Basic HTML Version
Adfam conference |
Family matters
July 2013 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| 13
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
ASK THE PANEL
Delegates’ questions were answered by a panel of experts,
chaired by broadcaster and Adfam patron Eddie Mair
VICKI CROMPTON, Cambridge Safer Communities Partnership: What can be done
to break down the barriers to providing a joined-up approach in the workforce at
senior management level?
SARAH GALVANI, Tilda Goldberg Centre: ‘Keep going, don't give up. Get a meeting
with the director of children's services, present to them what you do and what you
can to offer them.’
EMILY ROBINSON, Alcohol Concern: ‘One thing that motivates directors is money and
targets, and if you can find the right money and targets that link up, that might be
helpful. Rather than starting with the people, start with the targets and the numbers.’
LISA PHILLIPS, BEE Happy: How can more be done to cascade information about
parental substance use to women of child-bearing age to prevent harm to unborn
babies?
EMILY ROBINSON: ‘It’s going to be hard until we have a better idea of what is and what
isn't a safe level of alcohol consumption. At the moment, alcohol guidelines are being
reviewed, and perhaps we should be stronger about the restrictions on pregnant women.’
LIZ M
C
GILL, Hampshire County Council: How can we deal with the expectations of
service delivery versus recovery timelines?
ROGER HOWARD, formerly UKDPC: ‘Recovery is a process, not a destination – and it's
not the same as abstinence.’
KATHY EVANS, Children England: ‘It’s really important to be careful of dangling the
motivation of getting your child back in treatment... to use that in the treatment
process is high risk.’
NICK BARTON: ‘Try to cut down to what is achievable within the timeframe that you've got.’
JAX BEATTY, Action on Addiction: What do the panel think about the social
inequality between those that get to keep their children, and those that lose them?
ROGER HOWARD: ‘It’s the poor who get the social work and the crime and the police,
and other people get something else. What do you do about that inequality? The
biggest thing is social and economic improvement. How do you sensitise practitioners
to this stigma and look at people differently? It's about culture change towards
people, and that's a long haul.’
JAKE ROBINSON, Kirklees Lifeline: Is there anything we can do to foster better
engagement, particularly to ensure better outcomes for children?
NICK BARTON: ‘One of the places we think we can increase engagement is in schools,
where problems often come to light first – but then you've got to have a confident
workforce who feel comfortable confronting them.’
KATHY EVANS: ‘Most human beings’ first preference is to work through their problems
with the help of their friends and family and not go to a professional. We need to think
about how we equip ordinary people to understand how they can better support
family members through problems.’
HOSTING OUR CONFERENCE,
HIDDEN HARM 10
YEARS ON
, gave delegates the opportunity to
consider not only the progress that has been
made but also the distance we still have to travel
to protect and improve the quality of life for
children affected by parental substance use. Back
in 2003,
Hidden harm
didn’t address parental
alcohol use and its specific impacts, but one
strong theme from the presenters and delegates
this year was the real and urgent need to improve
our understanding of alcohol use on children. Sir
Ian Gilmore from the Alcohol Health Alliance
urged the audience to start thinking about the idea of ‘passive drinking’ and its
potential impact on the children and other family members.
Some could suggest in policy terms that there is a lack of coherence
around children, families and alcohol and the alcohol strategy does not offer
any clarity or action on how to address this issue. What’s clear is the
significant needs of these children. The Office of the Children’s
Commissioner report,
Silent voices
, published last year, identifies that the
size of the problem is relatively unknown. However, we do know that there
are high levels of parental alcohol use in serious case reviews and children
affected often come to the attention of children’s services later and through
different pathways than those impacted by parental drug use.
Silent voices
also goes on to point out that many children are coping with the alcohol use
in their families – some of them very well – but this does not equal resilience.
Resilience suggests a recovery from the adversity, which is often a far cry
from the behaviours and actions children employ to keep themselves safe
and cope with alcohol in the family.
One of the other strong themes from the conference was that parental
alcohol use rarely sits in isolation and often children are impacted upon by a
range of other inter-related issues, including conflict and violence. Delegates
suggested that when parental alcohol use and family conflict co-exist that
the negative long-term impact on the child could be magnified. It was also
felt that the focus of some policy and strategic thinking concentrated on
alcohol as a single issue, rather than looking at the cumulative effects of the
wider social issues, leading to inadequate management of the family.
One of the differences between parental alcohol and drug use is alcohol’s
legal and socially accepted place in society. Our culture of drinking in this
country can cause confusion and a reticence to understand and explore what
might be harmful to children and their safe family life.
Silent voices
found
that it cannot be assumed that higher levels of consumption equate to
greater harm and that some less frequent, episodic binge drinking
behaviours can be very impactful on children.
What is clear is that we need to do a lot more research, thinking and
development to better understand the needs of children affected by alcohol
misuse. Both national and local policy needs to be improved to pay more
account of these children and not just those at the high-risk end. Those
working in services need to be vigilant to the needs of children who are faced
with the harms from parental alcohol misuse.
Joss Gaynor (formerly Smith) is director of policy and regional
development at Adfam, www.adfam.org.uk
FAMILY MATTERS
NO HIDING PLACE
Adfam’s conference highlighted the urgent
need to understand the impact of alcohol on
the whole family, says
Joss Gaynor