Parental Domestic Abuse, Substance Misuse and Parental Mental Illness Training
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This Parental Domestic Abuse, Substance Misuse and Parental Mental Illness Training Course was formerly known as Trio of Vulnerabilities and Toxic Trio. The toxic trio can affect people of all ages including children, young people and adults and our CPD approved online course describes the impact of it, what it means and its effects. The training course uses real-world scenarios so you can apply the knowledge in everyday life.
Course Level: Intermediate
4 Modules (Duration: 4 CPD Hours)
Accreditation: CPD Certified
Certificate: Self-Printed Certificate
Last Updated: 3rd October 2025
Description
The Toxic Trio describes the massive impact that domestic abuse, parental mental health issues, and parental substance abuse can have on both vulnerable children, young people and the parents themselves.
This course will help the learner define what the toxic trio means and its effects. This will help to guide learners on how to deal with suspected toxic trio cases
This trio of vulnerabilities course contains information and resources to enable practitioners to define and identify the effects of such abuse and act accordingly.
This toxic trio training course covers the following:
- Definition of the Toxic Trio itself: domestic abuse, parental mental ill-health, parental substance abuse
- Statistics, facts and figures, and research into the Toxic Trio
- The impact the Toxic Trio can have on children, and on adults’ parenting ability
- NICE guidelines about alcohol misuse and drug misuse
- Vulnerabilities for substance misuse
- The risk and impact to children and adolescents: health, increased vulnerability, and development
- Guidance, how to assess risk, strengths-based practice, information sharing and interventions
- Working Together
This toxic trio safeguarding training course uses immersive real-world scenarios to help professionals apply knowledge to everyday life. These real-world scenarios and the supporting case studies will enable learners to see how their training can apply to them in their role.
A key aim of this training is to provide learners with a strong context for the training so they can easily relate to the situations presented to them within the training.
What training can I do next?
When working with children, young people and vulnerable adults, it is essential to ensure your safeguarding knowledge is fully up to date and that you meet the latest requirements.
Our Safeguarding Everyone Level 2 and Safeguarding Everyone Level 3 Training courses are perfect to expand your knowledge.
What you'll learn
- Understand what is meant by ‘Toxic Trio’ and the risks associated with this
- Identify how the Toxic Trio can be an indicator of risk or need for safeguarding
- Be able to define parental substance misuse and the impact on children
- Identify safeguarding concerns
- Understand parental mental health and identify different types of mental illness that can affect parents
- Describe the effects of poor mental health on parents and children
- Signpost services and professionals that can support parents
Suitable for
- Teachers
- Teaching Assistants
- School Support Staff
- Administrators
- Social Workers
- Volunteers
Course Structure
Previously, parental domestic abuse, substance misuse and parental mental ill health were referred to as the ‘toxic trio' or the ‘trio of vulnerabilities’. The course starts by defining domestic abuse, parental substance misuse and parental mental ill-health. The prevelance of these issues has been recognised for a long time and the course looks at the extent of the issues and the impact of them on children and adults. This part ends by explaining Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and interactive challenge to check your knowledge.
Certification
Self-Printed Certificate Option
Upon completion of the course, a digital certificate will be available to download instantly.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Toxic Trio describes the massive impact domestic abuse, parental mental health issues and parental substance abuse can have on both vulnerable children, young people and the parents themselves. These issues often co-exist, particularly in families where significant harm to children has occurred. You can learn more about it here.
Recent Reviews
22nd January 2026
good to go
The learning was very easy to follow and make sense of. very good resources and materials
22nd January 2026
Virtual college experience
Thé information is very well presented. I liked the shirt videoed in particular ànd thé short practice questions.
21st January 2026
Excellent Value for Money
Excellent Value for Money - Certificate optional Easy to follow - learned a lot My third time on this course - has to be taken every few years
20th January 2026
This was very easy to follow
This was very easy to follow
20th January 2026
Level 2 Food Safety and Hygiene…
This course gave the information and knowledge I needed. It was varied in content and gave little quizzes at the end of some modules which was helpful for my learning.
19th January 2026
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19th January 2026
excellent online training packadges
All the training packadges we have used with our staff team have been great! Easy to use and the information very relevent. We are a small charity so finding well priced/free training is really important to us . We have also been able to take advantage of the sales too !
19th January 2026
easy to follow instuctions to access…
easy to follow instuctions to access the next stage of the course, as well as the extra information given on certain pages. being able to take your time to absorb the information before the quiz to finish the course.
19th January 2026
Really clear and informative course
Really clear and informative course
19th January 2026
Informative, clear course
Straight forward to use, clear, well presented online course. Very informative and well structured.
Excellent
4.8 out of 5
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