Reducing the incidence of domestic violence: An observational study of an equine-assisted intervention.

Abstract

This paper is presenting results from an observational study which has measured the impact of an equine-assisted education (EAE) intervention on the future occurrence of domestic violence within the family over 1 year following completion of the intervention as part of the troubled families program. The data analyzed were collected by the local authority troubled family's team from the different agencies involved including crime, health, and social care data. The data were analyzed and compared across four groups, those families on the troubled families pro-gram who had a key worker with a member or members who had attended and completed the equine-assisted in-tervention (n = 268); those families who were on the troubled families program but no support had been offered (n = 10,569), those families who were on the program and were being supported by a key worker only (n = 2119), and those families on the program who were being sup-ported by a key worker and had received further sup-port, not from the equine-assisted intervention (N = 1119). Significant reductions in domestic violence and child in need status were found for those families who had a member or members attend and complete the equine-assisted intervention under study.