Parental alienation has during some decades been empirically observed and scientifically confirmed as something very harmful to the children involved. Parental alienation is only the case when there is not a justified cause for the children to reject a parent, such as serious drug addiction, violence or abuse.

When there is no justified cause, but a former loving relationship and the children are turned against one parent by the other parent the relations are distorted. One parent is driven by an implacable hostility and addresses his/her aggression against the other parent by involving the children to share the implacable hostility  – and thereby to reject the parent being excluded, and to express – as if it is the children´s own will – a wish not to have any contact.

It is sad that the National Board of Health and Welfare demonstrates ignorance of this kind of domestic relational violence, relevant to this authority to educate the social services about. Parental alienation has now been included in both DSM-5 and ICD-11, although not under the label parental alienation.

Below you can see the answer I  received some months ago from a department for monitoring of knowledge to the social services. It is said that the authority has not ”produced” any knowledge regarding parental alienation, that it is a theory” that is not  an evidence base ”method” in custody cses. It seems that the National Board of Health and Welfare lacks not only knowledge but also systematic and scieintific thinking.

The good thing now is that we shall have a meeting to discuss this issue and the importance of taking the harm done to children and families seriously.

 

2018-11-05   /3.2-30587/2018/

Hello!

 

You have put a question to the National Board of Health and Welfare

via Barbro Thurfjell regarding the concept PAS. I send you the answer via

post as I have filed it. As I have received the same question from several

other persons I deal with the question and you receive the same answer

as the others. The foundation for the questions seems to be a statement

by professor emeritus Christian Diesen on the website Feministic

Perspective where he refers to that the National Board of Health and

Welfare has taken a standpoint to the concept PA.

 

There is no foundation of knowledge produced by the

National Board of Health and Welfare dealing with or treating

the theory of PAS. The mandate for the National Board of Health

and Welfare does not include to express opinions about

particular theories per se. Our commission is described at

http://www.socialstyrelsen.se/omsorgsstyrelsen.

 

There is one case of supervision that nowadays is

moved to IVO (the Inspection for Treatment and Care)  and it can be

that case that Christian Diesen is referring to at the website Feministic

Perspective. In one case of supervision one person has put the question

to the National Board of Health and Welfare whether PAS is a recognized or “evidence based

concept” and if it is legally validated and if it ought to be used in custody

investigations? The department director at that time Mary Nilsson has

written to an answer and says that “We have received the question

about the application of PAS via among others user representatives

and know that one lawyer in particular from Uppsala, Eva Kornhall, has

showed interest in the matter. She has written to the social department

and forwards that the communities educate people on a large scale. We

do not have confirmation that this is the case. Under all circumstances it

is no evidence based method of judgement in custody disputes.” It is

accordingly not either a standpoint to the theory.

 

With kind regards

Ulrika Bergström

Investigator

075-247 30 00

 

SOCIALSTYRELSEN/The National Board of Health and Welfare

Department for monitoring of knowledge to the social services