Parent blaming in child protection and health settings: A matter for concern

This article is about parent blaming. It draws on the authors’ experience in health care agencies and the children’s court. Parent blaming involves practitioners attributing to parents an ‘excess’ level of responsibility expressed as ‘blame’ in regard to child care and protection or child treatment issues in the context of health. In the course of this process, structural factors such as low income, poor housing, unemployment, social isolation and prejudice that affect a parent’s capacity to protect and care for a child are frequently ignored.

Parent blaming is not a new phenomenon although currently it seems to be in vogue among practitioners in these fields. When blame is conveyed to parents, it creates anger and resentment and guarantees a non-cooperative response from them. This response is then all too readily used as evidence to support the view that parents are indeed to blame for their child’s lack of safety or medical condition. In practice, a blaming approach is futile. Suggestions are made about how this phenomenon can be avoided and how more positive approaches can be adopted to providing services to children and their families.