Category Archives: Discussion

by helenbonnick | September 16, 2013 · 7:28 am

Trouble in the Troubled Families Department

I have a sort of Love-Hate relationship with the Trouble Families Programme and so I like to keep abreast of developments and opinion as it unfolds, for instance the announcement last week on September 10th that 14,000 families have now been ‘turned around’.

I am torn between the belief that intensive family support can be extremely productive – and that this is in fact what brought many folk into social work in the first place – and the concern about the turn such a model of intervention has taken on the current government’s watch. Intensive Family Support Programmes have a proud heritage and it is from them, significantly, that we have learnt much about children’s violence to parents in the UK. Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under Discussion, news reports, publications

Tagged as A Kind of Trouble, Action for Children, Child to parent violence, Eric Pickles, Hunter Nixon and Parr, Intensive Family Support, Louise Casey, Mother abuse, Parent abuse, troubled families

by helenbonnick | September 9, 2013 · 11:48 am

Elder Abuse: Is this the same thing as parent abuse?

In June 2006 an article in the Times newspaper reported on a parliamentary Health Committee inquiry, set up in 2003 and prompted by estimates that up to 50,000 of Britain’s elderly were subject to abuse from relatives and carers. The inquiry declared the abuse of the elderly to be Britain’s “last hidden abuse scandal.” This weekend the Observer has reported on former health minister, Paul Burstow’s concern that figures show as many as 370,000 older people were abused in their home last year – a “hidden national scandal” – and that the number is likely to increase to nearly half a million by the end of the decade. These figures are based on data extrapolated from a survey of 2000 people in 2007. Nevertheless, they suggest that this is a story that has captured the imagination of those in power. Continue reading →

2 Comments

Filed under Discussion, news reports

Tagged as Child to parent violence, children's abuse of parents, elder abuse, Parent abuse

by helenbonnick | August 24, 2013 · 12:55 pm

Parent abuse roulette

It’s hard not to feel a sense of helplessness – as well as fury – when reading pieces such as this from the Orlando Sentinel last week. Reporter, Kate Santich, has put together a litany of examples of extreme violence from children towards their parents, but finds little in the way of help: thresholds for intervention not met, parents charged with abandonment, children locked up without attempts to investigate or change behaviour, and in a nation where therapeutic support must be paid for. She reports on the situation in the States, yet the examples could be from anywhere. Continue reading →

3 Comments

Filed under Discussion, news reports

by helenbonnick | August 12, 2013 · 7:49 am

Boys Rule. OK?

To celebrate the holiday season, this is a bit of a different post to usual. I can often be accused of asking rhetorical questions, but I offer this one in all sincerity.

I stand before you as a fully paid up (closet) member of both the Prude Society and the Angry Brigade. For years, I have railed, in my head and occasionally to friends, against the objectification of women and girls in clubs, on posters on the Underground escalators, on clothing, in the gender stereotyping of children’s toys. Individual protestors and campaigning groups alike have been barraged with accusations of prudishness, extremism, absence of fun etc etc, as they have argued against the widespread dissemination of such images which they have considered demeaning, or misrepresenting women. Those who spoke up were made to feel in the minority and the implications was that they wanted to return to Victorian standards of decency. Yet the last few years have seen the development of a new kind of feminism in Britain which has taken on these issues and made real inroads into what is deemed acceptable and normal. Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under Discussion

Tagged as Brave, children's violence to parents, gender stereotyping, interpersonal violence, Pink Stinks, Princess Merida, violence against women

by helenbonnick | August 5, 2013 · 8:57 am

A Police Response to Parent Abuse

When I undertook my Masters study in 2004 – 6, one of the people I interviewed was a police officer, who described his sense of frustration at the difficulties in responding to incidents where parent abuse could be clearly identified. Pretty much everything I had read online or in the literature had suggested that the police hadn’t a clue, sided with the young person, maybe arrested the parent and certainly had nothing useful to offer; so it was interesting to sit down with someone and hear the other side. He identified a system of adhoc responses depending on the awareness of the individual officer, and then nothing concrete to offer, nowhere to refer on to as there was no agency taking responsibility for meeting the needs of families where children’s violence to parents was an issue. Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under Discussion

Tagged as Amanda Holt, DASH, domestic abuse, domestic violence, Greater Manchester Police, MARAC, Parent abuse, Simon Retford, troubled families

by helenbonnick | July 29, 2013 · 4:45 pm

You can’t afford to dabble

Can anyone respond to a referral of parent abuse? Since we are encouraging practitioners to recognise when child to parent violence is a feature of family function or dysfunction, what are people supposed to do next? How should they intervene? Do you need to follow an approved programme, or can you use practice that works in other settings?

