copinggame
Cover story |
Family support
December 2011 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| 9
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
Services find it difficult to cater for clients with multiple needs
and dual diagnosis, so it’s little wonder that families struggle.
Oliver French from Adfam looks at how we can help them with
the ups and downs of their vital supporting role
We are not saying that all the separate organisations above should be set up.
If anything, an attempt to separate each need into a distinct area of expertise
would only mean more people being continuously bounced between services;
worsening retreat into the dreaded ‘silos’; more arguments about which problem
came first or is more pressing than another, and therefore needs to be
addressed first; and poorer provision overall. Services should be geared up to
support a variety of different needs.
Existing family support services are in fact well placed to work around
multiple needs, as they already have extensive experience of providing a broad
range of emotional and practical support. They have a good understanding of the
difficulties families can face in these circumstances – for example worrying about
their relative’s health or safety, involvement with criminal behaviour or even just
where they are, and if or when they will come home.
Family support services have a solid base of supporting skills, which is an
ideal start. In the same way that services for drug and alcohol users have
expanded their professional portfolio to learn more about an area they haven’t
always felt ownership over, family support services also need to get up to speed
on issues of mental health problems, offending behaviour, homelessness,
domestic violence and financial difficulties.
No service can be everything to everyone, but family support providers tend
to be less prescriptive in terms of who they will or will not work with. The
empathetic, peer support background many of them share means that risks like
a client being excluded because their hierarchy of needs is not in the correct
order (like a mental health problem being secondary to a substance use issue)
are minimal.
They also have extremely flexible thresholds and tend to work on ‘eye of the
beholder’ terms: if a family member contacts the service because they think they
need support, then there are few or no criteria they must meet in the
‘seriousness’ of their problem. Many – like Adfam – were originally set up by
family members themselves, which continuously ties them to their core mission
of supporting families.
Notwithstanding the importance of effective emotional support, these family
services also need to have a clear picture of local agencies working with
complex needs clients and a thorough command of local working practices. As
mentioned previously, the difficulty of juggling a range of different services, or
struggling to find them at all, is a key concern for families affected by multiple
needs. Family support services can help families negotiate this terrain, and
transmit clear messages on the roles and responsibilities of different local
services – even if they would design local provision differently, given the chance.
They can also play an important advocacy role for families affected by multiple
needs, through demonstrating the variety of problems they find themselves
working with on a daily basis.
Quite rightly there has been a focus in the multiple needs debate on service
users falling through the gaps, but we should also ensure that families are not
left out of the discussion – they can fall through these gaps too. Though
acknowledgement of families’ importance in drug and alcohol policy has
improved in recent years, they should also be recognised throughout the range
of problems which often accompany substance use – both for the effects that
these issues have on them as individuals, and in terms of the invaluable
supportive role they can play.
DDN
Oliver French is policy and communications coordinator at Adfam.
Adfam works to support families affected by drug and alcohol use and anyone
who comes into contact with them. For more information visit www.adfam.org.uk.
‘If professionals struggle
to deal with multiple
needs and dual diagnosis,
how do families cope?’