FY2020 MDPH SEXUAL AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE (SDV)

SURVIVOR/PERPETRATOR GROUP SESSION SERVICES TABLE INSTRUCTIONS

(For use July 1, 2019-June 30, 2020)

Purpose of the MDPH SDV Survivor/Perpetrator Group Session Services Table:

The MDPH SDV Survivor/Perpetrator Group Services Table documents group counseling sessions for people
who have experienced sexual and/or domestic violence. Group counseling brings together people with
common experiences for support, community, sharing, and learning. Groups may be led by clinicians, non-
clinical staff, or peers. (NOTE: This Table is NOT for completion by staff of MA Certified IPAEPs. MA Certified
IPAEPs have separate reporting tools specific to their service model).

General instructions:

Explanation of How to Use the File:

• Remember to open this file directly by navigating to it through your computer system folders.

• Your agency will be sent an agency-specific version of this file in which your agency’s name has been
pre-populated. This entry will be read-only and will not have to be entered by your staff. You will see
your agency name at the top of your copy of the file each time you open it.

• Add rows to the SDV Group Services Table by clicking on the plus (+) sign in any row of the Table.
NOTE: When you reach the end of a page, the next blank row will appear at the top of the next page.

• If you add a row in error, click on the minus sign (-) in the row you wish to delete.

• Remember to save the file using the “Save Data” button located below the last line of the table.

o It is wise to give the file a new name after each period of updating so that you have back-up
copies should anything happen to a more recent version of the file. This prevents having to start
over.
o Be sure to store the file in a secure location in your agency’s computer system to which only
those within your agency with a need-to-know have access.

• Send the newly updated file each quarter with your other required MDPH report files to the MDPH
contract manager/epidemiology staff members designated for this purpose for your program/agency.

o Please use your Interchange account to send this file, not regular e-mail and not other file
transfer systems.
o If you are able to export the data being recorded “in the background” of the LiveCycle forms file,
or if you are using your own system to output an Excel file like the one that results from using
the forms file, you may send the updated Excel version of the file instead.

• For information about how to export the data recorded “in the background” of this file for use in
Excel, please go to p. 5 of this instructions document.

General Form Completion Rules:

• Information on each group offered under an MDPH SDV contract should be recorded once per quarter.
• Information on each group should be summarized on its own separate line of the SDV Group Services
Table (one line per group offered).
• Clients who only access group counseling services and do not use individual counseling or advocacy
services should not be included in Individual-Level Services reporting files.
MDPH SDV Group Session Services Table Instructions, FY2020. Revised 06/2019.
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! • You still need to complete a row or rows of the SDV Group Sessions Table even if you do not
conduct any groups during a quarter.
o Select the quarter, select type of MDPH contract, and in response to “Any Groups This Quarter”,
select “No”.
o Example: if your agency is funded by three MDPH contracts, and you did not offer groups under
any of these contracts in a particular quarter, you will enter three rows of data, one for each
MDPH contract, and indicate that you had no groups for each for the quarter in question.
• For Rape Crisis Centers only: Incident forms should not be filled out automatically for group counseling
participants. Only if a participant discloses a specific sexual assault (or series) – before, during, or after
a group counseling session – should an Incident Form be completed upon the first report of the
incident, and only if the incident has not been reported to any MA RCC previously, including to your
own RCC.

Instructions for each data box:

Group Session Quarter – Select the quarter when group counseling sessions were conducted. The
year field will be populated for you based on your selection under “Quarter.”

MDPH Contract – Select the MDPH service model under which the group counseling session was
conducted.

Any Groups This Quarter? Please remember to complete this cell every time you make a report of a
session. Its completion controls the presentation of certain other cells in the row. When you answer
“No,” the remaining cells in a row disappear. When you answer “Yes,” all the remaining cells in the row
remain visible and are enabled. If you change your answer to this question from a “No” to a “Yes,” the
cells in that row that had become invisible reappear.

Group Gender Code – Select the option that best describes the gender mix of the group participants.

Group Age Code – Select the age group that best describes the age mix of group participants.

Language in which Group was Conducted – Select the language in which the group counseling
session(s) took place. If the language is not listed in the dropdown menu, choose “Other Language”
and enter the language in the box to the right, entitled “Other Language Specify”.

