Challenges of Working with Families Where the Toxic Trio is Present

This report addresses the significant challenges encountered when working with families affected by the "toxic trio," which encompasses domestic violence, mental health issues, and substance misuse. The introduction defines the toxic trio and its rationale, emphasizing its impact on children and the need for early intervention. The main body analyzes the interconnectedness of these issues, highlighting their effects on parenting and safeguarding. It also explores child protection considerations, including the duty to notify. The report then delves into each component of the toxic trio, proposing intervention approaches. For domestic violence, the Duluth model is examined, discussing its strengths and weaknesses. Mental health interventions involve counselling approaches, specifically the humanistic approach, and its benefits for parents. Substance misuse is considered, and the report emphasizes the impact on families and the need for interventions. The report concludes by summarizing the challenges and importance of effective interventions to support families facing these complex issues.

The challenges of working with families where the toxic trio is present

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Main context....................................................................................................................................3
Analysis of issues and impacts.....................................................................................................3
a) Domestic Violence and Abuse.................................................................................................4
b) Mental Health..........................................................................................................................6
c) Substance misuse.....................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
The term “toxic trio” is mainly used to describe the major problems of domestic abuse, mental
ill-health as well as substance abuse, which is identified as the significant features of families
where harm or injury to adults and children take place. However, the toxic trio is considered as
the key indicators of increased risk of damage to families and factors in interpersonal violence
along with adult family violence. It is identified that more than 420,000 children are living with
toxic trio across the globe, and thus, the issues hurt the children and influence their emotional
wellbeing (Anitha et al., 2016). However, early intervention can help parents to bring changes in
the lives of children and help them in developing their cognitive and behavioral skills.
The principal rationale for the toxic trio is that it highlights the substantial impact domestic
abuse, parental substance abuse and parental mental health issues can have on the vulnerable
children. Besides this, another rationale for looking at toxic trio is to assist the social workers and
other professionals working with resilient families to overcome resistance and offer early
support. It is recognized that poor parenting, domestic abuse, mental illness, and substance abuse
undermine parenting capability and increase the possibility of harm. It would also help the
professionals working with resilient families to make them understand and learn the significance
of empathy in the parenting relationship. Besides this, early intervention is crucial for offering
support to children which would enhance the emotional and physical outcomes. The
professionals need to develop essential strategies to overcome the resistance in families and
improve the relationship (Bohall, Bautista and Musson, 2016). It is noticed that frequency of
toxic trio areas within the family in increasing which negatively impact the children, and thus,
effective intervention need to be developed to overcome issues that affect the family.

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Main context
Analysis of issues and impacts
The primary use of Toxic Trio is basically to analyses the issues regarding domestic abuse,
mental ill-health as well as substance misuse as these are identified to be the common issues in
various families (Clarke, 2019). These elements generate a crucial impact on effective parenting
by multiple means, where poverty and educational attainment are considered as vital risk factors
which contribute towards these issues. Multiple conflicts between the family members hamper
the home atmosphere, and +this creates unfortunate development of mindset for the children and
other members of the family. It has been seen that there are families who live with mental
problems and continues the consumption of alcohol or drugs which generates a negative impact
on the mental condition of their children, therefore to reduce these proper strategies needs to be
adopted regarding the aspects of toxic trio. Also, it becomes crucial for the parents to safeguard
their children from varies negative effects of domestic abuse, and this can only be done by
improving the atmosphere inside the home between the family members. The domestic violence
has severe health issues, and it can cause injuries to individuals, can result in anxiety, depression,
impairing of social skills and can give rise to harmful or illegal practices (Del Fabbro and Cain,
2016). It can also result in incurring high social, emotional as well as economic costs for the
victims, their families and for the broader families. Sometimes it has been seen that the presence
of abuse among the intimate partners can generate negative and harmful impact for both of them
and thus, there is a rise of mental illness and depression.
On the other hand, the issue of child protection, as well as safeguarding, is of great importance as
it generates a crucial impact on the growth and development of the child present within the
society (Fisher, Bobek and Hogue, 2019). The use of physical as well as sexual violence

