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SINCE THE PUBLICATION OF
HIDDEN HARM
back in 2003, we’ve seen a great
spike in the attention given to parental substance use in official strategies,
guidance and protocols. What’s been lacking, however, is information on the
views and experiences of the frontline practitioners who deal with these issues
day in, day out. Adfam’s report,
Parental substance use: through the eyes of the
worker
, aims to redress this balance.
A big positive from the research was that practitioners in drug and alcohol
services were adamant that the sector has improved in relation to parental
substance use, backed up by other recent research like the NTA’s
Parents with drug
problems: how treatment helps families
and Ofsted’s
What about the children?
However, there was a feeling among the treatment staff we interviewed that
the issues raised by
Hidden harm
had been embraced more by the drug and
alcohol workforce than by social workers. Some of those working in substance
use still felt isolated from their partners in children and family services, and
when partnership did flourish it tended to be based on individual professional
relationships built up over time through work with mutual clients. Many were
worried that, as well as losing experienced staff members, cuts could also mean
the loss of the productive partnerships they’d built up.
A local parental substance use coordinator argued that not looking at
parenting meant ‘missing a huge part of the picture’. This doesn’t mean that
everyone in the treatment workforce has to become a family expert overnight.
As one drug worker told us, ‘looking at the family doesn’t double your workload
or mean workers are meant to become “family therapists” – it makes your work
more effective.’
Treatment workers need to foster therapeutic relationships that are honest,
supportive and challenging, and help parents to understand the impact of their
addiction. As the coordinator stated, ‘parental substance users want the best for
their children just as much as any parent does, and understanding the impact
they’re having can help them make changes that wouldn’t be seen otherwise.’
A good relationship with a drug worker can give parents a new perspective
on how their behaviour and lifestyle impacts on their children, even if they – as
is common – underplay their children’s knowledge of their drug taking. It’s
important to look at strengths rather than just risks – ‘treatment workers need
to feel comfortable talking about parenting, not just safeguarding.’
We shouldn’t forget that ‘the capacity to be an effective and caring parent’
is named in the drug strategy as a key outcome in a recovery-focused system,
but we can’t simply assume that this box is ticked if a parent enters treatment,
their drug use declines, or they show progress in other areas of their own
recovery. We have to keep a true focus on the welfare of the child, ensure they
12 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| April 2013
Services |
Parental substance use
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
View from
THE FRONTLINE
‘Some of those working in
substance use still felt isolated
from their partners in children
and family services, and when
partnership did flourish it
tended to be based on individual
professional relationships...’
are listened to, and address their needs – as well as bearing in mind that
parenting can improve even if substance-using behaviour does not.
As the treatment system adapts and changes, there are questions to be
asked about the child’s conception of recovery – how do they understand lapse
and relapse, for example, and how are they affected by this journey? If their
parent is disengaged from treatment – either in a ‘planned exit’ or through
dropping out – what does this mean to the child?
Of course we have to build and celebrate recovery, but this can be a long and
difficult process and we have to confront the fact that lasting damage can be
done to children’s lives. We need to minimise the impact on children, not only
through identifying parenting issues at the first opportunity, but also through
providing them with support in their own right.
Treatment agencies also need effective referral chains with local family
support services, especially those supporting kinship carers. Grandparents in
particular may take care of children when things are at their most chaotic, when
the user goes into rehab, or when they need the space to pursue the early stages
of their recovery without the pressing responsibilities of childcare.
The practitioners we spoke to were full of praise for low-threshold support
services for parents, drugs, including mutual aid groups. The feeling was that
such fellowships – operating a little under the radar, without statutory backing
– play a key role in parenting, even if they don’t explicitly intend to.
Mutual aid could be there for parents if they were vulnerable to trigger
events, were struggling to readjust to family life, or needed help in maintaining
changes. Parents need support on an ongoing basis, not just when things go
wrong. As one practitioner said, ‘addiction is like a slippery slope – if the right
support isn’t provided on the way up, you can end up right at the bottom again.’
The main concern of many of the workers we spoke to, however, was
leadership. The plea was: don’t just make parental substance use a ‘tickbox
issue’, and don’t skim over it in supervisions. One drug worker put it succinctly:
‘the confidence of the workforce is directly related to the level of support they
feel from above’, and it’s up to our managers in treatment, and leaders in the
whole sector, to provide this.
Oliver French is policy and communications coordinator at Adfam.
Report at www.adfam.org.uk
How well do frontline
workers think the sector
is responding to parental
substance use?
Oliver French
shares
Adfam’s findings