A lot more bits and pieces from around the world in the last weeks…..
Good to see the Daphne RCPV website is now up and running. You will find it here, with information about the project and research as a whole, conferences and training events linked to the programme, ways to get involved and a link to the RCPV blog. Recent posts cover the progress of the research in the different participating countries: Sweden, Spain, Bulgaria and Ireland. Continue reading
Filed under Discussion, projects, publications, Research, Training opportunities
A couple of years ago I was asked to write something about child to parent violence with reference to adoptive families. For a variety of reasons I wrote something with an entirely different focus, and in retrospect I’m glad I did. I had met and interviewed an adoptive mother as part of my Masters research but, while acknowledging that an adopted child might bring issues from their early life to a new family, I had no real understanding at that time of early trauma and its effect on attachment and behaviour. Continue reading
Filed under publications, Research
I offer you a round up of various items that have cropped up in the last weeks, all with something of a learning theme, hence the title of the post.
A third year postgraduate Clinical Counselling student at the University of Chester, Jennifer Thomas, is looking for participants for her dissertation research, title: Exploring the place of counselling for parents who have lived with child-to-parent violence. This is specifically with reference to individual counselling for parents, rather than programmes working with the family. If you would like to know more, or know any one else who can help, I will be happy to pass on your details to Jennifer. Continue reading
Filed under publications, Research, Training opportunities
The revised edition of the Home Office’s ‘A Call to End Violence Against Women and Girls’ Action Plan (2014) has just been published and now includes specific references to child to parent violence, with two actions (reference 63 and 139) ‘Develop and disseminate information for practitioners working with children and families on how to identify and address the risks posed by adolescent to parent violence’. These are new and fall within the joint remit of the Home Office and Youth Justice Board, to be addressed by December 2014 and April 2015 respectively. Continue reading
Filed under publications
A couple of useful links this week regarding research into parent abuse….
Dr Amanda Holt has set up a jiscmail distribution list for researchers and practitioners with an interest in adolescent to parent violence. It is designed to provide a forum for exchange of ideas, research, information and events about this issue, and is configured as a public list that anyone can subscribe to, with publically-available archives. For those interested in joining the list, the link is here.
Dr Remy Vink is involved in research into child to parent violence in the Netherlands, in a study commissioned by children’s charity, Stichting Kinderpostzegels Nederland. The work has looked at how often domestic violence agencies and the police are confronted with cases of domestic violence committed by young people (12 – 23 years of age), as well as the types of violence. The study will be completed with a fact sheet and recommendations. More information here. You can also follow Dr Vink on twitter.
Finally, I have set up a twitter list to make it easier to catch up with posts or tweets from those involved in the field. If you use twitter you can subscribe to the list by following this link. If you would like to be added to the list then just let me know!
Filed under Research
When the issue of fining parents for allowing their children to arrive late to school, for persistent non-attendance, or for taking them on holiday in term-time comes up – as it does regularly – it arouses a whole mixture of emotions and responses, in me and in the public at large. Add to the mix the suggestion that ‘good citizen neighbours’ should be wading in, or that telling people they are bad parents will bring about the desired effect, and you’ve pressed enough of my buttons for me to go firing off at random in all directions!
Many of the issues were addressed admirably in the Guardian last week by Patrick Fagan here and by Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett here. Continue reading
Filed under Discussion, news reports
It has been a real privilege to be engaged in the work to raise awareness of child to parent violence over the last year; and indeed in compiling this blog and the accompanying pages. It has seemed as if 2013 has been the year that things have really taken off in the UK, with one major piece of research reported and others underway in Britain, attracting huge media attention. Despite budget cuts local authorities have found money for training events, as children’s violence has become such an issue in their work. Projects and responses have emerged across all disciplines as the need has been identified. Significant work has been done by the Youth Offending Service in promoting good practice and publicising the work of specialist projects. Elsewhere a pilot is well underway in Victoria, Australia, and papers are emerging from around the world as practitioners and academics seek to understand the phenomenon and support families in distress. Continue reading
Filed under Discussion
Every so often I come across something completely different in my searches regarding parent abuse. One such find was the company Paramita Entertainment, which I first encountered tweeting about the development of a film, THE LOST SOUL.
Paramita Entertainment was established to create films that have a positive impact on important issues that need to be brought to life. It was created by two Buddhist Lamas, Emilia Henriques da Silva and Jacques-Yves Mistretta, after they had been consulting on a film project in France. They saw the positive and powerful impact that films can have and decided they could address important topics through the medium of film. The company has been set up with the initiative to not only create films that are powerful on topics that might have been taboo in film before, but also to undertake direct action towards assisting those facing the issues they are addressing. Continue reading
Filed under Film
When I speak with people about children’s violence to parents, the question of terminology regularly raises its head: How helpful is it to talk about ‘victim’ and ‘perpetrator’ in cases of parent abuse? So this post has been in the making for some time, but was finally brought into being after I was sent a link to a piece in the Sheffield Star last week. It may be lacking a few references so please feel free to comment on this with links to relevant articles.
The news piece itself is very clear in identifying the 20 year old man as the perpetrator of violence, and the mother as the victim. We may agree or not that the judge overstepped the mark in his summing up; but read through to the comments stream and a dissenting voice emerges – as well as a reminder not to jump to conclusions without knowing all the circumstances. Continue reading
Filed under Discussion, news reports
This piece in the Irish Times dropped into my inbox over the weekend.
Declan Coogan addressed the Annual Work Conference in Dublin, hosted by the National Family Support Network, with details from his own work in the UNESCO Child and Family Research Centre in NUI Galway, and as project leader in Ireland for the EU-funded project ‘Responding to Child to Parent Violence’. Reporting that this is the one of the fastest growing issues in calls to parent-support organisations such as Parent Line, he gave examples of children as young as eight terrifying and violently assaulting their parents. He also spoke about his programme of Non-Violent Resistance (NVR), which has been found to be helpful in work with families experiencing parent abuse.
You can read more about NVR in an earlier post on this site. Details of the international conference in Galway in June 2014 will be posted on my Events and Training page as soon as they become available.
Filed under conference report, news reports
HOLES IN THE WALL 