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hampers the mental condition of the children, which may act as a barrier in the children’s growth
rate. One of the reasons for the occurrence of the toxic trio is the unequal distribution of power
among the family members, which creates issues for other minors in the family. There exist a
crucial need to protect the child from various aspects such as violence, exploitation, negligence
and abuse. The use of Children’s 5Ps is vital to protect children from domestic violence and
abuse. It includes prevention, paramountcy, partnership, parental responsibility and protection
(Fitzpatrick, 2017). For safeguarding, the policies, along with the effective practices, should be
adopted by parents across various families for keeping their children healthy. To prevent a child,
the methods should be regarding childhood abuse and maltreatment. The children must be
prevented from lousy health and irregular mental as well as physical development. The
atmosphere for children should be kept safe and effective care should be provided to them. On
the other hand, the children need to be kept aware of the best practices that can keep them
healthy and can make them following the right path and away from various violence and abuse
(Freeman and Taylor, 2020).
a) Domestic Violence and Abuse
The issue of the toxic trio is a serious matter among various families which critically hampers the
mental along with the physical condition of the family members considered. The use of Duluth
model reflects the fact that the primary cause of domestic violence is social and cultural, the
patriarchal ideology which has permitted men to control women by the use of violence along
with power (Hashim et al., 2016). Moreover, this model does not reflect the fact that domestic
violence is caused by other issues like mental or any behavioral health issues. While coming
across a family, I have found that the primary reason for domestic violence within their family
was poverty and lack of proper education which has provided the powers in the hands of the men

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to rule over their women and give rise of various types of violence and abuse. The use of this
model will be to understand multiple patterns of abusive behaviour by involving acts and threats
regarding physical and secular violence. The physical violence inside critically affects the health
condition of the family members and affects the mental conditional of the children. Therefore, it
becomes crucial for the parents to take care of their activities and communication practices to
maintain a safe living environment.
The wheel of this model will be used to resolve the issue of domestic violence as it includes
intimidation, emotional abuse, isolation, economic abuse, male privilege, coercion & threats,
using children and minimizing, denying as well as blaming. The items of this wheel help in
developing a strong relationship within partners and also increases the effectiveness within the
family members. Moreover, it needs to be understood that this theory is considered less like
therapy and more like a psychoeducational program which helps in strengthening the relationship
between the male and the female members by reducing various types of domestic violence
(Hunter et al., 2017). Also, it helps in understanding the desired responsibility of an individual
towards the other concerned person. One of the strengths of this model is that the use of this
Duluth model provides the desired shift responsibility for the safety of the victim to the
community as well as the state. Another strength reflects that this model shares a collective
mission and strategy regarding the interventions, which are mainly based on the number of
philosophical agreements.
Moreover, it is found to be useful for intervening the men who batter and keep the women safer.
But on the other hand, there are few of the crucial weaknesses of this model as some people
believe that battering is the pattern or set of actions which are used for controlling or dominating
the concerned intimate partner. Some people criticize it by saying that this model prioritizes the

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voices as well as experiences of the women who feel battered because of the developed policies
and procedures (Joy Jang, Patrick and Schuler, 2018). Different people have their own set of
opinions over its strengths and weaknesses, but overall this model has been found as useful
regarding the reduction of domestic violence which also reduces the negative impact that is
sometimes created on the children.
b) Mental Health
Mental illness is one of the significant areas of the toxic trio that play a substantial part in
increasing risk or harm to children and young adults. The issue of mental ill-health is considered
as the characteristic feature of all families where damage to children occurred. It is recognized
that mental health situations such as depression can inhibit the ability of the parents to respond to
the emotional issues of the children and deliver constant care (Mason et al., 2018). Mental illness
may be the result of abuse or violence that the parents experienced which lead a parent to misuse
alcohol or drugs. It is found that over 60% of women experience depression and anxiety
disorders which shows that mental health affects the parenting capacity of the parents. Also, it is
recognized that mental health significantly impacts the physical health as well as the wellbeing
of the persons. Besides this, domestic violence survivors have a significant mental illness that
needs to be addressed.
Furthermore, counselling approaches can be used as an intervention to control the issue of
mental health among family. The use of counselling approaches demonstrates that mental ill-
health of parents can be overcome and reduced by developing emotional growth, self-awareness
and personal resources. Besides this, the counselling approaches consists of three different
methods which include psychodynamic, humanistic and behavioral which would help in
overcome the mental illness and reduce the risk of harm to children. As per Miller, Wiklund and

