Inspire Action for Social Change
Program Guidance: Supporting Program Participants Experiencing Mental Health Distress in Supervised Visitation and Safe Exchange Programs – Including Expressions of Self-Harm or Harm to Others
This guidance helps SV&SE staff recognize and respond to participants’ mental health distress (including self-harm or harm-to-others disclosures) with calm, non-clinical, safety-centered support grounded in domestic violence dynamics. It covers supportive response, duty-to-protect disclosure, documentation, and confidentiality practices, with responses tailored based on whether the survivor or the person who caused harm is the one in distress.