Soon after viewing the Channel 5 documentary last week, I received this paper, from Neusa Patuleia, a clinical psychologist / family therapist in Portugal. (De)constructing Child-to-Parent Violence, discusses a particular therapeutic intervention at a residential establishment in that country. Continue reading
Author Archives: helenbonnick
My Violent Child: the documentary.
First broadcast 18th June 2014 on Channel 5. Available until 13 June 2015
There has been a very mixed response to the documentary about child to parent violence screened on Channel 5 on Wednesday June 18th.
The programme followed three families from around the country, with boys ranging in age from 7 – 14 years. In each case the child had been physically and verbally abusive to his mother for many years and also, in some cases, to other members of the family or within school. The violence was extreme – and graphically depicted – including punching, kicking and hair pulling, strangling, property destruction and apparently an incident with a meat cleaver. While each family had found some form of assistance, it was made clear that this remains a problematic issue, with specialist support not easy to find, and at the end while some progress was being made, we were told that Brett’s mother risked losing the respite care that she had found so important. Continue reading
Filed under Discussion, TV
More Spanish Journal Articles
It is exciting to see that there is so much work going on around the world at the moment, with 2 more papers from Spain published this month.
Lourdes Contreras and Carmen Cano, in Adolescents who assault their parents: a different family profile of young offenders?, (Violence and Victims, Volume 29, Number 3, 2014, pp. 393-406), consider differences in family characteristics of children offending within the family (CPV) and those committing other types of offence; finding factors such as family size, type of household, parenting style and patterns of interactions differing between the two groups. This was from a sample of 654 young offenders. Continue reading
Filed under publications
“My Violent Child”
In February this year, I wrote about a meeting I had had with Nick Poyntz, from Popkorn TV, to discuss ideas about a forthcoming documentary dealing with child to parent violence. I am pleased to say that this programme has been made and is to be aired on Channel 5 at 9pm, Wednesday 18th June, My Violent Child. Continue reading
Filed under TV
“The family unit is supposed to be a safe place”
Mapping support for parents
News at last about the mapping project I have been talking about for ages!
A group of interested people is now meeting regularly to try to get his moving. We aim to produce some sort of directory of all the services across the country supporting families experiencing child to parent violence, by the end of the year. It is not clear at this point what form this will take or who will be able to access it initially, but this is huge progress. Between us we know of a considerable number of projects and services working with parent abuse across the country, but no doubt there are many we are missing. It would be great to make this as comprehensive as possible. If you know of services in your area, or indeed elsewhere, please do email me via the Contact page. Thanks. Continue reading
Filed under Discussion, news reports, Training opportunities
Safeguarding children exposed to domestic abuse
I spent yesterday at the Community Care Live 2014 conference and attended a very interesting presentation from CAADA (Co-ordinated Action Against Domestic Abuse): Safeguarding children and young people exposed to and experiencing domestic abuse. Continue reading
Filed under conference report, projects, Research
Breaking the Cycle in Florida
When I reported recently on the legislative proposals being put forward in Florida, some people expressed concern that the response to children’s violence to their parents was taking a very punitive turn, rather than seeking to support the family through therapeutic interventions. While some would argue that there will always be a need for a criminal justice response in extreme situations I was pleased to hear about an organisation offering a different approach. Breaking the Cycle, describing themselves as “the leading voice on child to parent abuse and violence“, offer a family intervention program and are hosting 2 conferences in the next weeks. There are more details on their website which details the background and theories informing their work.
A bit of a headache over neuroscience
I wrote at the end of March about the impact of work on brain development to understanding about parent abuse, and so I initially found the recent very public spat about the validity of claims being made for neuroscience rather unsettling. A week further on, after hours spent reading and rereading, the main lessons to be taken away from the controversy about the use and abuse of neuroscience seem to be: to think about the agenda of the person writing, not to make extravagant claims for something, and to read things carefully before commenting! Continue reading
Filed under Discussion
Child to parent violence: round the world in a week
A lot more bits and pieces from around the world in the last weeks…..
Good to see the Daphne RCPV website is now up and running. You will find it here, with information about the project and research as a whole, conferences and training events linked to the programme, ways to get involved and a link to the RCPV blog. Recent posts cover the progress of the research in the different participating countries: Sweden, Spain, Bulgaria and Ireland. Continue reading
Filed under Discussion, projects, publications, Research, Training opportunities
Child to Parent Violence: The Adoption Issue
A couple of years ago I was asked to write something about child to parent violence with reference to adoptive families. For a variety of reasons I wrote something with an entirely different focus, and in retrospect I’m glad I did. I had met and interviewed an adoptive mother as part of my Masters research but, while acknowledging that an adopted child might bring issues from their early life to a new family, I had no real understanding at that time of early trauma and its effect on attachment and behaviour. Continue reading
Filed under publications, Research
HOLES IN THE WALL 