Social Work Implications of the Family Violence Option

This paper explores the impact of the Family Violence Option on the roles and related responsibilities of social work practitioners in identifying victims of domestic violence, assessing their service needs, and building an organizational culture of routine screening and relevant assessment for domestic violence. Family Violence Option is a federal law that routinely identifies victims of domestic violence and waives certain requirements for the identified victims in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. TANF programs do not screen for domestic violence nor implement protocols of the Family Violence Option, but promoting social work values and roles into the program may improve the implementation of domestic violence screening. The role of advocate is particularly important, so it needs to be emphasized more at all levels of action within the system to respond to domestic violence.