Earlier this week we shared a link to the BBC documentary ‘Ian Wright: Home Truths’ here our team discuss the documentary and the issues raised.
The documentary ‘Ian Wright: Home Truths’, highlighted the considerable and often lifelong impact of early trauma. Domestic abuse is a growing problem that society and Social Workers are faced with all too often. The statistics that stand out from the documentary are that in 90% of cases of domestic violence, there is a child present and by the age of 16, 1 in 5 children have experienced some form of abuse. That is a frightening prospect but one that we must be fully attuned to within wider society but also within our assessments of children and their families.
Children are exposed to witnessing significant violence, controlling or coercive behaviours and are often the victims of violence or severe cruelty themselves. Behaviours, attributable to their experiences, are misinterpreted and children can be labelled, sometimes as the problem. A diagnosis of ADHD and ADD often mask the real problems when children display a trauma response or attachment difficulties, because the adults around them are no longer emotionally available to them.
At Advanced CCA, we emphasise to our ISW’s the critical role we have in making a difference for children. Like Ian Wright’s teacher in the documentary, the children exposed to domestic abuse need someone who will listen to them. Children need to be seen, heard and given a voice. Some children have been failed historically by some professionals and the Courts and now, in the 21st Century, the voice of the child is of increasing importance within Care Proceedings and professionals are more attuned to the impact for children of witnessing violence and abuse within their home.
The perpetual pattern of abuse within families can spread through the generations and it is crucial that children and their families are given the tools to break that pattern and herald a very different narrative of childhood.
