Directory

THE MAIN DIRECTORY SERVICE HAS NOW BEEN MOVED ACROSS TO A NEW WEBSITE, HOSTED BY RESPECT, BUT YOU WILL STILL BE ABLE TO FIND GENERAL INFORMATION BELOW, ASWELL AS SOME SERVICES IN OTHER COUNTRIES AROUND THE WORLD.

If you are in immediate danger please call 999. The police are the most appropriate agency to support you when life is in danger, and they are often very understanding of issues around child and adolescent abuse.

Out of hours, or if you are unable to find other help, the following agencies offer a listening / advice service:

Samaritans Listening service

National Domestic Abuse Helpline Help, advice

Young Minds Phone line for parents

Young people in need of urgent help regarding their mental health can contact the Young Minds Crisis Messenger service by texting YM to 85258. The Mix also provide free emotional support via phone, email or web chat. Visit their website for more information.

Around the country different bodies such as the Youth Offending Service, Domestic Violence agencies, or Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service may have developed a specialist approach for families in their area as the need became evident and they can be a good place to start. Often there will be individuals within an agency with specialist knowledge, offering understanding even where there is no bespoke service available.

NATIONAL SPECIALIST HELP

A number of organisations offer a national service. This may be specific to the family or young person’s situation, or may be available to all.

Capa First Response CIC     A first response service, delivered by experienced professionals, Capa offers one-to-one online support for families in the UK and around the world where young people up to the age of 18 (or 25 if there is a secondary diagnosis) are using harmful behaviour directed towards their parents. A combination of approaches is used according to the situation of each family. The length of support is determined by the family’s needs. Funded and non-funded spaces available. Advice also available for professionals.

PEGS    A range of different services for parents including peer support, advocacy, support programmes and one-to-one consultations. Delivered across the country online. PEGS works with parents of children of any age who are using abusive behaviour.

Family Lives    Parentline, operated by Family Lives, offers live online chat, email support or a confidential helpline, for parents in England and Wales experiencing any form of stress or difficulty in their lives. (During the night, calls are redirected to the Samaritans helpline.)

Children 1st    Telephone advice service and web chat for families in Scotland.

Parenting NI    Leading parents’ helpline for families in Northern Ireland

HIJK (Help is Just Knowledge)    An organisation offering a (paid for) 12 week web-based Advanced Parenting Skills programme based around the book Parenting a Violent Child

Substance use issues

Adfam    Families with young people using drugs or alcohol, who are also violent or abusive, may be able to access support through groups known to Adfam. Since 2017, Adfam also offer a Befriending Service, whereby parents are supported by peer volunteers – in person, by phone or email. The Befrienders have personal experience of violence and abuse from their children. The service can be accessed here.

Adoption, Fostering, Special Guardianship and Kinship Care

 PAC-UK    Advice and support for adopters including children’s violence and abuse.

Adoption UK    Phone and peer support for adoptive families.

Adoption UK (Wales)    Support groups, training and call-backs, based on NVR, for adoptive families in Wales facing challenging behaviour or child to parent violence.

Family Futures UK    New live online training to help with managing child to parent violence and aggression – for adoptive parents, foster carers, kinship carers, special guardians & relatives of care experienced children (specific dates)

POTATO (Parents of traumatised adopted teens organisation)   A membership organisation for adopters living in the UK. Supports families with adopted children up into early adulthood. Peer support, advice, expertise, signposting.

The Child Psychology Service    Working nationally online, supporting parents of children and young people up to the age of 25, typically funded by ASF. Uses NVR and DDP.

Adoption Academy   “From Hostility to Harmony, Changing a Child’s Challenging Behaviour”. Support provided for adopters via online webinars, e-course and one to one mentoring. Parents can self-refer or be referred by their adoption agency.

Special Needs

Yvonne Newbold    Facebook group offering advice and support to families of children with SEND. Regular online training events organised.

FASD Hub Scotland    Telephone and email helplines for those parenting or caring for a child with FASD or Prenatal Alcohol Exposure.

Adult Child to Parent Abuse

There is significantly less research and far fewer resources for families where abuse is coming from an adult child. Some local domestic abuse agencies are very aware of the specific issues this raises and are able to support families appropriately.

