Wakeling calls for new service to tackle violence in Knox families

By Casey Neill
A FAMILY violence forum has prompted calls for a service to help violent Knox youths.
Ferntree Gully MP Nick Wakeling asked the State Government to set up a program in Knox to combat physical, verbal, emotional and financial abuse from teens towards their families.
Mr Wakeling and Eastern Metropolitan Region MP Jan Kronberg held the public forum on 14 August at Boronia’s Knox Basketball Centre.
It featured domestic violence victims and police, domestic violence service and behaviour change group representatives.
“One mother raised serious concerns about a lack of adequate services to deal with her abusive son,” Mr Wakeling told parliament recently.
“She outlined the fact that currently there was no program available in the Knox region to deal with resolving adolescent violence.”
Mr Wakeling suggested the government set up a program similar to Anglicare Box Hill’s Break the Cycle.
Anglicare has run a program over the past 12 years and will today 9 September launch a manual to guide other professionals through each session.
The Boronia mother, who wishes to be known as Kate, has completed the eight-week program. Her son has attention deficit disorder and ‘violent tendencies.’
While she benefited from the workshops, she was still unable to find a program to help her son.
“I need my son to learn strategies from a responsible male role model,” she said.
The single mother has struggled to find suitable services for which her son is eligible. Kate said she had found other parents in a similar situation where they do not know where to get help.
Anglicare Box Hill’s Jerry Ham said Break the Cycle helped parents to stop adolescent violence in the home.
Mr Ham said Anglicare would develop a program for adolescents over the next year to run alongside the parent class
The group sessions address communication and relationship issues to identify the root cause of the violence.
The program sets guidelines and boundaries for parents and explores communication techniques and strategies.
The Mail contacted the State Government but did not receive a response before going to print.