NDVS Framework for Working with Children and Young People
The NDVS Framework for Working with Children and Young People is to be read in conjunction with the NDVS Principles for Working with Children and Young People and the NDVS Charter for Children and Young People.
The NDVS Framework for Working with Children and Young People consists of a foundational principle that underpins four core elements. This document also includes practice guidelines.
The framework places significant emphasis on rebuilding mother/child relationships damaged by domestic and family violence to support children’s and young people’s recovery and wellbeing. Women are usually the primary carers and first educators of their children. Research shows that women who are safe and supported provide the best hope for their children’s recovery from experiences of domestic and family violence[1]. The NDVS framework is designed to build on this research and enhance the capacity of women and their children to create a supportive, caring and respectful family culture.
The foundation of the NDVS framework is to support the mother to be “Bigger, Stronger, Wiser and Kind”[2] in all her dealings with her children. This underpins the framework’s four core elements, all of which are integral parts of NDVS’s service response:
1. Develop and acknowledge family resilience and strengths
2. Develop and review shared goals and plans
3. Support mothers to strengthen or establish routines and consistent boundaries
4. Develop positive family culture through family ‘rituals’.
The framework outlines the approach that is used by NDVS Case Managers, who tailor their responses to suit the individual needs of families, women and children. Case work practice includes recognising that service responses must take into account strategies and techniques that are culturally sensitive and appropriate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) families. NDVS recognises that there may be approaches beyond this framework that should be considered in responding to ATSI and CALD families.
Case Managers have access to Children and Young People’s Advocates to enhance service interventions for young clients assessed as benefitting from specific or specialist support in the development of particular strategies to address need.
FOUNDATION – Mother as BIGGER, STRONGER, WISER AND KIND
NDVS employs the Circle of Security concept, “Bigger, Stronger, Wiser and Kind”, as the foundation of its work with mothers and their children. The Circle of Security derives from Attachment Theory, which provides a framework for meeting children’s fundamental relationship needs. In this approach, a healthy parent/child relationship requires parents to set limits and standards (be Bigger and Stronger) whilst responding to their children with wisdom and empathy (be Wiser and Kind).
“Bigger, Stronger, Wiser and Kind” is important in countering perpetrators’ efforts to undermine mothers’ authority and relationships with their children[3]. NDVS supports the mother to (re)claim her appropriate authority and communicate with her children in respectful and caring ways. This fosters children’s healthy development and promotes a family culture of care and respect. As children may have learned to respond to the type of authority that abuses power they may require support to learn to interact with their mother in appropriate and respectful ways.
CORE ELEMENTS
With the foundational principle at the heart of NDVS practice with mothers and their children, four core elements are employed. These are solution-focused, enhancing and developing family strengths, rather than focusing on problems.
1. Develop and acknowledge family resilience and strengths
Domestic and family violence strips women and children of self confidence and self esteem. NDVS holds that countering these effects of violence and abuse requires a process that nurtures resilience and strengths within the family. NDVS’s responses enable family members firstly, to powerfully identify one another’s positive acts and qualities and secondly, to continue to regularly acknowledge, celebrate and deepen family members’ employment of these strengths.
It is important that this process goes beyond increasing the self-esteem of individuals to being shared in a family activity. By identifying and witnessing one another’s positive qualities and the ways in which they manifest in their behaviour, mothers and children increase their awareness of their individual and shared strengths, and become more conscious of using them. This builds both individual and family esteem, through helping mothers and their children understand that they can all play a positive role and contribute uniquely to their family life. It also builds resilience within the family and a capacity to deal competently with adversity.
2. Develop and review shared goals and plans
NDVS holds that it is fundamental that women and children together develop goals and plans for the future as this builds connection and counters the dynamic of isolation produced by abuse and violence. Joint work promotes opportunities for greater understanding and trust of one another and a shared commitment to the future. It allows families to celebrate together any achievements towards their goals, however small.
Joint goal setting enhances the articulation of family members’ hopes and dreams, fostering clarity and building motivation. Detailing plans to achieve identified goals may nourish resilience to work through difficulties and strengthen one’s capacity to take control of one’s life.
3. Support mothers to strengthen or establish routines and consistent boundaries
Consistent and fair routines and boundary-setting are important elements for children and young people in creating a sense of safety and security. Sometimes these elements have been undermined by domestic and family violence when, for example, perpetrators have been inconsistent and unfair in their dealings with women and children.
Daily and weekly routines:
· provide repetition, regular sleep and meals, regular time for play and homework, all of which are important for children’s development, learning and sense of safety and security;
· provide a framework that clarifies what is expected from household members;
· foster consistency, order, and shared responsibility for household tasks.
4. Develop positive family culture through family ‘rituals’
Creating enjoyable family ‘rituals’ that involve family members communicating more with one another and sharing activities is a powerful means through which to build trust and a nurturing household “culture”. Trust, respectful communication and enjoying one another’s company can all be undermined by domestic and family violence. Regular family ‘rituals’ provide a means, time and commitment for family members to (re-)build healthy relationships. Rituals may consist of weekly times in which mothers and children might play games, watch a video, talk about their week, make and eat special food, or engage in other activities that they choose.