A discussion with Sandra Ashley, Director of Hertfordshire Practical Parenting Programme, touched on these questions as we looked at the range of support programmes on offer and the training offered to facilitators. (You can learn more about some of these programmes on the Resources pages of this blog) Some of these programmes have commonalities. Others feel quite different in emphasis and style and in philosophical background. Meanwhile, bespoke parent abuse projects increasingly find that they are taking referrals from mainstream agencies that feel their own staff lack the necessary expertise (or time perhaps?), while initiatives such as that falling within the Troubled Families remit may be using practitioners from a range of backgrounds to tackle this among many other issues. Continue reading →

2 Comments

Filed under Discussion

Tagged as Child to parent violence, Hertfordshire Practical Parenting Programme, Parent abuse, Sandra Ashley, troubled families

by helenbonnick | July 19, 2013 · 9:13 am

Model students perpetrating abuse

If, like me, you prefer your maths concrete and you use things like a classroom of students as a unit of measurement, then you might find this image interesting. Courtesy of Ipswich Borough Council White Ribbon Day, it represents the number of students in a class likely to be perpetrating violence at home – those wearing ties. We can argue over the exact number, depending on the level of violence we are counting – and we might never know the true figure – but images like this can help to make something a bit more real and less of something happening out there to other people.

Photograph © Lorraine Arthur Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under Discussion

Tagged as Child to parent violence, non-attendance, P.E.A.C.E., Parent abuse, parents facing abuse from their teens

by helenbonnick | July 15, 2013 · 10:05 am

The law of unintended consequences

Today see the roll out of the welfare benefits cap across England, Wales and Scotland. What we are supposed to expect is that this will encourage families to find work or move to a different, cheaper area to live. Sadly, what we may see is a rise in violence and family break up. The Enemy Within, the 2012 report from the charity 4Children, using data from a specially commissioned YouGov Family Violence survey, highlights redundancy, long-term unemployment and serious financial worries as the major contributory factor in family violence. The dual pronged budgetary cuts to benefits and funding of services are thus especially worrying. Continue reading →

2 Comments

Filed under Discussion, news reports

Tagged as 4Children, Deborah Orr, domestic violence, Family violence, The enemy within, welfare benefits cap

by helenbonnick | June 27, 2013 · 12:17 pm

Understanding is everything

You may have caught the controversial coverage of comments made a few weeks ago by a mother of 4 children with ADHD, the youngest of whom is violent to her on a daily basis. (Here and here) Jenny Young, herself diagnosed with ADHD, stated that if her husband had been violent in the same way she would have left him, and if her son were a dog she would have had him put down. But for parents like her there is no choice: “There isn’t a refuge for battered Mums”. Cue national outrage. Continue reading →

4 Comments

Filed under conference report, Discussion, news reports, publications, TV

Tagged as ADHD, Annie Clements, Autism and ADHD, autistic spectrum disorders, battered mums, Child to parent violence, David Mitchell, Eddie Gallagher, Fiona Barakat, Jenny Young, Philip Schofield, Respect National Practitioners Seminar, The Reason I Jump, We Have a Voice, Who's in charge, Yuva

by helenbonnick | June 20, 2013 · 2:48 pm

No rules about controlling relationships

Coverage of an assault by Charles Saatchi on his wife Nigella Lawson, outside a London restaurant at the weekend, has sparked considerable debate in the press and on social media – not least as to why people felt it was OK to photograph and document events, rather than intervene.

Writing in the Telegraph, Iris McCann and Dr. Petra Boynton have used the opportunity to discuss the different faces of domestic abuse, and to offer advice to those who recognise their experience. Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under Discussion, news reports

Tagged as Charles Saatchi, Child to parent violence, controlling relationship, domestic violence, Dr. Petra Boynton, Iris McCann, Nigella Lawson, Parent abuse

Category Archives: Discussion

Trouble in the Troubled Families Department

Elder Abuse: Is this the same thing as parent abuse?

Parent abuse roulette

Boys Rule. OK?

A Police Response to Parent Abuse

You can’t afford to dabble

Model students perpetrating abuse

The law of unintended consequences

Understanding is everything

No rules about controlling relationships

Categories

Tags

Year

DOCUMENTING PARENT ABUSE

BLOGROLL