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Yu, (2020), mental health counselling would benefit the parents in improving the lives and gain
wellness, hope, personal empowerment, personal insight and acceptance of life. The parents must
seek counselling to create desired experience and better family environment for the children.
However, counselling refers to the process in which mental health counsellors and clients work
together to explore issues and develop the skills to transform their lives. Among all the methods
of counselling, the humanistic approach is suitable in the family issues as it focuses on personal
development, the accomplishment of human potential and self-determination. One of the key
strengths of the humanistic approach is that it helps the people to explore their feelings as well as
thoughts so that they could create solutions to solve their issues (Morris et al., 2018).
However, the humanistic approach of counselling is useful for mental ill-health of parents as it
would assist them in gaining confidence as well as self-esteem (Murphy and Rogers, 2018). It is
recognized that the counselling intervention allows the persons to feel comfortable while
communicating with counsellors. But it consists of weaknesses as the approach of counselling
promote frustration among the persons because few persons cannot explain their issues
adequately. The parents and family need to seek counselling from a counsellor to provide
consistent care to their children and understand their emotions and feelings. Living with mental
ill-health does not mean that a parent cannot safeguard the child from severe harm. But adequate
support is required to reduce the risk to children which can be possible only through appropriate
counselling approaches.
c) Substance misuse
It is considered that substance misuse is the other major issue in families which impact parenting
capability. Substance misuse is a significant feature where children are severely harmed or
killed. Also, children living with parents who abuse drugs and alcohol are at increased risk of

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injuries and accidents (Schwartz et al., 2018). Such children may suffer from depression, anxiety
and other disorders. It is recognized that substance misuse has a significant impact on the family
members, which include financial instability, negativism, and high risk of addiction,
codependency and damage to children life. A parent with substance misuse is unable to control
stress and other emotions which lead to impulsive behaviour and thus, increase the risk of
physical as well as emotional neglect.
Moreover, the use of the Duluth model demonstrates that the primary cause of substance misuse
is violence in the family. Duluth model is useful to measure the intervention program needed to
overcome substance misuse by controlling the use of materials by the children within the family
(Wilson, 2018). For example, it has been seen that in a family, the children went on the wrong
path of consuming drugs or alcohol, which critically hampers the physical and mental health
condition of the children. It is also seen that the use of legal substances can also be misused by
various means, and it affects negatively to the concerned person. Therefore, the use of the Duluth
model will help in controlling the behaviour regarding the use of legal or illegal substances and
can result in bringing the best positive outcomes (Snead, Bennett and Babcock, 2018). The
intake of medicines or the drugs in large quantities may bring negative consequences for the
people, and therefore, it becomes essential to implement better-controlling practices to enhance
the execution of the work practices throughout the community. Also, there are some strong
points and some weak points regarding the use of the Duluth model, which makes it perfect for
getting implemented for controlling the misuse of substances. One of the strengths of this model
is that it provides a shared understanding of each practitioner regarding the support or
undermining their collective goals as well as a strategy of intervention. The reflection of the
shared knowledge of the mission and strategy regarding solving the issues of drugs consumption

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is helpful from the Duluth model. The consumption of drugs or misuses of the legal substances
are found to be more in the men than as compared with that of women, and thus the strategies or
approaches should be developed differently to control this particular issues of the toxic trio
(Wise, 2016). It further helps in making people aware by explaining the measures of safety,
battering, danger, along with risks and also helps in evaluating the different aspects of
accountability. Some of its weaknesses reflect its protocols or the procedures can be varied as per
different situations and conditions. It also becomes crucial to justify its use as per the concerned
situation where the actions should be taken as per the requirement.
Conclusion
The paper helped in concluding the different aspects of the toxic trio in human life, and the
Duluth model has been used to provide the theoretical perspective for the working families
where the issues trios are found. There were arguments regarding the use of the Duluth model to
reduce the practices of domestic violence or substance misuse, but many of the people found it to
be unsuitable for families where these issues were found. The paper also helped in reflecting a
few of the crucial strengths along with few weaknesses of this model so that the appropriate
conclusion and usefulness of this model could be made. The advantage of this model is to reflect
shared understanding regarding the mission and strategies of interventions, whereas weaknesses
reflect prioritizing the voices as well as experiences of women over men. One issue of the toxic
trio is the mental health which generates a crucial impact on the children as well as the youth in
the family and affects the work practices and safe environment within the family. Various
counselling approaches are also used across different people to reduce the negative impact of

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mental health. The issue of domestic violence has been seen on the larger platform across
different families which can be controlled by the use of the Duluth model.
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