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November 2012 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| 11
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
FAMILIES ARE OFTEN HIDDEN FROM POLICY
DISCUSSIONS AROUND DRUGS AND ALCOHOL
AND STIGMA IS NO DIFFERENT.
The impacts of stigma on the whole family
can be insidious and pervasive, leaving families
frozen with the trauma and suffering that comes
with having a loved one abusing substances.
We know that a well-informed, well-engaged
and well-supported family member can have a
positive impact on their loved one’s recovery and
on their own health and wellbeing. We also know
that stigma and shame prevent families seeking
that support. Adfam wanted to talk to families
further to understand how this stigma manifests itself in their everyday lives
and how they feel it prevents them and their relative from making positive
changes. We spoke to four focus groups around the country, families who have
either experienced or are still experiencing stigma from communities,
professionals and even friends and families. We didn’t seek to generate stats
but wanted to share their often unheard narratives and thoughts on how things
could change, and we launched the report
Challenging stigma; tackling the
prejudice experienced by the families of drug and alcohol users
on 31 October.
One of the most striking experiences the families described was that of
isolation. Once people knew, or it was rumoured, that someone in the family
was using substances, the phone stopped ringing, people crossed the street
to avoid them, trust disintegrated at work or people became twitchy about
their property. One wife whose husband was using cocaine said: ‘I’ve stopped
going out and communicating with anyone, and I can’t mention his name to
my family as it is like mud. They probably think I am an idiot and going to
become untrustworthy.’ The families also talked about a sense that this label
was going to stick with them and their family no matter what they did. One
family member in Lambeth said: ‘I got people saying “oh you must be a low
life because why would you want to be with a heroin addict?”’
Hope and persistence were very apparent, however – hope that their loved
ones could make positive changes and recover. But to support the substance
user, they needed help themselves. Families’ lives can be led into chaos, and
attempting to maintain faith in the recovery journey takes an extraordinary
level of resilience and strength. One mother said: ‘Even if it’s your own child,
other family members or neighbours can make you feel very hurt, very
depressed and you’re very stressed out already. By people not supporting you
it makes it worse. You think it is something you did.’
With the help of specific services, families can begin to understand
addiction and recovery and find the strength to support their loved one
appropriately. As one family member explained: ‘You get great strength to
support them in the end, but it takes a long time to get used to the idea of
what has happened.’ These family support services do exist – not as many as
we would like and not in all areas that they need to be, but often the sense of
shame and stigma stops families reaching out. The stigma that families face
needs to be challenged. We need to find a way for families to access support,
improve the quality of their own lives and help strengthen the recovery
journey of their loved one.
Joss Smith is director of policy and regional development at Adfam,
www.adfam.org.uk
FAMILY MATTERS
STIGMA STICKS
Listening to families can help them
overcome stigma, says
Joss Smith
Education |
Family matters
‘It is not enough to show
a school group “this is
what cannabis looks like”
or bring in someone in
recovery to say “don’t make
the mistakes I made”.’
c
u
r
e
The briefing also calls on the government to make sure that families have
access to the most up-to-date information to enable informed discussions with their
children – has it been doing enough to support families in this respect? ‘I think
there’s a difficulty here,’ Evans states. ‘Government can’t be too prescriptive or else
their message won’t be taken seriously by people whose own experiences
contradict official messages – with “safe” drinking limits that many people regularly
exceed, for example. But, on the other hand, if they say “we’ll just leave it up to the
parents” then it shows a lack of concern on what is a very important national issue.’
While government talks about the importance of supporting families, there is
‘little evidence that there is consistent policy to back up the rhetoric,’ she says.
‘Ensuring a consistent approach towards drug education which is family
inclusive would be a good starting point.’ The new commissioning landscape
also poses significant threats – as well as some opportunities – for family
support services, which are often a vital local resource for parents, she
continues. ‘Ultimately this is about supporting open, honest and healthy
relationships in families, rather than the government giving out one message to
parents and saying “tell this to your children, and they’ll never touch drugs”.’
The briefing also wants local authorities and commissioners to recognise the
knock-on effects that cutting young people’s services can have – does she feel the
full impact of cuts to wider services is appreciated or understood by government?
‘Understanding at government level doesn’t necessarily translate into local action,
where the cuts are really being made. Evidence has suggested that Eric Pickles’
Best
value statutory guidance
, which told local authorities not to make disproportionate
cuts to the voluntary and community sector, hasn’t been heeded,’ she says.
‘I think the point made by the
Domino effects
report (see news story, page 5)
is the key argument – young people’s drug use is actually falling, and we risk
undoing this if disproportionate cuts to young people’s services go ahead. If we
can convince the government that this would be a demonstrable failure in one
of its key aims from the drug strategy, we might see stronger directives.’
DDN
Briefing at www.adfam.org.uk
Places are still available for the DDN/Adfam
Families First
conference in
Birmingham on 15 November. Details at: drinkanddrugsnews.com/adfam-
conference-2012