Children's Needs – Parenting Capacity - Digital Education Resource ...

26 Children’s Needs – Parenting CapacityBy problem drug use we mean drug use with serious negative consequences ofa physical, psychological, social and interpersonal, financial or legal nature forusers and those around them. Such drug use will usually be heavy, with featuresof dependence.(Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs 2003, p.7)Domestic violenceWhen considering domestic violence, the 2009 definition used by the Home Officewas found to be helpful.Domestic violence is ‘Any incident of threatening behaviour, violence or abuse(psychological, physical, sexual, financial or emotional) between adults who are orhave been intimate partners or family members, regardless of gender or sexuality.’This includes issues of concern to black and minority ethnic (BME) communitiessuch as so called ‘honour based violence’, female genital mutilation (FGM) andforced marriage.(Home Office 2009b)This definition of domestic violence does not confine itself to physical or sexualassaults but includes a range of abusive behaviours which are not in themselvesinherently violent. As a consequence, some authors prefer to use the term ‘domesticabuse’. It should also be noted that domestic violence recognises few socialboundaries. For example, research on female victims of domestic violence reportsthat ‘violence against women is the most democratic of all crimes, it crosses all religious,class and race barriers’ (Women’s Aid 1995).Child abuse and neglectChild abuse and neglect are forms of child maltreatment and result from anyone(but more commonly a parent or carer) inflicting harm or failing to act to preventharm. Statutory guidance provides the following descriptions of abuse and neglect.Physical abuse may involve hitting, shaking, throwing, poisoning, burning orscalding, drowning, suffocating, or otherwise causing physical harm to a child.Physical harm may also be caused when a parent or carer fabricates the symptomsof, or deliberately induces, illness in a child.Emotional abuse is the persistent emotional maltreatment of a child such as tocause severe and persistent adverse effects on the child’s emotional development. Itmay involve conveying to children that they are worthless or unloved, inadequate,or valued only insofar as they meet the needs of another person. It may include notgiving the child opportunities to express their views, deliberately silencing themor ‘making fun’ of what they say or how they communicate. It may feature age ordevelopmentally inappropriate expectations being imposed on children. These may