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April 2013 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| 13
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Family Matters |
First Person
RAISING AND SUSTAINING FUNDS
is often the
biggest challenge faced by voluntary sector
providers, especially within the current economic
landscape. There is some evidence fromNCVO that
the budgetary cuts and harsh economic conditions
are disproportionately affecting the voluntary
sector and donations also reportedly dropped by
20 per cent between 2010/11 and 2011 /12.
Within this context Adfam set out to examine
how this financial environment is affecting
services which offer support for the families of
drug and alcohol users, aiming to highlight any
trends and understand the impact on the sector
as a whole. A concurrent aim was to explore how
family support services are adapting and
responding to the challenges they face – for
example how they are arguing their case in a
more competitive funding environment, and how
they demonstrate the effectiveness of their work.
The results of Adfam’s survey highlighted a
few clear, if not hugely surprising, trends, often
mirroring the state of the voluntary sector as a
whole. Almost three-quarters of the family
support services who responded said that their
overall level of funding had either decreased or
remained static over the last two years, and over
half reported having no reserves. Nine out of ten
respondents reported that the demand for their
service had increased over the past two years and they saw no sign of this
abating. Overall, services supporting families affected by drugs and alcohol are
trying to provide more for less, seeing an upsurge in demand for their support
alongside a reduction in the resources with which to deliver it.
Although the results paint a very unsure picture for the future of family
support services, these organisations are working hard to adapt and are
considering a variety of different options to navigate the tricky terrain. Of course,
simply hiring more volunteers without training, supporting and supervising
them, or firing off funding applications far and wide without reference to their
relevance or purpose, serves nobody; action still needs to be taken in a logical,
well-planned and properly thought-out manner. But the willingness of family
support services to engage with change is cause for optimism that they
recognise the realities of the environment they have found themselves operating
in and are working creatively to address their funding gaps.
We may also see family support services moving more and more towards
utilitarian arguments that their service helps enhance the outcomes of drug and
alcohol treatment, bring down crime, save children fromgoing into state care and
improve mental health in the community – even if this wasn’t the main priority
when the servicewas set up in the first place. Some could see this as ‘mission drift’
for these organisations – however it could also be viewed as a means of survival.
Joss Smith is director or policy and regional development at Adfam.
Funding family support
can be found on Adfam’s website, www.adfam.org.uk
FAMILY MATTERS
MORE FOR LESS
Adfam’s new survey showed family services
are struggling to stretch scant resources to
answer a surge in demand, says
Joss Smith
It didn’t take me long to go from using drugs to dealing them. Even since I was
a kid I had hung around older boys who were into drinking and drugs and the
hippy, traveller lifestyle. Some of them dealt hash and I saw the respect they got
– nobody messed with them. I saw the girls they got to be with. I saw their
flashy cars, their money. I could do that easily, I thought.
Yet, between leaving school and my 18th birthday I had been arrested twice
and chucked out of an apprentice scheme that would have set me up with a job
for life. None of that caused me worry – if I could get a good supply, some good
contacts and start afresh in a bigger city like London I could become a big time
dealer and get the respect I deserved.
Walshy and some other friends came to London with me. In the ’80s it was
easy to scam the system. We made multiple benefit claims with false identities
and I got myself into a bit of cheque fraud. I met Nick a few days after getting to
London. He was sitting in the middle of a squat lounge, like a Buddha meditating,
surrounded by piles of hash and hundreds of LSD trips. I watched him pop pill
after pill and smoked hash with him while he served customer after customer.
Life in London with my new friend Nick and plenty of drugs was going well –
but it wasn’t long before the police arrested me for the cheque-cashing scheme.
I was going to prison and I knew I wouldn’t be able to hack it. My dad had been
to prison and told me about the beatings and rapes and murders. Nick took me
to the only person he knew who could get me out of the fix I was in – his drug
supplier, Terrorist Brian.
Brian had been involved in the IRA and had a house with floorboards full of
drugs and guns. When Nick introduced me, Brian had a pile of cocaine in front
of him and was paranoid that the terrorist squad was watching his house. I
thought it was all front. I would learn that there was nothing phony about
Brian’s terrorist persona. He told me how to get out of a prison sentence – what
to say and how to plead. Then he told me that I could repay the favour one day.
I knew that would be trouble, but there was something inside me that felt like
I had won the jackpot.
As I left his house my eyes searched for the terrorist squad. I couldn’t see
anything but I felt watched. I got a buzz from being around Brian – a terrorist, a
drug dealer. Brian was big stuff and somebody that could help me make my
plans a reality. This was a buzz of danger. I was part of that danger now. I was
heading towards the big time.
Mark Dempster is author of
Nothing to Declare: Confessions of an Unsuccessful
Drug Smuggler, Dealer and Addict
, available now on Amazon.
Next issue: Mark tries his hand at drug smuggling as his drinking and
drugging escalates
FIRST PERSON
NOTHING
TO DECLARE
In the second part of
his personal story,
Mark Dempster
leaves
for London, takes tips
from a terrorist and heads
towards the ‘big time’
‘The
willingness
of family
support
services
to engage
with
change is
cause for
optimism...’