November NUI Galway and Non-Violent Resistance Ireland Host Webinar to Address Solutions for Child to Parent Violence

Parents are living in fear of their child or teenager, and this webinar will share experiences, skills and research about what helps to end this form of abusive and violent behaviour  

According to Parentline, calls to the helpline from parents have quadrupled in 2020 since the COVID-19 lockdown

Non-Violent Resistance (NVR) Ireland and NUI Galway are hosting a free webinar for practitioners working in children and family services. The webinar, ‘Ending Shame and Silence - NVR Ireland responding to family fear and violence’ will take place on Wednesday, 25 November, from 10am-12pm.

Some parents and carers in Ireland are living in fear of their child under the age of 18 years and experience abusive and/or violent behaviour from their son or daughter. This problem is known as child to parent violence and abuse.

According to Parentline, a national telephone support service for parents and carers in Ireland, calls to the helpline from parents has quadrupled in 2020 since the COVID-19 lockdown (March-October), with a huge rise in the number of parents and carers asking for help with the problem of child to parent violence and abuse.

NVR Ireland is a national network of practitioners and researchers committed to helping families resolve problems by using the Non Violent Resistance intervention, adapted by Dr Declan Coogan, School of Political Science and Sociology at NUI Galway, for use in Ireland, based on the work of Haim Omer and his colleagues in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Dr Coogan said: “The Non Violent Resistance intervention model steps into the gap left by a lack of easily available and adaptable intervention programmes designed to help parents and carers living with child to parent violence and abuse, and the practitioners who work with them in children and family services.”

Along with a parent speaking about her experiences of using NVR, speakers during the webinar will include:

• Dr Declan Coogan, NUI Galway
• Aileen Hickie, CEO of Parentline
• Grace Bermingham, Family Support Co-ordinator with Tusla – Child and Family Agency
• Niamh Murphy, Youth Justice Team Leader, Kildare Youth Services
• Lorraine Shortt, Youth Counsellor, Kildare Youth Services
• John Peelo, Project Leader, Tulsa – Child and Family Agency
• Niall Nolan, Senior Social Work Practitioner, Tulsa – Child and Family Agency

Dr Coogan added: “Each speaker at the webinar will share their experiences with NVR in practice and in their lives. We are all aiming to help end the shame and stigma surrounding parents’and carers’ experiences of child to parent violence and abuse. We will also provide practitioners and researchers with up-to-date tips and messages from research about the Non Violent Resistance model. We know that problems of child to parent violence abuse is emerging in a range of child and family services. These problems have been reported among families from a wide range of social and cultural backgrounds and we also know that NVR seems to help many families.”

The webinar is suitable for child and family practitioners (in public and private services), researchers and students. Attendance at the webinar is free, however advance registration is essential at https://bit.ly/36N20nG.

Further information is available at www.nvrireland.ie

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