Practice Guidelines
NDVS Case Managers explain and discuss with the mother the foundational principle of Bigger, Stronger, Wiser and Kind. Together with the mother, Case Managers:
· explore the importance and meaning of Bigger, Stronger, Wiser and Kind;
· acknowledge the ways in which the mother already behaves in this way with her children;
· devise how to enhance and develop this approach in her relationships with her children;
· model Bigger, Stronger, Wiser and Kind in all dealings with children and young people, thereby allowing mothers to observe this in differing contexts;
· identify opportunities in which Case Managers can support the mother’s attempts to rebuild and strengthen her relationships with her children by employing this approach.
Case Managers work with the family on the four core elements. Together with mothers and children, Case Managers:
· discuss their hopes and goals, devise plans and the strategies to achieve these;
· develop strategies to enable mother and children to each identify one another’s positive qualities, and describe how these are displayed. Regularly revisiting these qualities, Case Managers help mother and children understand how their strengths can be used to improve their relationships and deal with problems;
· identify where routines and boundaries would be helpful, and devise a plan that incorporates these;
· explore opportunities to build some shared rituals.
The plans and strategies for the core elements are tailored to each family. They need to be achievable and incorporate elements that measure progress towards identified goals. The plans and strategies and how families are working with them are reviewed regularly. Families are encouraged to witness and celebrate even their small successes in moving forward.
Child-friendly approaches
NDVS employs practice approaches that are child-friendly, including stories, images, drawing, play and metaphor as these engage children and young people more closely than abstract ideas. Play “is the child’s natural medium of communication”[4]. Communicating through metaphors allows children to express their concerns and emotions, understand their experiences and find solutions to problems[5]. Employing metaphors has similar therapeutic benefits for adults, and can aid in challenging assumptions and introducing new frames of reference[6].
These approaches:
· more easily provide the focus of a shared family activity or ritual;
· strengthen family relationships and communication, and provide a means to help family members “pull together”;
· are enjoyable and involve play;
· enable mother and children to express themselves in ways that suit them (draw, cut-out pictures);
· enable children and young people to participate in discussions about their future and contribute to decisions in ways that are age and ability appropriate.
There are many metaphoric tools that can be used to enhance practice. Families may introduce their own metaphors, or, for example, in working with a family on their future goals and plans it may be useful to use the image of the shared home of the future. This can give children a strong way of envisaging their goals and the sort of life they hope to live with their family. Through writing down their goals or illustrating them in some way, and keeping these representations as reminders (possibly in a box that is decorated as a home) mother and children have a means of deepening their commitment to achieving their goals.
Another metaphoric tool is the image of the family toolbox or kit bag. Strengths and qualities become more tangible when family members first speak them, then write or draw them, and then place these representations where they can be remembered, revisited and added to - in a box that represents the family toolbox or kit bag. The toolbox provides a practical means of having family members regularly remind one another of their resilience, strengths and progress.
References
Gevers, L. (1999). Models of Service for Working with Children and Young People Who Have Lived with Domestic Violence, Commonwealth of Australia PADV.
Humphreys, C., C. Houghton, et al. (2008). Literature Review: Better Outcomes for Children and Young People Experiencing Domestic Abuse - Directions for Good Practice. Edinburgh, The Scottish Government.
Lyddon, W. J., A. L. Clay, et al. (2001). "Metaphor and Change in Counseling." Journal of Counseling & Development 79(3): 269-274.
Morris, A. (2009). "Gendered Dynamics of Abuse and Violence in Families: Considering the Abusive Household Gender Regime." Child Abuse Review 18((www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/car.1098): 414–427.
Snow, M. S., R. Ouzts, et al. (2005). Creative metaphors of life experiences seen in play therapy. VISTAS: Compelling perspectives on counseling. G. R. Walz and R. K. Yep. Alexandria, VA, American Counseling Association: 63-65.
Northern Domestic Violence Service
Policy Area: Client Services
Policy Reference: Framework for working with
children and young people
Endorsed by the NDVS Board: 30 April 2013
Review by: December 2015
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[1] Humphreys, C., C. Houghton, et al. (2008). Literature Review: Better Outcomes for Children and Young People Experiencing Domestic Abuse - Directions for Good Practice. Edinburgh, The Scottish Government.
[2] Cooper, Hoffman, Marvin, & Powell – 2000. www.circleofsecurity.net
[3] Morris, A. (2009). "Gendered Dynamics of Abuse and Violence in Families: Considering the Abusive Household Gender Regime." Child Abuse Review 18((www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/car.1098): 414–427.
[4] Gevers, L. (1999). Models of Service for Working with Children and Young People Who Have Lived with Domestic Violence, Commonwealth of Australia PADV.
[5] Snow, M. S., R. Ouzts, et al. (2005). Creative metaphors of life experiences seen in play therapy. VISTAS: Compelling perspectives on counseling. G. R. Walz and R. K. Yep. Alexandria, VA, American Counseling Association: 63-65.
[6] Lyddon, W. J., A. L. Clay, et al. (2001). "Metaphor and Change in Counseling." Journal of Counseling & Development 79(3): 269-274.