Implementing a Committee

With the sudden growth in domestic violence death review committees across Canada, the CDHPI has provided resources and information for communities that are hoping and/or planning to implement their own committee or review process.  The National Domestic Violence Fatality Review Initiative (www.ndvfri.org) provides an excellent outline of the steps needed to take in order to establish a domestic violence death review committee.  The CDHPI has summarized this outline below:

  • Determine what agency or governing body will form the committee (e.g., legislative mandate vs. grant funding vs. informal reviews)
  • Identify key stakeholders who will be members of the committee
  • Decide who will house the committee and committee documents and who will generate reports
  • Develop confidentiality agreements for committee members and affiliated agencies (view a sample Confidentiality Agreement)
  • Define the mandate of the committee (view a sample Terms of Reference for a committee)
  • Determine protocols for what the committee will review such as the type of case (e.g., murder-suicides, cases involving child victims); number of cases (e.g., several cases to identify trends and themes or one case that involves a very in-depth review); and how the committee will identify cases for review (e.g., coroners reports)
  • Determine how the committee will obtain documents and information related to the domestic homicide case for review (e.g., police reports, agency documentation, interviews with family and friends of the victim and/or perpetrator)
  • Establish a meeting schedule that can accommodate most, if not all, committee members (e.g., monthly meetings that last for a day; quarterly meetings that last for 3 days)
  • Conduct the review.  Important questions to ask:
    • What was the timeline of events leading up to the homicide?
    • What risk factors were present?  (view a sample Risk Factor Coding Form)
    • What systems and agencies were involved with the couple/family?
    • What was the degree of communication and coordination among these systems and agencies?
    • What were some missed opportunities that could have improved the systemic and/or community response to the couple/family?
  • Summarize the case review into a workable document
  • Determine how and to whom the information will be disseminated