Current through Bulletin 2024-06, March 15, 2024
(1) A domestic
violence (DV) treatment provider shall comply with generally accepted and
current practices in DV treatment, and shall meet the following requirements:
(a) maintain and document cooperative working
relationships with DV shelters, treatment programs, referring agencies, local
DV coalitions, and custodial parents when the client is a minor;
(b) treatment for children and victims offers
at least ten sessions for each client, not including intake or
orientation;
(c) if the client is a
perpetrator, provider contact with the victims, current partner, and the
criminal justice referring agencies is also required, as applicable;
and
(d) a Licensed Mental Health
Therapist shall complete a DV treatment evaluation for each offender to include
individualized recommendations for the offender's treatment.
(2) A provider shall ensure staff
to client ratios are set as follows:
(a) the
staff to client ratio in a one hour long adult treatment group is one staff to
eight clients;
(b) the staff to
client ratio in a group exceeding one hour is one staff to ten
clients;
(c) the maximum group size
may not exceed 16;
(d) child victim
or child witness groups shall have a ratio of one staff to eight children, when
the clients are under 12 years of age; and
(e) a staff to client ratio of one staff to
ten children when the clients are 12 years of age and older.
(3) The licensee shall ensure
client intake and safety as follows:
(a) when
a client enters a DV treatment program, the staff shall conduct an in-depth,
face-to-face interview and assessment to determine the client's clinical
profile and treatment needs, and the evaluation in Subsection
R501-21-7(1)(d)
shall count for this assessment when the client is an offender;
(b) obtain additional information for
perpetrator clients from the police incident report, perpetrator's criminal
history, prior treatment providers, the victim, or victim advocate;
(c) when appropriate, obtain additional
information for a child client from parents, prior treatment providers,
schools, and Division of Child and Family Services Child Protective
Services;
(d) when any of
Subsections R501-21-6(3)(a) through
(c) cannot be obtained, the provider shall
document the reason; and
(e) the
provider shall ensure that the intake assessment includes the following:
(i) a profile of the frequency, severity, and
duration of the DV behavior, that includes a summary of psychological
violence;
(ii) documentation of any
homicidal, suicidal ideation and intentions, as well as abusive behavior toward
children;
(iii) a clinical
diagnosis and a referral for evaluation to determine the need for medication,
if indicated;
(iv) documentation of
safety planning when the client is an adult victim, child victim, or child
witness and they have contact with the perpetrator;
(v) address safety planning upon contact for
victims who choose not to become treatment clients; and
(vi) documentation that appropriate measures
have been taken to protect children from harm.
(4) A provider shall ensure that treatment
procedures adhere to the following:
(a) an
individualized treatment plan addressing relevant treatment issues is created
for each client;
(b) refer each
client deemed not appropriate for a DV program to the appropriate resource,
with the reasons for referral documented, and notification given to the
referring agency;
(c) provide DV
counseling concurrently with, or after, other necessary treatment when
appropriate;
(d) conjoint or group
therapy sessions with victims and perpetrators, or with co-perpetrators may not
be provided until a comprehensive assessment has been completed to determine
that the violence has stopped, and that conjoint treatment is
appropriate;
(e) the perpetrator
shall complete at least four DV treatment sessions, unless otherwise noted in
the offender evaluation recommendations before the provider implements conjoint
therapy;
(f) implement a written
procedure in an efficient and timely manner to facilitate:
(i) entry of the court ordered defendant into
treatment;
(ii) notification of
client compliance, participation, or completion;
(iii) disposition of a non-compliant
client;
(iv) notification of the
recurrence of violence; and
(v)
notification of factors that may exacerbate an individual's potential for
violence;
(g) a provider
shall comply with the duty to warn, in accordance with Section
78B-3-502;
(h) a provider shall document specialized
training in DV assessment and treatment practices for any individual providing
treatment service, to include:
(i) 24 hours
of Utah Association for Domestic Violence Treatment pre-service training within
the last two years;
(ii) 16 hours
annual training thereafter ; and
(i) clinical supervision for treatment staff
that are not clinically licensed shall consist of at least one hour per week to
discuss clinical dynamics of cases.
(5) The
provider shall ensure training is documented and approved by the designated
Utah Department of Health and Human Services DV Specialist regarding assessment
and treatment practices for treating DV victims and
perpetrators.
(6) A provider shall disclose any current
Department of Health and Human Services contracts and actions against the
contract to the Office of Licensing.
(7) A provider shall disclose any current
accreditations and actions against accredited status to the Office of
Licensing.