If this is not the case for you, you can find some advice and support from PEGS who work with families where children can be any age. In London, Solace may be able to offer support. In Wales, Dewis Choice provides support for women over the age of 60.

Judith Smith also runs support groups for parents, but she is based in the USA so times might be a problem from other countries.

SPECIALIST CHILD TO PARENT VIOLENCE PROGRAMME PROVIDERS

Respect offer the RYPP programme in a growing number of locations. You can find out more about the programme itself, and a list of agencies offering the RYPP on the Respect website. 

Who’s in Charge? is a programme supporting parents of young people using harmful behaviour, or out of parental control. The four-month programme for parents follows a manual developed by Eddie Gallagher, and uses a combination of therapeutic and knowledge-based approaches including solution focused and narrative work and CBT; aiming to restore self-confidence and authority in the parent, a healthier parent-child relationship and helps to eliminate child to parent violence. There is more information about the programme, and a map of providers on the Who’s in Charge? website.

Non Violent Resistance (NVR) offers a new way of relating as a family, with support and training offered by a growing number of individuals and agencies. More details available below and on the Mapping Project. Families in Ireland can find a map of agencies offering Non Violent Resistance training on the NVR Ireland website.

THE MAPPING PROJECT

Since 2015 work has been going on to map specialist support around Britain, for families living with child to parent violence and abuse. As more services have come on stream it has become increasingly difficult for me to maintain an up to date accurate listing of each service, and so I have been working with Respect and the relevant organisations, since 2022, to migrate the Directory to a new website, which will also offer a range of other support in this area. This new website is now LIVE in 2023, and so you can view a comprehensive and up to date listing of services here. You will no longer be invited to visit the original directory which has been archived.

Other services include:

Parents of Children with Conduct Disorder. A closed Facebook group which offers support to families around the world, many of whom experience violence and abuse on a regular basis.

Lotus Links Peer Support. A peer support group in Leeds for parents/carers of SEND children with anxiety-led violent behaviour

SCOTLAND

Adapt Scotland offer trauma and attachment based mentoring and therapeutic work for foster and adoptive families, and for professionals.

The Adoption UK Scotland page lists various sources of help and advice.

NORTHERN IRELAND

Parenting Northern Ireland offer the NVR programme: Walking on Eggshells. Programmes run in Belfast, Derry City and Portadown. Call free PNI Regional Helpline 08088010722 to hear more.

IRELAND

Within Ireland, a number of agencies offer programmes for parents in using Non Violent Resistance. You can find out more about this via the NVR Ireland website.

Green Moon Training, offers training in Non Violent Resistance to both parents and practitioners. This service can be accessed through Facebook now for those without a laptop.

LCT Services offer one to one and group counselling for parents experiencing child to parent violence and abuse.

 

SERVICES ELSEWHERE AROUND THE WORLD

AUSTRALIA:

Anglicare Victoria offer the Breaking the Cycle programme.

Berry Street in NorthEast Melbourne offer the TARA programme and the Wattle Project.

The State of Victoria has recently made more funding available to run services for families in three areas: Bayside Peninsula, Barwon and Mallee, through The Orange Door.

USA: The Step Up programme has been running very successfully now for many years, initially in Seattle, but now in other states. Information on the King Country website. More information about services in Illinois here. In Florida, a number of separate groups of people have been involved in developing services. See The Morning After Centre, Breaking the Cycle Consulting. Families in Multnomah County, Oregon may be able to access help via the FUSE program.

SPAIN: Proyecto Conviviendo is offered by Fundacion Amigo in Madrid,  Coruna, Vigo, Torrelavega, Bilbao and  Valencia. See also Recurra Ginso for help.

CANADA: Envision Counselling and Support Centre has four centres in Southeast Saskatchewan. They have a page of information about Parent Abuse on their website, and may be able to offer direct support.

Adopt4Life are developing support for permanence families in the Ontario area experiencing harmful behaviour from their child. See also the website from The National Consortium on Aggression Towards Family and Caregivers in Childhood (AFCCA)

MALTA: Agenzija Appogg offers support to families experiencing violence and abuse from their children.

SINGAPORE: PAVE is Singapore’s family violence specialist centre. They have experience in supporting families experiencing adolescent to parent violence.