The Respect Young People’s Programme (RYPP) has been running for just over a year now, and so it seemed like a good time to catch up with the director of the programme to hear how it’s been going. RYPP is an intervention for 10-16 year olds and their parents where the young person has used violence or aggressive behaviour towards a parent. Many thanks to Neil Blacklock of Respect, who has written this End of Year Report, with especial attention to lessons learnt. I was particularly interested to read about the management and organisational lessons, as this is an area which we do not address so often. Continue reading
A new book about Adolescent Violence to Parents
I am pleased to post the following announcement, sent to me by Greg Routt and Lily Anderson.
Announcing the publication of a new book from Routledge on July 12, 2014 by the creators of Step Up in Seattle, Washington. Adolescent Violence in the Home Restorative Approaches to Building Healthy, Respectful Family Relationships Gregory Routt and Lily Anderson
Adolescent Violence in the Home examines a form of violence that has a profound impact on families but is often overlooked and frequently misunderstood: teen aggression and violence toward members of their family—especially parents. Adolescent Violence in the Home uses a restorative framework, developed by the authors and in use in court systems and organizations around the world, to situate violent behaviors in the context of power and the inter generational cycle of violence. Readers will come away from this book with a profound understanding of the social and individual factors that lead youth to use violence and how adolescent violence affects parents, and they’ll also learn about a variety of interventions that specifically address teen violence against parents. Continue reading
Filed under publications
Writing about violence from children
Recently I have been contacted by a number of people also blogging about teenage violence, or about diagnoses associated with children exhibiting violence to their parents or others.
Understanding PDA is a website / blog by Jane Sherwin, bringing a wealth of experience about Pathological Demand Avoidance Syndrome, including a helpful booklet which explains the syndrome for professionals as well as parents, and sharing strategies that have worked with her nine year old daughter. Continue reading
Filed under projects
Daphne RCPV Conference in Galway
The recent conference in Galway, hosted by the National University of Ireland in Galway, was an opportunity to hear about progress on the RCPV project and to meet the participants from around Europe, to learn more about NVR, and to meet practitioners from Ireland in particular who are already engaged in work with families experiencing violence from their children. Continue reading
Filed under conference report
A family therapy intervention in Portugal
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
Filed under Discussion, publications
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
HOLES IN THE WALL 