Reading an interview with author, Norah Vincent, this week, I came over all philosophical. Vincent was speaking to Emilee Lindner for Buffalonews.com, about her new book, “Thy Neighbor”. The particular passage that got me thinking was this:
Q: One of those “lines” in the book is where you explain that it’s OK for children to reject their parents, but it’s not OK for a parent to reject their child. Why do you think that’s a taboo in society? Continue reading
Filed under Discussion
Nottinghamshire Domestic Violence Forum are running a repeat of their June training day on October 5th 2012.
Addressing Young People’s Abuse of Their Parents, 9.45am – 4.30pm
Fee: £85 per delegate, inclusive of lunch and refreshments
Nottingham Voluntary Action Centre: Ash Room
Trainers: Kate Iwi and Dr Chris Newman
This course will explore the issue of young people’s abuse of parents. The
day will cover the impact of domestic violence on young people, prevalence
and dynamics of parent abuse, building strengths in the parent/ child
relationship,. The afternoon will focus on practical skills for working
with parents experiencing abuse from their children, exploring family
systems work and identifying simple techniques to utilise with young people
to help stop their abuse.
The trainers are both experienced practitioners and trainers; having worked
extensively with perpetrators.
The booking form is available here.
Filed under Training opportunities
Some statistics reported from NSW this weekend in terms of violence towards parents.
According to the latest Bureau of Crime statistics, assaults against a family member by children – as young as 10 – have jumped from 1041 in 2007 to 1302 in 2011 – representing eight per cent of all domestic violence cases in NSW.
We are not to know of course whether this represents a real increase in abuse, or whether we should feel more positive about an increase in reporting and logging of incidents. Whether parents decide to call the police at all will depend hugely on their own experience of support and the local policies and response record. Some people would argue strongly that police involvement can be more damaging.
Set against that, it was interesting to read about the response from The Benevolent Society in Campbelltown, who have a project working with children to restore respect and trust in family relationships following domestic violence (same news article). With research showing a strong link between experience of domestic violence and later violence by young people towards their parents, this is a clear-sighted demonstration of preventive work.
Filed under news reports
An interesting juxtaposition of topics on Woman’s Hour today. Amongst the early items, Jenni Murray interviewed Lisa Harker, Head of Strategy at the NSPCC, and Radio 1 presenter, Gemma Cairney, about the shocking frequency of teenage relationship abuse. Gemma’s documentary “Bruising Silence” aired on Radio 1 tonight, and the NSPCC published a report, “Standing on my own two feet” in 2011, described as the first ever study of abusive relationships among teenagers (downloadable from the NSPCC website). Among the findings, from the University of Bristol, were that 25% of teenage girls and 18% of boys had experienced physical violence in a relationship. In a lot of cases, there was a strong association with witnessing violence in the home, or with peers or family members – 20% of girls had seen domestic violence. Continue reading
Filed under Discussion, radio and video
Respect have announced the date of their next national practitioners’ network meeting, to take place in Cardiff, Wales, on October 16th 2012. Details available on their website. Offers of leading a workshop or sharing practice requested by September 7th.
Filed under Training opportunities
I met with the practitioners from PAARS this week to find out more about what they are doing, and to make their project more widely known.
PAARS, which stands for Parent Abuse and Reconciliation Service, is a small, locally based parent abuse project which got off the ground at the beginning of the year with a Lottery grant and three members working evenings and weekends after finishing their day jobs. Joe Lettieri, Ayse Adil and Karen Hunter work as learning mentors and parent support advisors in a secondary school in the London Borough of Enfield. With many years of service between them, they were very familiar with the story of parents struggling with the twin demons of domestic violence and abusive teenagers, young people acting out their anger and pain in risk taking and violent behaviour, but with no available support services on which to call. Even within school, the team was unable to offer a joined up response, and so they formed PAARS to fill the gap. Continue reading
Filed under projects
There’s been a bit of a theme going on it seems lately about shame.
Today I have been re-reading Lynette Robinson’s Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Report, Interventions and Restorative Responses to Address Teen Violence Against Parents, and the accompanying comments by Terry O’Connell, Director of Real Justice (both available here) Lynette writes about the high level of shame experienced not just by the parents throughout their experiences, but also by the young people regarding their behaviour, and the difficulties of moving on from this position if we do not give people the tools to work with. Continue reading
Filed under Discussion
While it has long been known that substance abuse by young people was in some cases associated with parent abuse, there has been very little written about the connection. (eg Gallagher’s work)
A 2010 research report, entitled “Supporting families affected by substance use and domestic violence”, which has just been brought to my attention, goes some way to opening such a discussion. The report, by Dr. Sarah Galvani, sought to build the research base with two groups of family members whose needs have not been adequately recognised up to now: young people and Family Member Support Providers, (individuals personally affected and seeking to support others by semi-formal means). Initially it had been anticipated that these adults would be concerned with domestic violence between adult members of a household, but they were surprised to discover that they were in fact working with parents and grandparents affected by abuse from their children and grandchildren. Continue reading
Dr Helen Baker has kindly sent me details of an article which was published in Criminal Justice Matters in March this year, Exploring how teenage boys are constructed in relation to parent abuse. The full citation is: Helen Baker (2012): Exploring how teenage boys are constructed in relation to parent abuse, Criminal Justice Matters, 87:1, 48-49
She develops these ideas further in the Social Policy and Society themed issue, of April 2012 issue (Vol. 11, issue 2), Problematising the Relationship between Teenage Boys and Parent Abuse: Constructions of Masculinity and Violence, in a paper which was first presented at a symposium at Sheffield Hallam University in March 2010.
Filed under publications
I have come to anticipate a stimulating and informative experience from Respect’s Practitioner Seminars. Yesterday’s, in the London Borough of Haringey, was the 6th national conference, the first to be held in partnership with a local authority, and it certainly lived up to all expectations. Continue reading
Filed under Discussion, projects, Training opportunities
HOLES IN THE WALL 