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

How mental illness, learning disability, substance misuse anddomestic violence affect parenting capacity 61The fear that children will be taken into care is even more acutely felt when theabused woman is from an ethnic minority group. In these circumstances the womanmay perceive official agencies as threatening (particularly if she is of refugee status),believe that her culture will be misinterpreted, or have little faith in her ability toexplain her situation (Maitra 1995; Hyton 1997). Women’s Aid provides specialisthelp and advice to women from different cultural groups and interpreters for thosewhose preferred language is not English (Women’s Aid 2008). This fear of statutoryagencies is understandable, particularly when considering the over-representation ofblack children in the public care system (Courtney et al. 1996; Bernard quoted inMcGee 1996).Greater hurdles must be overcome by disabled women seeking help. They may bedependent upon their abuser who may also be their carer and the main carer of thechildren, they may fear losing community care packages and find that much-neededadaptations to the home are not easily transferable.In spite of the difficulties of leaving home, it would be misleading to assumethat all women submissively accept living in a violent relationship. Research hasshown that some women do try to discuss the abuse with their partner or talk tofriends and relatives, while others call the police or seek refuge (Kelly 1988; Hoff1990). The British Crime Survey showed that leaving was the best avenue of escapefrom domestic violence. However, separation does not always result in a cessationof violence; for 37% of women the violence increased, took a different form (forexample stalking), remained the same or commenced following separation (Walbyand Allen 2004). Men who were most violent when living with women continuedto be the most violent following separation (Humphreys and Stanley 2006).Impact on parentingParenting can be defined as those activities and behaviours of caregiving adultsthat are needed by children to enable them to function successfully as adults,within their culture.(Jones 2009)In order to achieve this, those who are responsible for parenting must provide the childwith basic care, ensure their safety, provide emotional warmth, provide appropriatestimulation, offer guidance and boundaries and provide the child with stability (seethe box on dimensions of parenting capacity for a detailed description).