Tag Archives: Parent abuse

by | March 10, 2015 · 7:42 pm

Lazy reporting could not spoil an opportunity to discuss parent abuse

This started off as a weary rant from me today and then changed tone as the day progressed!

While it has been exciting and encouraging to see the increase in coverage of child to parent violence and abuse in the media over the last week, I have been disappointed yet again by the tone of some of the pieces and the apparent laziness of reporting.

Times headline

The main headline in the Times, (you may not be able to read the next line, “Families cannot deal with minor domestic rows”)  today picks up on the report from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary into the welfare of vulnerable people in police custody, which has held centre stage across the media today. This highlights the often inappropriate use of custody for individuals experiencing poor mental health, or other vulnerabilities, because of a crisis in other support services; and while researchers have said that the findings show pressures faced by many families and carers, and the fact that the police are often used as the agency of last resort, the first example given – thus setting the tone – is of a dispute over a TV remote control. Other examples are given of greater severity of risk and violence. Parents are described as contacting the police because they reach breaking point. But there is no exploration of this issue in a wider way, other than to suggest lone women are finding it particularly difficult to bring up children. Continue reading →

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by | February 24, 2015 · 11:29 am

Standards and quality assurance: next steps in parent abuse work

I was at a meeting last week considering the need for practice standards in work with families impacted by parent abuse.

While it still feels uncomfortably random whether you are able to access help or not as a family or practitioner, it might be surprising to hear that there has been a real surge in the development of services across England at least. With a limited amount of research and evidence to base work on, it is perhaps less surprising that many of the services show great similarities, even when they have started from different places and within different agencies, but there is variety and this is both good (flexibility in design and delivery meets specific needs) and potentially problematic (how can we be sure that work meets the needs). Now that programmes are more established and have themselves worked through initial teething problems, it seems a good time to think about how to assure quality and safety in the work. Continue reading →

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by | February 10, 2015 · 8:24 am

A brighter future for families experiencing child to parent violence

Continuing a mini series of interviews about different projects around the country, I have been speaking with Sian Taylor at Wish for a Brighter Future in Bristol.

Wish header

 

Wish for a Brighter Future (WISH) has been in operation since 2003, when a small group of Hartcliffe residents identified a need to provide domestic abuse support in their community. WISH worked for many years supporting men, women and children affected by domestic violence and abuse (DVA) within the local community before developing their parent abuse project. They found their understanding and experience of DVA were vital in making the transition from domestic to parent abuse support. While the original expectation was that the work would be with young people, delivering domestic abuse prevention work through education and group work support – and the funding* supported this plan – once the doors opened the organisation was inundated with referrals for parent abuse, and for the last year this has been the sole focus of the work. Continue reading →

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by | January 2, 2015 · 11:16 am

Parent abuse: looking back, looking forward

It is the traditional time for looking back – and looking forward – a time when many of us reassess our hopes and dreams, and make new plans for the future. I recently wrote a guest blog for the Oxford APV website, looking back over the last ten years of work in this field. I don’t want to rehash what I wrote there – go take a look – but here are some more musings and a bit more detail to some earlier hints for the direction of my work in the coming months. Continue reading →

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by | December 8, 2014 · 7:09 pm

Kate Iwi talks about restorative justice in parent abuse work

Marking International Restorative Justice Week in November, this YouTube video was posted by IARS. In it, Kate Iwi, of Respect UK, talks about an innovative restorative technique being pioneered as part of the Respect Young People’s Programme. Restorative work is a fundamental aspect of work with families experiencing children’s violence to parents.

 

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by | December 1, 2014 · 8:56 am

Parent abuse: Looking back over the last ten years.

The folks at the Adolescent to Parent Violence project based in Oxford, which reported in 2013, have recently been having an overhaul of their website. The plan is to feature regular guest bloggers and I was privileged to be asked to write the first post. You can see catch it here: Looking back over 10 years of work in the field of Parent Abuse.

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by | November 25, 2014 · 10:14 am

Parent Abuse: Engaging with Social Workers

CAADA tweet

 

The CAADA tweet posted yesterday referred to intimate partner violence, but it doesn’t take long on message boards to find similar concerns around the reporting of child to parent violence: parents reluctant to seek help from Children’s Services because of a belief that the response will be that they are failing to protect  their other children. No prizes for guessing what happens next.

As a social worker myself, I am deeply troubled by the narrative; but also concerned because social workers that I meet at conferences or at work tell me that they DO know about parent abuse, and that they desperately want to help if only there were more resources. What is it that happens at that point of disconnection? Continue reading →

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by | October 7, 2014 · 7:58 am

Understanding parent abuse within a child protection framework

We hear a lot about the cross-over between domestic abuse and child to parent violence (CPV), but significantly less about how CPV is to be understood within a child abuse and protection framework. This is an area of work dear to my own heart, and one that has also been the focus of some research in the Netherlands. Recently Dutch researcher, Dr Remy Vink, was tweeting about a conference she had attended, and she kindly agreed to be interviewed about it for the blog.

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by | October 2, 2014 · 4:23 pm

Adolescent Violence in the Home: Believe the Impossible!

In July I posted details of a newly published book about adolescence violence in the home from Gregg Routt and Lily Anderson. Rather belatedly, I am really pleased now to offer a review for those who have not yet had time to read their own copy.

When considering the abuse that human beings heap on one another, it can sometimes seem that we are being required to believe “as many as six impossible things before breakfast”*; and, for many people, the notion of children abusing their parents falls neatly into this category. One of the things that make the excellent new book by Routt and Anderson so accessible is the frequent use of case studies to illustrate a point, whether to further understanding of an aspect of abuse, or to demonstrate the detail of the programme they have developed. By including this level of illustration they make an important contribution to believing the impossible: Yes, this happens, and this is what it looks like, but change is possible. Continue reading →

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by | September 10, 2014 · 11:47 am

More news about “My Violent Child”

The June screening of the Channel 5 documentary My Violent Child, which attracted over 1.5 million viewers (available here till June 2015), stirred up some very mixed feelings. There is evidence (comments to Channel 5) that many families found it helpful in showing something of what they were themselves experiencing, thus validating their concerns and fears around living with violent teens. The Southampton practitioner and team featured have received many referrals and have developed their work further as a result. Yet other practitioners were seriously concerned by the possible effects of filming vulnerable young people, including graphic footage of their violent and abusive behaviour, as well as the shortage of positive, constructive answers for families shown in the film. I have blogged about this previously here. Continue reading →

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