Supporting Families Affected by Drugs and Alcohol: A Vital Role in Recovery

1. AdfamFamilies, drugs and alcohol Vivienne Evans September 2013

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5. The numbers • Nearly 1.5 million adults will be significantly affected by a relative’s drug use • The cost of harms they experience as a result amounts to about 1.8 billion per year • The support they provide would cost the NHS and local authorities about 750 million to provide if it were not available

6. The numbers • 61,000 children in care in UK • Up to 350,000 children affected by parental drug use • Up to 1.3 million affected by parental alcohol use • In 2007, local authorities spent £117 million dealing with families where substance misuse is a problem • Substance misuse linked to DV, mental health, poverty ......

7. THE POLICY DRIVERS Families affected by addiction problems are important for four significant and related reasons: • Involvement of family members in the treatment of their relatives with addiction problems can enhance positive outcomes • Family members in these circumstances show symptoms of stress that merit help in their own right • Effective treatment of the parent can have positive benefits for the child • Better outcomes for children are achieved if they remain with their families

8. Why support families? • They provide practical, emotional and financial support to the substance user, improving the likelihood of recovery • Health and welfare of family members is improved if they are given support • Engaging families in a prison setting can reduce drug supply and re-offending • Isolation and stigma increases stress and its related problems, placing added strain on statutory services • Economic advantages • Why not?????

9. Why families? • Rebuilding family relationships is a key constituent of recovery • Families provide vital recovery capital • Families are well placed to help map individualised routes away from drug dependency • Families need to recover too

10. Case studies • The family has been torn apart in many ways, and my grandchild has faced stigma at school • We’ve had to deal with drug dealers demanding money and had to pay back thousands of pounds in drug debts for our son… • My daughters were scared of their drug using brother….the emotional stress meant they missed school… • We didn’t have any routines .. Everything revolved around the drugs. There wasn’t much food about…. Bread and not much else

11. Impact • Social • Financial • Physical • Psychological • Criminality • Stigma • Personal and societal

12. What does family support mean? • Policies and guidance : • Drugs • Families • Children • Systems: • Strategic and operational partnerships • Interventions and services • Culture and language

13. Six key messages of the original Hidden Harm inquiry • Estimated 250,000/350,000 children of problem drug users in the UK • Parental drug use causes serious harm to children at every age from conception to adulthood • Reducing the harm to children should become a main objective of policy and practice • Effective treatment of the parent can have major benefits for the child • By working together, services can take practical steps to protect and improve the health and well-being of affected children • The number of affected children is only likely to decrease when the number of problem drug users decreases

14. Key challenges/opportunities • How to deliver at a time of austerity • Outcomes • Localism • Public Health • Workforce • Recovery • Troubled families .

15. Has anything changed?

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