

This is probably not a good time to respond to family conflict