Welcome to the national Child/Adolescent to Parent Violence and Abuse (CAPVA) Service Directory. This directory was originally developed by Helen Bonnick and was available on the Holes in the Wall website.
This map provides information and contact details of services in the UK who support parents and carers which are experiencing violence and abuse from their children or the children they care for.
Respect uses the term CAPVA, but you may have heard other terms such as Adolescent to Parent Violence and abuse (APVA), Child to parent Abuse (CPA) and others. We are all referring to:
“The dynamic where a young person (8 years -18 years) engages in abusive behaviour* towards a parent or adult carer where the abusive behaviour is harmful and repeated. *By abusive behaviour we mean more than physical violence, but including emotional, coercive, or controlling behaviour, sexual abuse, and economic abuse”.
Some of the services listed will be for parents, some for young people and some for both. However, all seek to address abuse and violence used by children and adolescents towards their parents or carers in the home.
Although Respect collects and provides this information, this is not an endorsement of the services on the map. Please carry out your own research and see if the service is right for you. Also do check with your local children’s services on your Local Authority website, they may be able to signpost you to services in your area.
Map Key
Specialist CAPVA programmes
Many of the services on the map deliver one of the programmes below, here is a bit of information about
The Respect Young People’s Programme (RYPP) is delivered over 3-6 months via weekly sessions with the parent/carer and young person. The programme can also be delivered via groupwork with parents and young people if appropriate. The aim of the RYPP is to improve family communication and relationships by building parenting confidence and skills to manage challenging and harmful behaviour. The programme aims to increase the young person’s insight to their own behaviour and provides strategies to enable children and young people to manage their thoughts, feelings, emotions and behaviour in a non- violent or abusive way.
Break 4 Change uses non- Violent Resistance (NVR) and restorative justice approaches and aims to reduce young people’s feelings on entitlement and parent’s feelings of isolation. Break4 Change is delivered through a 10- week, group- work programme in partnership with multiple statutory agencies.
Who’s in Charge is a 9- week programme for parents. The aims of the programme are to reduce parent’s feelings of isolation, reduce blame and shame and give parents tools to reduce violence and abuse and improve relationships in the home.
Non- Violent Resistance (NVR). NVR was originally used politically to bring about change without using violence. It was then developed for use with families by Psychology Professor Haim Omar. The aim of NVR is to improve the relationship between the parents/carers and their children by teaching effective ways to react so that their children’s behaviour changes in response.
National Helplines and support for parents
PEGS aim to create a safe place where parents/carers can talk openly about their experiences of abuse from their children. PEGS provides a service to parents no matter how old their child is, even is they are 18 plus.
Family Lives (England and Wales) Has information for parents on CAPVA as well as generic information for parents about being a parent
Children First (Scotland) Has information for parents on CAPVA as well as generic information for parents about being a parent
Parent Talk - Cymru - Support for Parents from Action For Children. Offers a free and confidential live chat with a parenting coach available in English and Welsh.
Parentline NI Offers a free and confidential helpline for parents and careers throughout Northern Ireland.
Parentline ie Offers a free confidential helpline for parents and carers across Ireland.
CAPA First Response offer support to the WHOLE family including siblings and wider family members, They offer 121 bespoke support to any family with a child under 18 or 25 with an additional diagnosis. They offer this via Free 30 minute advice and support sessions, and Free or Low Cost 121 support sessions.
PAC-UK offer a range of services for adoptive families.
The Potato Group - Parents of traumatised adopted teens organisation - The Potato Group are a membership only peer to peer support group that operates via a closed facebook group for adoptive parents of traumatised adopted children and adults. They support adopters to navigate systems to get help with many aspects that make parenting our children brings.
If you are a service provider and we don’t have you on the map. Please contact us at: YPS@respect.org.uk
