The mental health impact of intergenerational violence on children

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The mental health impact of intergenerational violence on children

FROM THE ARCHIVE Taking a drive down Klipfontein Road in Cape Town can be a herculean task depending on the time of the day. Pedestrians, taxis, Golden Arrow buses and cars all compete for pole position on the road. Hawkers dipping and diving through the busy race, trying to sell fruits, vegetables or other wares. After passing through Athlone, and crossing Jakes Gerwel Drive, you eventually arrive at the gates of the Saartjie Baartman Centre for Women and Children (SBC). The gates sit just on the edge of Manenberg, a large community in the Cape flats. The facility is a labyrinth. “Kind of like navigating service providers as a survivor of gender-based violence (GBV),” quips Advocate Bernadine Bachar, the centre’s fiercely passionate Director, while taking Health-e News for a tour. The eggshell-coloured concrete walls have an institutional feel like an old hospital or clinic. “It used to be a substance abuse facility,” says Bachar.  Despite the coldness of the walls, the warmth of the centre seeps from every corner. Children’s laughter fills the halls alongside motivational posters, artwork and beautiful murals. It is clear the SBC is a much-loved safe haven for women and children. “I always say it takes the greatest amount of courage to get to those gates,” says Bachar. The SBC has been around for 23 years and was the very first one-stop centre for women and children survivors nationally, providing a holistic package of services. Today, the centre has helped over 250 000 women and children. Why Manenberg? The Cape flats is an area characterised by high levels of unemployment, poverty, abuse against women and children, substance abuse, gangsterism, and many social challenges, explains Bachar. The centre’s creation was in response to a clear-cut need in the community.  “The idea behind the centre is that women can come through and receive all services they would need as survivors of GBV,” says Bachar. This includes linking survivors to the appropriate health and forensic services. The SBC operates over nine programmes that directly address the needs of survivors and children at a grassroots level. “That’s what makes SBC so novel, the needs of survivors are always changing, so SBC evolves to meet those needs.” The 120-bed facility’s wide array of programmes includes an initial four-month in-residence programme, as well as a six-month second-stage housing programme which is on the premises. There is also a substance abuse unit on site, one of the first in the world for GBV shelters. Plus, an Early Childhood Development (ECD) centre and a homeschooling programme to prevent the shuffling of children from school to school as a result of family challenges or as a means of escaping the perpetrator.  The centre also offers an economic empowerment programme to assist residents with vocational training skills for future employment.  But, the SBC’s work does not end at its gates. Their services extend into the greater community, including a nine-week child protection programme, legal assistance and support, and outreach and advocacy work.  Children’s mental health responses to violence The staff complement at the SBC is filled to the brim with women (some of who are former residents) who share a passion for children.  “There is a lot of work that needs to be done with children who have been victims of or exposed to GBV in the home, so we have programmes for them as a means to break that intergenerational cycle of abuse and to ensure that children have the best possible launching pad once they’ve left,” says Bachar.  The root drivers of GBV against children are largely the same as adults, she says. Between the levels of adherence to patriarchal values, the huge gender gap, poverty and substance abuse, “it really does require a very nuanced and complex response,” she says.  Dilshaad Esau, the Centre’s ECD teacher, along with two women from the Centre’s Child Protection Unit (CPU), spoke to Health-e  about the impacts of violence against children and what they see in the children and adolescents that they work with.  “A lot of the children that we see have witnessed abuse or trauma [and] come in with behaviour problems, low self-esteem, suicidal thoughts, and inability to cope at school. It’s a lot of continuous trauma that they experience throughout their lives,” says Shameema Van Dyk, a social worker with the CPU.” Fellow CPU social worker Kayla Williams adds to this: “The children are not necessarily direct victims, but the parents are, so they are in-direct victims. They get to see mommy broken, they get to see mommy cry, [and] they don’t necessarily know what to do. They suppress what they are feeling [and] they lash out. Normally we find this in the school setting, then the school will refer the child to us.” “By the time they get to us, we have to address the behaviour, but it should have been done a long time ago,” adds Van Dyk. “For the kids in the shelter, you see the lashing out because that’s what was made a role model for them,” says Esau. “You see them get physical, [and] you see the swearing. Once they realise this is a comfortable space, you have a lot of meltdowns, a lot of blowouts, and lots and lots of crying. This is what we generally see.” Esau details that often the children that come into the centre are part of the abuse cycle in the home environment, particularly very young children. She says that if the young children are in the way or trying to get to mommy to shield or protect her, they will also be abused.  Mental health insights from the classroom In Esau’s ECD classroom, colourful crafts of birds, bees and butterflies dress the walls of the room. It is nap time during Health-e’s visit so all is calm and quiet in the room as about a dozen young children lie fast asleep on small mattresses with soft blankets.  At the end of each school day, Esau does what she calls a ‘review of the

This post The mental health impact of intergenerational violence on children first appeared on Health-e News and is written by Kathryn Cleary

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