HELP-M Toolkit
Identifying and Responding to Family Violence and Power Imbalances in Mediative Approaches
Family mediation can provide families with respectful, child-focused pathways through separation and conflict. When family violence, coercive control, trauma, or significant power imbalances are present, mediative professionals also have a responsibility to ensure that the process itself remains safe, voluntary, and appropriate.
The HELP-M Toolkit supports mediative professionals in making informed decisions about process design, ongoing screening, and ethical practice. Rather than viewing screening as a single event, HELP-M recognizes that safety, readiness, and process suitability must be continually assessed throughout the life of every case
About HELP-M
HELP-M was developed by the Ontario Association for Family Mediation (OAFM), with funding from the Department of Justice Canada, to support family mediators and other mediative professionals working with families experiencing separation, conflict, family violence, coercive control, and power imbalance.
Building on the Department of Justice Canada's HELP framework, HELP-M adapts these concepts specifically for mediative processes. It recognizes that mediators are responsible for designing processes that promote safety, meaningful participation, informed decision-making, and self-determination.
HELP-M helps professionals:
- Recognize family violence and coercive control
- Identify power imbalances affecting participation
- Adapt mediation processes to improve safety
- Determine when mediation should pause or end
- Connect families with appropriate legal, community, and cultural supports
- Promote child-focused, trauma-informed, culturally responsive practice.
The HELP-M Philosophy
HELP-M is founded on one central principle: Safety is not a single screening question, it is a continuous professional responsibility.
Rather than asking mediators to determine whether family violence occurred, HELP-M asks: Can each participant engage freely, safely, and without coercion in this process?
This shift moves the focus away from fact-finding and toward process safety, ethical decision-making, and meaningful participation. HELP-M supports professionals in making thoughtful decisions about adapting, pausing, redirecting, or ending a mediation process when circumstances require it.
Using HELP-M in Practice
HELP-M is designed as a continuous cycle rather than a one-time screening event.
Readiness – Is each participant emotionally, psychologically, and practically able to participate safely?
Appropriateness – Is mediation the right process for this family at this point in time?
Process Design – What adjustments or supports will create the safest and most effective process?
Continuous Screening – What has changed? Are new risks, concerns, or power imbalances emerging?
Safe Termination – If mediation is no longer appropriate, how can the process end safely while supporting families toward appropriate next steps?
HELP-M Visual Guides and Practice Resources
HELP-M in
Practice Cycle
HELP-M Core Baseline Screening and Check-In Tool
Indigenous Family Resolution Pathway
HELP-M Bench Card Reference Guide
DVDRC Top Signs of Lethality
Important Practice Note
HELP-M is an educational and practice-support resource. It does not replace professional judgment, legal advice, court processes, forensic investigation, or statutory obligations. The toolkit supports mediative professionals in assessing whether mediation remains safe and appropriate. It does not determine whether family violence has occurred or make findings of fact. Those responsibilities remain with courts and other authorized decision-makers.
About the Project
The HELP-M Toolkit was developed by the Ontario Association for Family Mediation (OAFM) with funding from the Department of Justice Canada. This nationally funded initiative reflects OAFM's commitment to advancing safe, ethical, evidence-informed family dispute resolution practices across Canada.
Developed through an interdisciplinary, practice-informed process, HELP-M was informed by more than 500 hours of national consultation involving mediators, academics, judges, interdisciplinary professionals, and family justice leaders from across Canada. The result is a practical framework that helps mediative professionals recognize and respond to family violence, coercive control, power imbalances, and safety concerns while supporting informed, child-focused decision-making.
Since its release, the HELP-M Toolkit has been recognized as an important professional resource and has been widely shared throughout the family justice community. It has:
- Been added to the Vanier Institute of the Family Resource Centre.
- Been published on CanLII.
- Been shared through numerous family justice organizations, mediation organizations, and community partners across Ontario.
- Been made available in both English and French to support accessibility and national dissemination.
OAFM extends its sincere appreciation to the Department of Justice Canada, the Advisory Committee, researchers, practitioners, reviewers, and partner organizations whose expertise and collaboration made the development of HELP-M possible.