Child mental health practitioners' perspectives on providing support for families where there is intimate partner violence: navigating complex family relationships and fear at home

Background

Children who experience and are victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) between their parents or carers are at greater risk of mental health problems and are more likely to use mental health services. Prevalence studies suggest that between 10 and 35 % of children attending children and young people's mental health services (CYPMHS) have experienced parental IPV. Despite forming a considerable proportion of practitioner caseloads, we have limited knowledge of CYPMHS practitioner perspectives on working with children who have experienced parental IPV.

Objective

To understand the perspective of CYPMHS practitioners on providing support for children who have experienced parental IPV.

Methods

Secondary qualitative analysis of interview transcripts from a wider study.

Participants and setting: Nine CYMPHS practitioners from three areas of England.

Results

We constructed four themes: 1) Understanding family contexts and fear: time and complexity; 2) Supporting the non-abusing parent: empathy, understanding and conflict; 3) Interacting with abusing parents: fear of causing harm and lack of confidence; 4) Teams of superheroes: the hope and the challenges.

Conclusions

The findings suggest that working with children who have experienced IPV adds additional complexity for CYMPHS practitioners. They would benefit from specialist domestic abuse input to support them to understand post-separation abuse and to interact with both the abusing and non-abusing parent.