Author Archives: helenbonnick

by helenbonnick | February 24, 2015 · 11:29 am

Standards and quality assurance: next steps in parent abuse work

I was at a meeting last week considering the need for practice standards in work with families impacted by parent abuse.

While it still feels uncomfortably random whether you are able to access help or not as a family or practitioner, it might be surprising to hear that there has been a real surge in the development of services across England at least. With a limited amount of research and evidence to base work on, it is perhaps less surprising that many of the services show great similarities, even when they have started from different places and within different agencies, but there is variety and this is both good (flexibility in design and delivery meets specific needs) and potentially problematic (how can we be sure that work meets the needs). Now that programmes are more established and have themselves worked through initial teething problems, it seems a good time to think about how to assure quality and safety in the work. Continue reading →

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Tagged as accreditation, Family violence, Parent abuse, practice standards, quality assurance

by helenbonnick | February 19, 2015 · 5:24 pm

Child to parent violence: An ever expanding library

This year is set to be an exciting one in terms of books about child to parent violence. I have done a brief round up here and will be writing more about each as they are published. If there are others I have missed please let me know (send me a copy!) and I will cover them too. Continue reading →

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Tagged as Adolescent to parent violence, Adolescent violence and abuse, Amanda Holt, Caroline Miles, Catheleen Jordan, Child to parent violence, Dannielle Wade, Eddie Gallagher, Ester McGeeney, Fiona Barakat, Gjori Langeland, Greg Routt, Haim Omer, Islay Downey, Jane Evans, Jo Howard, Kathleen Daly, Kim Furnish, Kristin Whitehill Bolton, Latesha Murphy-Edwards, Lily Anderson, Michelle Pooley, Paula Wilcox, Peter Lehman, Rachel Condry, Roberto Pereira, Shem Williams, violent child

by helenbonnick | February 10, 2015 · 8:24 am

A brighter future for families experiencing child to parent violence

Continuing a mini series of interviews about different projects around the country, I have been speaking with Sian Taylor at Wish for a Brighter Future in Bristol.

Wish for a Brighter Future (WISH) has been in operation since 2003, when a small group of Hartcliffe residents identified a need to provide domestic abuse support in their community. WISH worked for many years supporting men, women and children affected by domestic violence and abuse (DVA) within the local community before developing their parent abuse project. They found their understanding and experience of DVA were vital in making the transition from domestic to parent abuse support. While the original expectation was that the work would be with young people, delivering domestic abuse prevention work through education and group work support – and the funding* supported this plan – once the doors opened the organisation was inundated with referrals for parent abuse, and for the last year this has been the sole focus of the work. Continue reading →

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Tagged as attachment, Bowlby, Child to parent violence, CPV, domestic abuse, domestic violence and abuse, Jane Evans, Parent abuse, trauma, WISH, Wish for a Brighter Future

by helenbonnick | February 4, 2015 · 3:01 pm

RCPV: The final conference

Brighton last week saw the final conference for the Responding to Child to Parent Violence Project, the second largest funded project from the Daphne111 programme, and one I have grown to feel very close to. It was something I blogged about in my very first post here, and the team have been very gracious in allowing me to ‘hang out’ with them over the last three years. The closing of a project might seem a sad occasion, but it felt more like a celebration, as each of the partner countries (England, Ireland, Spain, Sweden and Bulgaria) and programmes presented their achievements and aspirations – and indeed the growth and development of understanding and resources will continue as well as the friendships forged through work together. Continue reading →

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Tagged as attachment, Break4Change, CPV, Declan Coogan, domestic violence, Norah Gibbons, RCPV, Responding to child to parent violence, responsibilisation, trauma, Tusla

by helenbonnick | January 13, 2015 · 10:57 am

New Year, New Reading

I have recently been sent links to new and additional published articles in the field of adolescent to parent abuse; and have updated the Reading List page accordingly.

A paper by Caroline Miles and Rachel Condry, Adolescent to parent violence: the police response to parents reporting violence from their children, further develops the discussion arising from the findings of their three-year research project. This paper specifically examines police responses and suggests a way forward that offers support and restorative action for families. (Abstract here.)

Declan Coogan has a paper entitled Responding to Child-to-Parent Violence: Innovative Practices in Child and Adolescent Mental Health, in the Health and Social Work Journal, Special Issue: Child and Adolescent Health. (Abstract here) He considers obstacles in the recognition of, and response to, child to parent violence, and proposes the Non Violent Resistance Programme as a positive way forward.

Sally Donovan’s second book about the experiences of adoptive parenting, The Unofficial Guide, offers a further raw and powerful account of living with children traumatised by earlier life. She offers practical steps and guidance for parents, but the book is well worth reading for anyone involved in the adoption or CPV field.