Group Type – Select the group type that most accurately describes the group. Every group on which
you report should include either survivors or perpetrators of DV and/or SV. Options are:

1. Adult DV survivor group – Group for adult survivors (ages 18+) of any type of domestic violence
(experienced at any age, by any current or former intimate or dating partner). You also may report
pre-service group sessions offered by your DV program under this category of group service.
2. Teen DV Survivor– Group for teenage survivors (ages 12-17) of domestic violence,
3. Children/Youth Who Have Witnessed DV Group – Group for children/youth (age 17 and under)
who have been exposed to domestic violence. The group may include a parent or caretaker.
4. Parenting Class for DV-Involved Parents – Class teaches parenting skills in a group context to
parents involved in domestic violence (groups may be for either perpetrators or survivors). NOTE: If
working one-on-one with a parent involved in domestic violence around positive parenting skills,
record these sessions in the Individual-Level Services tool under “One-on-one Parenting Support.”
5. Parenting Support Group (parenting in DV context) – Group for mutual (peer) support of parents
in the context of domestic violence.
6. Adult SV survivor group – Group for adult survivors (ages 18+) of sexual assault. Group may
focus on past experiences of abuse as children or on assaults experienced as adults. You also may
report pre-service group sessions offered by your RCC under this category of group service.
7. SV Survivor Group for Children/Youth – Group for sexual assault survivors under age 18.
8. Combined Parent/Guardian & Child/Youth SV Survivor Group – Group designed to serve
children/youth who are SV survivors and their accompanying parents/guardians.
MDPH SDV Group Session Services Table Instructions, FY2020. Revised 06/2019.
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 9. SV Secondary Survivor group – Group for non-offending parents, guardians, other family
members, spouses, and significant others of survivors of any type of sexual assault.
10. Combined Adult SV survivor & Family/Significant Other Group – Group for survivors of sexual
assault and their accompanying non-offending family member(s) or significant other(s).
11. Combined Adult DV-SV Survivor Group – Group for adult survivors of domestic violence and
sexual assault.
12. Issues-Based DV or SV Group – Groups designed for survivors of domestic or sexual violence
that have a specific issue-based focus, such as “Adult Survivors of Child Sexual Violence” or
“Survivors of Military Domestic Violence”.

This Group is Tailored to Address DV/SV and/among… If the group counseling session is for a
population that is not already named, please enter it here by clicking in all the check boxes that apply.
The options are:

• N/A – Select if group population has already been indicted in other data fields on this form.
(NOTE: The remaining options in this cell will disappear when “N/A” is checked. They will
reappear if “N/A” is unchecked.)
• Black Women – Use only if group is intentionally designed to address the needs of Black
Women, not merely because people in this group identify as Black women or are the only
attendees.
• A Specific Culture - Group is intentionally designed for a specific ethnic group, e.g. Latinas,
Cape Verdeans, African Americans, Vietnamese, Khmer, Pan-Asian, etc. Please specify for
which culture the group was intended in the “Culture/Disability/Other Population, Specify”
box to the right of this one.
• Disabilities – Group is intentionally designed to address the needs of people with
disabilities. Please specify for which disability community the group was intended in the
“Culture/Disability/Other Population, Specify” box to the right of this one.
• Homelessness - Group is intentionally designed to address the needs of homeless
individuals.
• Incarceration - Group is intentionally designed to address the needs of individuals who are
currently or who have recently been incarcerated.
• Rural Communities – Group is intentionally designed to address the needs of those living
in rural communities.
• Sexual Orientation - Group is intentionally designed to address the needs of individuals of
a certain sexual orientation, particularly non-heterosexual individuals.
• Substance Abuse - Group is intentionally designed to address the needs of individuals who
have survived SV/DV and have past/current/ongoing substance abuse concerns.
• Teens - Use only if a group is intentionally and specifically designed to address special
needs of teens or adolescents, not merely because people in this age group are present in
the group or are the only attendees.
• Other Special Pop. – Group is intentionally designed for a population not already identified.
Please specify the population in the “Culture/Disability/Other Population, Specify” box to the
right of this one. Do not specify terms such as sexual assault, adult, teen, male, survivors,
etc., because these data are already reported in the other data fields such as group type,
age, gender code. DO NOT use this code to identify the method of the counseling session
(e.g. art therapy).

Total # Sessions Provided This Quarter – Enter the total number of sessions conducted for the
specified group during the specified quarter.

