DIALOGUE: Dialogue support for the social service's assessment of risk for violence in close relationships

The purpose of the DIALOGUE project is to develop a research-based and flexible dialogue support to support and facilitate social workers' assessment of violence in close relationships against people with cognitive disabilities, such as intellectual disability, autism or ADHD. Theoretically, the project rests on a socio-ecological perspective, and uses trauma-informed practice and an accessibility-adapted approach as theoretical frameworks.

 The project uses a sequential exploratory design with three phases involving social workers and people with cognitive disabilities. The first phase is ongoing with analysis of interviews with social workers conducted in late 2022 and early 2023 with a focus on how they navigate conversations about violence with people with cognitive disabilities. Interviews with people with cognitive impairments who have interventions via LSS are ongoing with the aim of investigating the need for support in conversations about violence in close relationships and reasoning about violence. We are looking for participants and happy to inform you more about this via contact: sofie.adaszak@oru.se

Based on the results in phase 1 and knowledge in the field, a dialogue support will be developed in 2025 with focus groups where participants are divided into groups with research-based expert knowledge and practice-based experience of value to strengthen usability. After this, the Dialogue support can be tested in practice.

Through these studies, the project will provide new knowledge about the needs of social workers and people with cognitive disabilities in the process of assessing the risk of intimate partner violence. The Dialogue support can strengthen the possibility of deciding on adequate protection and support for people with cognitive disabilities at risk of being exposed to violence in close relationships.

In connection with the project's first phase, in the fall of 2022, an assignment was also carried out for the Swedish Authority for Participation, consisting of a qualitative interview study of the work of municipalities and regions in preventing and detecting violence against persons with disabilities.