Use of SMS to support parents who experience violence from their adolescents

Abstract

This study explores the use of the short messaging service (SMS) to support parents who experience violence from their adolescent. The parents participated in the Inner South Community Health Service (ISCHS) Who’s the Boss program, an 8-week parent psycho-educational program for parents abused by their adolescents. An ISCHS counsellor, Andrew Compton, was interested in exploring the benefits of SMS technology and how text messages could be used to support women who had experienced family violence. We decided to pilot the use of SMS with group participants of Who’s the Boss who were interested in this ‘value-added’ strategy.

This pilot used SMS technology to reinforce behavioural strategies that had been learnt in the groups to support parents in self-care. The project involved 19 consumers (through focus groups) to design the SMS messages that would most benefit them, decide how often and when they would be sent and evaluate their usefulness in supporting them to take a stand against their adolescent’s abuse and violence in the home. Safety concerns were also explored with all participants before the commencement of the project.

The project findings demonstrated that SMS messages were useful and supported parents to make changes and address their adolescent’s abuse and violence. The use of SMS has applicability to a range of therapeutic programs including parenting programs, anxiety and depression programs and family violence programs. An extensive risk assessment must be undertaken if the use of SMS is to be considered to support women who have left violent partners to ascertain the safety of women and the likelihood that their partners may have access to their mobile phones. Women with violent partners are most at risk at the point of, or immediately following, separation and the use of SMS may in fact severely compromise the safety of these women. For this reason, SMS may not be appropriate in the support of women who have experienced family violence where there is still contact with the perpetrator.