Welcome to Learn on the go, a Community Care Inform podcast where we discuss what the latest research, practice models and policy guidance mean to your practice.

This episode is about child and adolescent to parent abuse. It covers how this form of abuse is defined, what is known about when and why it occurs, how social workers can support families, both when there are specific programmes in place and what they can do themselves. We also explore the links and differences with domestic abuse. Discussing these questions are Helen Bonnick, social worker specialising in this area and Jane Griffiths, parent-child therapist, consultant and trainer. The questions were asked by Joanna Silman content editor at Community Care Inform.

Helen Bonnick’s website is holesinthewall.co.uk and her book is Child to Parent Violence and Abuse: a practitioners guide to working with families, Pavilion Publishing, 2019.
Jane’s Facebook page for families and professionals is Capauk (https://www.facebook.com/Capauk-1232850886885882/)

2:31 – What is child to parent violence and abuse and what do we know about when and why it takes place?

9.37 – How can you identify if a family is experiencing ‘normal’ behaviour and boundary pushing. or abuse?

13.58 - How should social workers respond and work with families?

26.01 – What research says

29.55 – Working with different ages

Community Care Inform subscribers can access additional resources and a written transcript of the podcast: https://www.ccinform.co.uk/learning-tools/child-or-adolescent-to-parent-abuse-podcast

And if you want to hear more, in 2017 we published an episode of the podcast discussing adoption disruption, with researcher Julie Selwyn and Elaine Dibben from CoramBAAF https://www.spreaker.com/episode/16966372

References

BBC (2019)
Domestic violence: Child-parent abuse doubles in three years
BBC News, 7th August 2019

Condry R, & Miles C (2014) ‘Adolescent to parent violence: Framing and mapping a hidden problem‘. Criminology & Criminal Justice, 14(3), 257–275.

Holt A & Shon P (2016) ‘Exploring Fatal and Non-Fatal Violence Against Parents: Challenging the Orthodoxy of Abused Adolescent Perpetrators‘. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology. 62. 1

Holt, A (2015) ‘Adolescent-to-Parent Abuse as a Form of “Domestic Violence”: A Conceptual Review‘. Trauma, violence & abuse. 17

Northumberland LSCB (2018)
APVA: Briefing note for professionals

Wilcox P et al (2015)
Responding to Child to Parent Violence
RCPV, Brighton