This video of the official launch of the research project based at Brighton University was posted on YouTube on May 9th this year. It’s an hour and a quarter long but worth watching, or dipping into, for a flavour of the project’s aims, the current situation in the partner countries and more detail about the two intervention methods being assessed: Non-violent Resistance and the Break4Change model. The title of the post comes from a parent interviewed for a short film, shown within the video, and certainly the theme of hope is one which comes through strongly throughout. Continue reading
Author Archives: helenbonnick
Speaking to the media
This is a bit of a different post to usual. I’ve alluded to the interest of the media in parent abuse in recent weeks, but as this has come up over and over again recently I thought it worth a mention in its own right. In a nutshell, the question seems to be, how do we reconcile our desire to raise awareness of parent abuse and the need for greater service provision, with our duty to protect the families we work with from further harm?
Over the years that I’ve been tracking this, child to parent violence, or parent abuse, has been covered in what we’ll call a “positive” way in various media: in the local and national press, in professional publications as well as academic journals, in a popular weekly magazine, on radio news and magazine programmes, in TV drama and documentary, in film and on YouTube; and those are just the ones I’ve caught. It’s also attracted attention in more dramatic and contraversial ways through programmes such as Dr Phil, where families are “paraded” in front of audiences who have chosen to be present for motives which, it’s probably fair to say, don’t include the hope of witnessing a complex, sensitive process of restoring healthy family relationships. Then there’s the other side of the story in the context of the long-term failure of mainstream agencies to respond to families experiencing abuse from their children. How will the professionals come out of this? Do we really want to put ourselves through further grief at a time when the drive is rather to find positive stories of social work involvement to bring balance to the argument? Continue reading
Filed under Discussion
“A thought-provoking and well-structured summary”
Amanda Holt’s recent ground-breaking book received a very positive review in the April 2013 issue of the British Journal of Social Work. Adolescent to Parent Abuse: Current Understandings in Research, Policy and Practice was published by the Policy Press in December 2012.
Teresa Cleary, Senior Lecturer in Social Work at Anglia Ruskin University, describes the work as “a thought-provoking and well-structured summary of the largely uncharted territory of adolescent-to-parent abuse”, concluding, “This book offers a well evidenced academic argument as to why adolescent-to-parent abuse should be given more attention by researchers and policy makers like and that parents should be allowed to come forward as ‘victims’ without fear of blame or punitive response.”
Filed under publications
Training session for parents
I’m very excited to post this flyer about a training day specially designed for parents and carers experiencing abuse from their children.
This morning session on June 29th, offered at no cost to participants, follows on from 3 days of training for practitioners working with abused parents, organised by Ipswich borough council, and will be led by Eddie Gallagher. (Booking details on the flyer.)
It’s not often that parents and carers are offered this chance and so I hope that it will reach as wide an audience as possible.
Filed under Training opportunities
A successful year for Hertfordshire Practical Parenting Programme
A year ago I spotted a piece in the Hertfordshire local press about a big lottery grant awarded to a new project working with families experiencing child to parent violence. Last week Hertfordshire Practical Parenting Programme celebrated a successful year, and invited me to join them for a reception.
Sandra Ashley, Director (second left), Carole Hassell (right), Geoff Ogden from the Management Team and Carol Lewis (left ), pictured above, were joined by local councilors, Chris Mitchell, Paul Seeby, John Barfoot , the Broxbourne MP Charles Walker. Dunston Patterson from the Youth Justice Board, and representatives from the local Parks Department and police were also present. Continue reading
Filed under projects
Who’s in Charge?
You can find more details of this conference on June 26th, and the accompanying training workshops on June 27th and 28th, on the Events and Training page – but the flyer is so colourful I wanted to put it here as well. Enjoy!
Filed under Training opportunities
BBC draws attention to parent abuse.
Great to hear a six minute piece about parent abuse on the BBC Radio 4 flagship Today programme this morning. (8.22am – 8.28am) Also available from the BBC website here.
Joe Lettieri, from PAARS, was interviewed, and there were 2 clips from interviews with parents. One was a single parent who had experienced escalating abuse from her son (now aged 12) for the last 10 years, and the other a “middle class” mother whose daughter had become physically violent to her only recently, but who had been abusive in other ways prior to this. Both commented that it was the verbal abuse that they found the hardest to take, despite accounts of really quite severe physical injuries. Attention was drawn also to the shame and stigma experienced by parents: “I feel like I’m a rubbish Mum”. Continue reading
Filed under Discussion, radio and video, Research
Changing the DV definition: the debate continues
My attention was drawn this week to the recently released Home Office Guidance, Information for Local Areas on the change to the definition of Domestic Violence and Abuse. Produced in partnership with AVA, the guidance contains a whole section on Child to Parent Violence and calls specifically for the support of local groups working with families experiencing parent abuse, and the training of domestic violence workers in their work with this form of family violence.
At the same time, I received some comments from Anne-Marie Harris, Senior Development Adviser for Effective Practice with the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales, addressing the extension of the definition and drawing attention again to the need to exercise caution in the way these developments are carried forward. These are reproduced here and are particularly pertinent in the light of the guidance issued. Continue reading
Filed under Discussion, publications
HOLES IN THE WALL 