Broken Promises: The Battle to Find Help for Kids with Aggression

DATE | Saturday May 31, 2025 - 1-4pm

VENUE | Quiet Earth, 1681 Hunt Road, Dorchester ON

GENERAL INFORMATION

I’m honoured and excited to be speaking at the book launch “Broken Promises: The Battle to Find Help for Kids with Aggression”.

Although it’s often hidden, countless families experience the unrelenting stress of living with a child who displays extreme aggression. Due to limited mental health resources and the innumerable barriers families face, caregivers are left alone, and families are fractured. Tragically, these children may face poor educational outcomes, hospital, police and judicial system involvement, child welfare intervention, and youth homelessness, all due to lack of appropriate and timely supports.

Part memoir and part critical reflection, Broken Promises: The Battle to Find Help for Kids with Aggression sheds light on AFCCA (Aggression Towards Family/Caregivers in Childhood and Adolescence), a unique form of domestic violence. Co-author Christen Shepherd shares her daunting fight for services for her family in a broken and siloed system. Along with counsellor Lisa Highfield, some of the major themes of AFCCA are discussed. Readers will find insightful interviews, research, and brave parents lending their voices.

Not without hope, this book highlights effective strategies for support, from Non-Violent Resistance training to community involvement. Broken Promises is a reminder to parents they are not alone, and is a call to arms, encouraging policy makers and service providers to create meaningful and effective programs that support families and their vulnerable children.