This Conference took place in London during April 2017

How to Help and Support

Violent Challenging Behaviour

in Special Needs Children

#VCB17

Organised and hosted by Yvonne Newbold,

            in Partnership with The Patient Experience Network

Central London, Saturday 1st April 2017

For parents of special needs children who have violent challenging behaviour and for professionals who work with these families in education, health or social care

Who is it for?

Primarily for families of hard-to-manage children with Autism, ADHD, Learning Disabilities, PDA or Emotional Issues               

Professionals Welcome too

Please seriously consider joining us if –

• Your child hurts you physically

• You feel unable to cope with your child’s behaviours

• You feel alone and unsupported and with nowhere to turn

• Your child’s future frightens you

• You seldom talk about it in case other people blame you

Please join us to share our experiences together, to meet others going through the same difficulties, and to learn from experts in this field about why our children behave as they do and what we can do to help our families

What you’ll get from the day –

• Advice, information and support from expert speakers 

• Understand more about why these behaviours occur

• Explore possible causes – anxiety, sensory issues, severe distress and communication

• Learn strategies that can reduce violent episodes

• Share your experiences with others who understand

• Experience a deep relaxation session to de-stress and recharge your batteries

SOLD OUT – 

If you would like to be added to the waiting list in case of cancellations, or would like to hear of any future events on the same issue, please contact me via email on yvonne@yvonnenewbold.com

Who will be Speaking?

  Dr Celia Anim, CBE, President, Royal College of Nursing

Mary Aspinall-Miles, Barrister

Prof Jim Blair, Nurse Consultant, Learning Disabilities, Great Ormond Street Hospital

Mark Brown – Autism and Learning Disability Behaviour Specialist

Malcolm Cooper –  specialist in Self-care, Stress Management and Relaxation

Kath Evans, NHS England Experience of Care Lead – Maternity, Infants, Children and Young People

Yvonne Newbold – mother, organiser and host

Prof. Oliver Shanley, OBE, NHS England Regional Chief Nurse, London

Dr Girish Vaidya – Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist

Hazel Watson – Head of Mental Health and Learning Disabilities, NHS England

SOLD OUT – 

If you would like to be added to the waiting list in case of cancellations, or would like to hear of any future events on the same issue, please contact me via email on yvonne@yvonnenewbold.com

What is the Conference all about?

One of the saddest secrets that thousands of families keep to themselves is that their children physically attack them.  Children with a learning disability, or autism, or PDA or ADHD or any similar condition can become so overwhelmed with distress and fear due to things like their anxieties about dailiy living, their differences in processing sensory information or their difficulty in being able to communicate their needs, that sometimes they lash out violently towards their parents and other family members.

When this happens, parents find it very hard to talk about. They often feel bewildered and ashamed, and as if they are failing at parenthood. They fear being judged by others, and they also don’t want to talk about it due to a real sense of loyalty for their otherwise wonderful, but very vulnerable child. This means that it’s so barely discussed and hidden away that even front-line professionals in schools, healthcare or social services  have little or training, experience or understanding of it.

To move forward we must break the silence – and start important conversations

SOLD OUT – 

If you would like to be added to the waiting list in case of cancellations, or would like to hear of any future events on the same issue, please contact me via email on yvonne@yvonnenewbold.com

Where and when will it be?

Saturday, 1st April from 9.30am until 4.30pm, at The St James The Less Centre, Vauxhall Bridge Road, Pimlico, London SW1V 2PS

The venue has been chosen with great care. It’s quiet and peaceful – an oasis of calm in the heart of Central London, and it has room for less than 100 people. It’s essential that we create an emotionally safe-space where people can feel accepted and welcomed with no judgement, so that everyone feels able to share their thoughts, feelings and experiences in a supportive and intimate environment.

Buffet Lunch Provided

The date of this Conference has a special significance, happening during  Autism Awareness Week, and the day before the World Autism Awareness Day.

SOLD OUT – 

If you would like to be added to the waiting list in case of cancellations, or would like to hear of any future events on the same issue, please contact me via email on yvonne@yvonnenewbold.com

Why are we doing this?

I am a writer, speaker, author and Workshop creator and trainer, and everything I do is to to try and make a positive difference to the lives of the next generation of special needs families like my own. This is my “bucket list”, this is what I determined to do in 2013 when I was given a terminal cancer diagnosis with a life expectancy of only 2 years. It was that day that I started writing “The Special Parent’s Handbook”, and everything else I do has stemmed from there.

I am still living with the same diagnosis, but I am responding to treatment for the moment and I seem to be doing remarkably well. I think it’s the passion for what I’m doing that’s keeping me going, and there is so much to do to make things better that I hope to keep going for as long as I can.

In this work I often talk about my son, Toby, who has very complex needs, multiple disabilities, a profound learning disability and severe autism. However, other than occasionally hinting at it I had never spoken in any great detail about his episodes of challenging behaviour and  physical violence that dominated our entire family life for about 10 years, from when he was around 10 years old until he was out of his teens.

On Tuesday, 21st February, I was invited as a guest to speak on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour. about violent challenging behaviour at home in children with disabilities. I had intended to only speak from a knowledge based perspective, offering advice, tips and strategies. However, when the time came and I was live on air with Jane Garvey, I knew that someone had to open up, be honest and start to really tell it as it is, and so I broke the silence.

If you’d like to hear what we talked about, you can listen to the podcast here 

Since then I have been contacted by well over 100 sets of parents who are facing injuries from their children on a daily basis. Some of their stories were heart breaking, not just telling me about their physical injuries, but also the sequences of events that had happened once they had asked for help, and in a handful of cases this has resulted in their children being removed from them because the professionals involved didn’t have the training or experience to understand the underlying issues about what was really happening. Many parents told me of how frightened they are for their children’s futures – how they can see things escalating until their children are serving prison sentences, simply because the help isn’t available now, before it’s too late.

I had to do something. A week later, I said it out loud “Do you think I could run a conference about this” ? I thought people would think I was crazy, but no, instead everyone has been amazing, and they have got behind the idea and are helping me to make it happen. So here we are!

What next?

Book your ticket! Places are extremely limited, and when they’re gone they’re gone – there simply isn’t room in the venue to cater for any more people.

Book Now

Full Price Tickets, from 19th March onwards, Family Member £80.00 Professionals £110.00

This event is not suitable for children

There are a limited number of subsidised tickets at affordable prices for parents who would not otherwise be able to attend. Please contact Yvonne for more information on yvonne@yvonnenewbold.com

With Huge Thanks to Our Sponsors

More Support 

Yvonne runs a Facebook Page called The SEND Parent’s Handbook for parents of children with disabilities and the professionals who work with their families.

If you are a parent of a child who has SEND VCB, Yvonne also runs a closed Facebook Support group, which you would be welcome to join, called The SEND VCB Project – Support Group for Families

There is another Facebook Page called The SEND VCB Project – Public Page which is for anyone to find out more about this and closely related issues, and it’s open to everyone

Resources on SEND VCB – for families and professionals who work with children or vulnerable adults

 If you’d like to buy a copy of “The Special Parent’s Handbook”, which is the book I wish someone had been able to give me on the day Toby was born. It’s got virtually everything I’ve learnt since about Additional Needs Parenting so that SEND parents don’t have to go it totally alone.

Here’s the link to order yours 

Alternatively you can order it from Amazon – here’s the link to the page 

Yvonne is a member of the Amazon Affiliates Program which means that if you click on an Amazon link from this website and subsequently make a purchase, she will be paid a small commission.