State ‘failing children in violent homes’

CHILDREN in violent homes are offered little protection by the State and few child-centred services are available to combat the impact domestic violence has on them, a report reveals.

Some children are being assaulted during incidents of domestic violence while teenagers have spoken of years of witnessing and overhearing violence inflicted by one parent on another. In some cases, text messages were sent to children by their father saying what he was going to do to their mother at home.

Meanwhile, teenage boys are at risk of assault or homelessness as a result of a general rule which prohibits them staying in emergency refuges with their mothers and younger siblings.

The revelations are in a study seen by the Irish Examiner on the impact of domestic violence on children.

Among the findings are that child-centred services for child victims of domestic violence are minimal and difficult to access. Therapy is practically non-existent, while few families spoken to had been able to access social work services.

Outside of refuge-based childcare services, there is little to protect children and address the impacts on them of domestic violence.

The research was done for the Department of Health by Fergus Hogan and Maire O’Reilly of the Centre for Social and Family Research at WIT. They recommend greater recognition by professionals of the adversities experienced by child victims of domestic violence and more community-based child-centred supports.

From interviews with victims of domestic violence, the authors found the short-term and crisis nature of refuge services was a “key barrier” to working effectively with children.

Children, mothers and some professionals spoke out against the general rule that teenage boys may not stay with their mothers and siblings in a refuge. “There is an immediate need to open refuges to teenage boys who are at risk of violence or consequent homelessness.”

Waiting lists for therapeutic services, such as counselling, are “unacceptable”, according to the report, which will be launched today by Minister of State for Children Brendan Smith.

A study in 2005 found one in seven Irish women and one in 16 Irish men have experienced severe abuse. Victims’ words: Suffering of child witnesses

“I’d wake up in the middle of the night and he’d be roaring and screaming. She’d be banging across the floor and after a time I’d hear a thump, knowing well that’s Mammy downstairs, getting bet [beaten] up, and that’s what hurt me most.” — Denise, 17.

“Sometimes, like, I feel like it’s my fault, like why did I never stop it. Like why did I never go down and. . . It’s horrible like. It’s just, what if I went down. . . I still remember like, I couldn’t go downstairs. Like what if he did it to me or something. . .”— Jennifer, 16.

“She’d hit him around the house and he would never hit her back. Well, like, she couldn’t hurt him. . . she was too small, she was anorexic, but there was a lot of mental stuff. All kinds of name-calling: ‘you’re fat’, ‘whoremaster’ and this kind of thing. . . nasty stuff. And she’d hit us like. She gave my sister an awful time. She gave her a worse time than myself.” — Alex, 17.