Family Violence Council - November 29, 2017 - Minutes

Meeting Date: 
November 29, 2017 - 3:00pm
Location: 

Family Violence Council Minutes

November 29, 2017

3:00 – 5:00pm

400 McAllister, Room 617

San Francisco, CA, 94102I

 

Present

Chief of Adult Probation, or designee: Lee Anne Hudson, Jana Taylor

Chief of Juvenile Probation, or designee: Paula Hernandez

Director of Department of Aging and Adult Services, or designee: Jill Nielson, Edith Chan  

Director of Domestic Violence Consortium: Beverly Upton

Director of San Francisco Child Abuse Council, or designee: Katie Albright

Director of Elder Abuse Forensic Center, or designee: Glen Fishman

Director of Department of Children, Youth, and Their Families, or designee: Jasmine Dawson

Director of Department of Child Support Services, or designee: Karen Roye

Director of Department of Public Health, or designee: Leigh Kimburg, M.D.

Director of Human Services Agency, or designee: Barry Johnson , Julie Lenhardt

District Attorney, or designee: Gena Castro Rodriguez, David Merin

Chief of Police, or designee: Capt. Greg Mar

Executive Director of Department of Emergency Management, or designee: Janice Baldocchi, Heather Grives

Superintendent of San Francisco Unified School District, or designee: Thea Anderson

President of Commission on the Status of Women, or designee:  Minouche Kandel

 

Absent:

Mayor, or designee; Human Resources Director, or designee; Presiding Judge of the Superior Court, or designee;; Chair of the Consortium of Batterers Intervention Programs, or designee; Sheriff, or designee; Director of Department of Animal Care and Control, or designee; Public Defender, or designee; Chief of the Fire Department, or designee.

 

Other attendees:

Jerel McCrary, Bay Area Legal Aid; Robin Brasso, National Council of Jewish Women San Francisco; Liliana Ocegueda, DPH, Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health; Alison Ibsen, UCSF; Jenna Gaarde, DPH, Maternal, Child and Adolescent Health; Carol Sacco, Department on the Status of Women (DOSW); Lucy Snow, Department on the Status of Women; Elise Hansell, DOSW; Mollie Read, DOSW; Nami Yokogi, DOSW.  

 

 

 

  1. Approval of the Minutes

August 30, 2017 minutes approved [Roye/Grives]
 

  1. Family Violence Council Report Approval
     
  1. Minouche Kandel draws attention to only new recommendation since draft sent to attendees – Recommendation 13, on developing a Unit Order for Child Abuse and Elder Abuse, modeled on Domestic Violence Unit Order.
     
  2. Minouche Kandel goes over all new Recommendations for 2018:
     
  1. Recommendation 2 (increased staffing at Special Victims Unit)
    has already been achieved:
  • Capt. Greg Mar: recent promotion of sergeants means they have an extra 13 staff members, but they are still in training. Shares that really emphasizing cross-training and thinking of the roles as multi-disciplinary, so that these new staff members have knowledge of (for example) financial abuse investigations, not just sexual/domestic violence.


 

  1. Recommendation 7a (explore policy solutions and models of domestic violence death review teams). Update: Elise Hansell (DOSW) has scheduled meeting with Medical Examiner to discuss this issue.
     
  2. Recommendation 12  (work to improve data on LGBTQ families and individuals) discussed:
  • Karen Royce says must see through lens of confidentiality. General agreement that will be top-level data to demonstrate trends, as with other data collected.
  • Minouche Kandel asks how many agencies are currently collecting SOGIE (sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression) data. Most programs within APS are collecting - they haven’t yet done any reporting out, but same confidentiality standards would apply. Barry Johnson says (F&CS) behind as use State-wide collection system that does not allow for SOGIE data collection. Unified Schools District is collecting via dating and sexual violence survey every two years, but not exhaustive. Juvenile Probation is not currently tracking, but they are trialing a new case management system, which will be able to do so.
  • Need for training staff on SOGIE discussed: Jill Nielson from APS happy to help with training needs others might have, as they are already doing this. Jasmine Dawson (DCYF) says they have begun some training with LYRIC and have a work group looking at collecting this data.  Need to go beyond training is raised – to really engage staff on how to ask clients about SOGIE and why it is important, to ensure the fields are actually filled in, and that frontline staff, as well as clients, feel comfortable. Beverly Upton encourages reaching out to community agencies for their expertise.
  • Learning around potential client reluctance: Gena Castro Rodriguez (DA) shares that they give all victims self-identifying demographic forms, and only tiny proportion fills in anything on SOGIE. 
     