Total # Clients Who Attended This Group This Quarter - Enter the total unduplicated number of
participants for the quarter. (e.g. some sessions had 10 people, some had 12, some people left the
group and new ones joined. Record the total number of different people who attended during the
quarter of report regardless of whether or not they attended every session of the group). This number
includes on-going participants from past quarters.
MDPH SDV Group Session Services Table Instructions, FY2020. Revised 06/2019.
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 Undup. # New Group Clients this Quarter– Enter the total number of new participants who attended
their first group session during this quarter. This number should never exceed the total number of
clients. If there were no new clients, enter 0. This cell should not be blank.

Note: At the beginning of each fiscal year, July 1, all clients should be counted as “new.”
Thus, Total # Clients = # New Group Clients. In subsequent quarters, a client may be “new”
for this purpose if the client has never been served before by your agency in an SDV group
! counseling context OR if this is the first quarter of the current fiscal year during which they
attended an SDV group session. The goal is to count each client once and only once in this
column in any fiscal year. This column gives us the unduplicated count of group counseling
clients served. The “Total” field gives us a sense of the typical size of groups and the range
of group sizes.

Questions?? Contact: Vera Mouradian (617-624-6077; vera.mouradian@state.ma.us) or Caroline Stack

(617-624-5409; caroline.stack@state.ma.us), or the appropriate DPH SDV contract manager(s).

MDPH SDV Group Session Services Table Instructions, FY2020. Revised 06/2019.
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Accessing the “Background” Data (optional):
• SDV programs funded by MDPH are not required to access the data that is stored in the background of
their MDPH SDV Group Session Services Table. The information in this section of the directions is for
programs who wish to do this. The LiveCycle (Adobe) files are set up to allow you to access your own
data, but you need software that is not free in order to be able to do so.

• In order to access the data that are stored “in the background” in the SDV Group Services Table, you
need to have a copy of Adobe Acrobat Pro on the computer where you are planning to do the
exporting.
o You will not use Adobe Acrobat Pro to open or save the file
o The presence of this software on your computer simply enables all the functions – including the
export function.
o You should delete the “Reader” from the computer on which you have installed “Pro” because
they have been known to interfere with one another and the “Reader” becomes irrelevant once
you have the “Pro” version of the Adobe software.

• On a computer on which you have Adobe Acrobat Pro installed:

1. Open the SDV Group Services Table directly from your computer files if it is not already open.
2. Locate the “Export Data” button at the top of the file, next to your program’s name, and click on
this button.
3. A “Save File” dialog box will open in which you will notice that your file name now has a “_data”
extension added to it. This is because the Pro software is going to store a copy of the
information that is in the background of your file as a separate XML file, instead of an Adobe file.
This will not affect the Table information you have entered in any way. It all will still be there
after you complete the exporting process and the Table still will work as it has in the past.
4. Be sure that you are in the folder in your system where you want to store the data. If you are not
there, navigate to the folder where you want the file stored before completing the saving
process.
5. Click on the Save button.
6. Open Excel.
7. Select “Open” from the Excel “File” drop-down menu.
8. Navigate to the folder where you stored the file with the “_data” extension and locate that file. It
will look different than your Excel files because it is an XML file.
9. Click on this XML version of the file to open it within Excel.
10. You will be presented with a couple of warning/information dialog boxes. Click “ok” or “continue”
in each case.
11. Voila! Your data will appear as an Excel file, which you should save in Excel. You can now use
these data to summarize your agency’s group services.
12. MDPH will send everyone a list of codes for each type of reporting file. You will want to use this
code list to understand and use the data that are stored in your newly exported Excel data file.
IMPORTANT ADDITIONAL NOTES:

• If you have only one line of data in the SDV Group Services file, the data will display in Excel without
the column headers, so it is best to wait to export the data until you have two or more lines of data in
your Table.

• If you store group services information in your own agency’s database and you wish to do so, you can
arrange to export these data to an Excel file that is set up exactly as it would be if you used the MDPH
SDV Group Services Table file for sending your group services data to MDPH.
o Your Excel file must use the same fields, named the same way, in the same order, and must be
populated using the same codes and rules as in the MDPH SDV Group Services Table file.
o To arrange to export from your own system to an Excel file for group services data reporting,
please contact Vera Mouradian (vera.mouradian@state.ma.us) for a copy of the outputting
template and the code list.
MDPH SDV Group Session Services Table Instructions, FY2020. Revised 06/2019.
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