I’ve also tidied up the links to the Family Lives / Parentline reports as I have been told they have been difficult to find on the website. Hopefully that is now improved.

Please do let me know about any other books or articles to add to the list. It is not exhaustive by any means, and certainly does not include early work, which I should get round to adding at some point!

In the meantime, Happy Reading!

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Tagged as adolescent to parent abuse, Adolescent to parent violence, Caroline Miles, Child to parent violence, CPV, Declan Coogan, Family Lives, non-violent resistance, Parentline, parents reporting violence from their children, Rachel Condry, restorative action, Sally Donovan

by helenbonnick | January 2, 2015 · 11:16 am

Parent abuse: looking back, looking forward

It is the traditional time for looking back – and looking forward – a time when many of us reassess our hopes and dreams, and make new plans for the future. I recently wrote a guest blog for the Oxford APV website, looking back over the last ten years of work in this field. I don’t want to rehash what I wrote there – go take a look – but here are some more musings and a bit more detail to some earlier hints for the direction of my work in the coming months. Continue reading →

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Tagged as APV, children's violence to parents, Daphne RCPV, Oxford APV, Parent abuse, VAWG

by helenbonnick | December 16, 2014 · 7:56 pm

Child to parent violence: Mapping provision

For some time now a group of people across academia, the public and third sectors have been working on a project to map provision for child to parent violence across Britain. I wrote about this earlier in the year when we hoped it would all be done by now. No laughing at the back! Let’s just say that we are taking an ultra cautious approach.

For such a resource to be of value it needs to be accurate, and we are also concerned to deal with matters of assessing safety and effectiveness. While it is somewhat easier now to talk about violence from children to parents, and there has been an increase in provision over the last few years, this is still scattered unevenly across the country and many families remain unable to access specialist help when they need it. As well as enabling parents and practitioners to identify and locate support more easily, it is hoped that it might provide useful information for commissioners looking to develop a service, and also highlight areas which are particularly under-resourced for some targeted campaigning.

* Are you aware of a local service that could be included?

* Do you work with families experiencing child to parent violence?

* Have you attended training nationally or in your locality with a view to starting up a service?

If any of these ring true for you, please do get in touch via the “contact” page. The project is taking longer than we had anticipated but is still very much moving forward; and I hope there will be more news of this in the next few months.

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Tagged as Child to parent violence, violence from children to parents

by helenbonnick | December 8, 2014 · 7:09 pm

Kate Iwi talks about restorative justice in parent abuse work

Marking International Restorative Justice Week in November, this YouTube video was posted by IARS. In it, Kate Iwi, of Respect UK, talks about an innovative restorative technique being pioneered as part of the Respect Young People’s Programme. Restorative work is a fundamental aspect of work with families experiencing children’s violence to parents.

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Tagged as children's violence to parents, IARS, Kate Iwi, Parent abuse, Respect, Respect Young People's Programme, restorative justice

by helenbonnick | December 1, 2014 · 8:56 am

Parent abuse: Looking back over the last ten years.

The folks at the Adolescent to Parent Violence project based in Oxford, which reported in 2013, have recently been having an overhaul of their website. The plan is to feature regular guest bloggers and I was privileged to be asked to write the first post. You can see catch it here: Looking back over 10 years of work in the field of Parent Abuse.

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Tagged as Adolescent to parent violence, APV, Parent abuse

by helenbonnick | November 25, 2014 · 10:14 am

Parent Abuse: Engaging with Social Workers

The CAADA tweet posted yesterday referred to intimate partner violence, but it doesn’t take long on message boards to find similar concerns around the reporting of child to parent violence: parents reluctant to seek help from Children’s Services because of a belief that the response will be that they are failing to protect their other children. No prizes for guessing what happens next.

As a social worker myself, I am deeply troubled by the narrative; but also concerned because social workers that I meet at conferences or at work tell me that they DO know about parent abuse, and that they desperately want to help if only there were more resources. What is it that happens at that point of disconnection? Continue reading →

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Tagged as CAADA, Child to parent violence, children's violence to parents, Parent abuse, RCPV

Author Archives: helenbonnick

Standards and quality assurance: next steps in parent abuse work

Child to parent violence: An ever expanding library

A brighter future for families experiencing child to parent violence

RCPV: The final conference

New Year, New Reading

Parent abuse: looking back, looking forward

Child to parent violence: Mapping provision

Kate Iwi talks about restorative justice in parent abuse work

Parent abuse: Looking back over the last ten years.

Parent Abuse: Engaging with Social Workers

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