  1. Recommendation 13 (Developing Unit Orders at SVU for assignment of child abuse and elder abuse, following model already developed for domestic violence).
  • Minouche Kandel asks if Capt. Greg Mar sees any issue with implementing this recommendation. Capt. Mar will take it to his superiors.
  • Capt. Mar explains what Unit Order are, and how they differ from Departmental Bulletins – former are changes in policy, latter should be educational/informational about existing policy, and therefore require less sign-off.  Capt. Mar shares that new policy will be that Bulletins cannot be re-circulated after two years – they used to be refreshed every two years and sent out again, but now thinking is that if whatever they relate to is still an issue, the guidance should be made official via a policy change (i.e. Unit Order). Beverly Upton says community needs to look at what is in the Department Bulletins to ensure nothing lost in this process. Leigh Kimburg requests inventory/list of all family violence related Bulletins and Unit Orders. Capt. Mar will reach out to the Police Document Department about this.
  • DEM raises issue of discrepancy between their figures on child abuse and elder abuse, and figures from the SVU. DOSW in agreement that difference needs to be discussed and explained, so it can be clearly set out in next FVC report. Janice Baldocchi (DEM) explains need for clear protocols on patrol reporting back to DEM on what reports have been categorized. Capt. Mar will provide an appropriate contact person for Janice Baldocchi at DEM to liaise on this with. Minouche Kandel and Lucy Snow (DOSW) also request to be involved in any meeting to clarify this.
  • Issue above compounded as DEM has seasoned dispatchers moving on and new staff need time to develop skills. Same situation at SVU – a new generation of investigators coming up, which means skills and experience of veteran investigators being lost. Katie Albright asks if succession planning/hand-offs is something FVC could support members around, to avoid any knowledge gaps.
  • FVC Elder Justice Committee agreed upon as best place to discuss Recommendation 13 Elder Abuse Unit Order. Julie Lenhardt (F&CS) welcomes Recommendation 13 and shares that she had been discussing need for something similar with Capt. Bailey. Julie Lenhardt says F&CS tool that helps them decide how to assign child abuse reports might be useful. Minouche Kandel suggests two working groups – one for elder abuse unit order (Elder Justice Committee) and one for child abuse unit order, would be best way forward.
     
  1. Recommendation 17 (focus on capturing prevention measures in the City and on Council’s work on social justice issues in Family Violence Council Report) – agreed at August meeting and now in report.

 

c.  Motion to approve the recommendations for report.
Moved by Karen Roye, seconded by Leigh Kimberg. Capt. Greg Mar abstains because he needs to check recommendations with his superiors. Motion approved with 14 in support; one abstention, so motion carries.  Next step is the report will go before the Commission on the Status of Women at their January 24, 2018 meeting after which the report can be released to the public.

 

d.  Minouche Kandel reminds Council of importance of getting feedback from colleagues before coming to the meeting, as report is sent out well in advance for consideration and sign-off. Members should be ready to vote on the report when coming to the meeting.

 

III. Review of Updated Abuse Reporting chart  

Elise Hansell presents updated Abuse Reporting Chart and asks for any feedback:

  • Beverly Upton raises may be more training needed on some elements listed in chart
  • Janice Baldocchi (DEM) raises concern that ‘call 911’ is only listed once in chart – she would like more clarity on when people should call 911 in addition to CPS. Barry Johnson and Julie Lenhardt say they do instruct people to call 911 and have clear protocols for when to do so internally.
  • Thea Anderson (SFUSD) says all mandated reporters in schools being trained on reporting. She and Julie Lenhardt agree there’s lots of opportunity to work together on bridging gap between teachers and CPS, so teachers understand what happens after they make the call to report.

 

IV: Update on Implementation of 2015 Family Violence Council Recommendations

 

  1. New protocol for health providers on reporting domestic violence

Leigh Kimburg, M.D. (DPH) explains new protocol and additional reporting form has been developed and finalized, and is now being disseminated. First training session at SF General (in partnership with DOSW and La Casa de las Madres) on November 13th went well, with many departments represented. Positive feedback and Emergency Department want to do further training, and the session was video taped so it can be shared widely. Currently advertising the training to all health systems through Hospital Council – the next session is on December 8 and Leigh Kimburg asks for Council’s help in spreading the word. Kaiser did own training in October.

 

b) Katie Albright shares success in presenting findings from 2015 FVC Report to Board of Supervisors gaining more funding for child abuse prevention specifically.

 

V: Meeting on Domestic Violence and Child Welfare
Minouche Kandel shares that a working group to address child welfare cases involving domestic violence will be starting up.  .  

 

VI: Possibility presentation to FVC from Prevention Institute
 

Minouche Kandel suggests Prevention Institute could present to Family Violence Council on the work they are doing with communities on family violence prevention. Vote taken on interest in this – enough interest to do a separate session for the Family Violence Council, outside of the usual meeting. Beverly Upton requests access for the wider community. Minouche Kandel to arrange a date in the New Year.

 

VII: Key issues in Family Violence

  • Domestic violence (Beverly Upton): community raising its own awareness around gun safety, work continues around language access, immigration status, Sanctuary City status; recent trauma-informed training with colleagues at batterers intervention program.
  • Elder Abuse (Glen Fishman): positive news on legal representation now at Forensic Center meetings – DA will now be there, schedule permitting; successful press conference on Veteran’s Day.
  • Child Abuse (Katie Albright): No child fatalities recently in SF; Medical Examiner and Child Death Review Team have been working on protocol; seeing same concerns around immigration issues – renewing partnerships with family resource centers; presenting on trauma informed work to Schools District; recent study on economic impact of child abuse being picked up across the State, scope for digging deeper.
     

VIII: PUBLIC COMMENTS

  • Karen Roye: Raises issue of federal funding – everyone should be mindful that heading into funding cycle. Even though there has been an injunction around executive order to limit funding to sanctuary cities that does not stop the Administration potentially doing something around entitlements. CSS has been getting some notice from State of California that there will need to be more thinking about VAWA funding at local level.
  • Leigh Kimburg: Council should share best practice. i.e. What healthcare has learnt is that trying to screen for family violence (rather than providing pro-active universal education) results in not getting information to people that need it and much lower disclosures. A good dialogue for the Council would be: how do we provide pro-active education to all families?

 

IX. Meeting adjourned.