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October 2012 |
drinkanddrugsnews
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THIS WEEK THE GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCED A
CHANGE TO THE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
DEFINITION TO RECOGNISE THAT 16 TO 17-
YEAR-OLDS CAN BE VICTIMS OF ABUSIVE
BEHAVIOUR.
Many organisations, including Adfam,
lobbied for this change in our response to the
consultation in March. It’s a really great start
to wider understanding of the complex nature
of domestic violence that can affect people at
different ages and, crucially for Adfam, within
different relationships. However that is what
it must be viewed as… a start.
In partnership with AVA we recently released our new report
Between a
rock and a hard place
considering the often significant impact of child to
parent violence. Under the previous definition, a 17-year-old physically
abusing their parents or grandparents was not considered to be perpetrating
domestic violence. Our research indicates that it’s more likely to be
considered a child protection issue, anti-social behaviour or conduct problem
and service responses to child to parent violence are not as developed as
those towards partner violence. This group of parents also did not recognise
the actions of their children – which ran the full range from physical assaults
with weapons and death threats to coercive control including extreme
behaviour, blackmail, emotional abuse and financial exploitation – as
domestic abuse.
Domestic violence services are unlikely to be in touch with these parents
(who typically look for help regarding their child’s substance use and not the
abuse they suffer) and may not be used to characterising these experiences
as domestic violence if they normally work on intimate partner violence.
Parents are generally unwilling to disclose the abuse due to the ‘double
stigma’ and shame that surrounds both having a child using substances and
being abused by your own child.
The new definition opens the door for further discussions on 16 to 17-
year-olds being both victims and perpetrators of child to parent violence.
However we must not assume that the widening of the definition will neatly
result in an increase in the safety of parents or an improvement in the
response of services to their situation. Many services are vastly over-
stretched and underfunded and the hidden nature of child to parent violence
means that it often goes unrecognised. Practitioners need training and
support to work with this different client group, whose experience of
violence has many similarities to intimate partner violence but also unique
characteristics, which require a specialist understanding.
This change definition is a good start and we are pleased that Adfam’s
and many other organisations’ views have been listened to, but we are
still faced with the struggle of what to call the violence parents suffer,
how to respond appropriately to both the perpetrator and victim, and
where this sits within government policy. As Dr Sarah Galvani concludes
at the end of our report, for these parents, ‘what is clear is that we need
to do better’.
Joss Smith is director of policy and regional development at Adfam,
www.adfam.org.uk
FAMILY MATTERS
A GOOD START…
The government has acknowledged that
child to parent violence exists – now the
real work begins, says
Joss Smith
ENTERPRISE CORNER
SILENT VOICES
Recovery must reach every member of the
family, says
Amar Lodhia
For a long time at TSBC we have advocated
that the key to sustained recovery lies in our
four core values – inspiration and aspiration,
positive role models, incentives and a stable
environment.
In a family situation, this is even more
important when you take the young child who
has grown up with a substance-abusing
parent. Critically, they are given a false start in
life right from the get-go, with a distinct lack
of positive role models, no one to inspire or
incentivise them and anything but a stable
home environment.
Working with participants across the age
spectrum, we have found entrepreneurship and
a lever into the world of business and
employment to have been the common feature
that has pulled them through treatment for
good. It seems logical to apply the same ra-
tionale to a family situation and break the
destructive cycle that substance misuse can
have upon young people growing up in these
environments.
Recent research from the Children’s
Commissioner found that a shocking one in
three children in the UK live with at least one
parent who is a binge drinker (see news story,
page 4). With an additional 350,000 children of
problem drug users in the UK today, there are
over a million young people whose wellbeing
and personal development has been severely
compromised. Future public health reforms
must show a focus towards ensuring that the
levels of treatment available to substance misusers are on par with that
available to their children.
There has been recognition among childcare professionals that more
must be done around the whole family intervention process. This requires a
more holistic approach to recovery, recovery for all those within the family
affected by the impact of substance abuse. For us it makes sense that
parents struggling through treatment with substance misuse cannot be
seen in isolation. At home, there will be a young child, struggling through
their own issues, with no treatment on standby to help them. Of course this
is easier said than done.
When we met Louise Casey, the prime minister’s tsar on tackling
troubled families across the UK, we discussed how we could use enterprise,
business and initiatives like
Breaking the cycle
to bring a positive purpose to
a family and instil our values to enable both parents and children to
progress together. We are actively seeking examples of how work being
done with parent and child together is carried out as well as case studies.
I’d be interested in hearing your examples, case studies and views on this.
Email me personally at ceo@tsbccic.org.uk and follow us on Twitter
@TSBCLondon using the #tag DDNews
Amar Lodhia is chief executive of The Small Business Consultancy CIC (TSBC)
‘We are
actively
seeking
examples of
how work
being done
with parent
and child
together is
carried out.’
Enterprise corner |
Family matters