It must be me The impact on children of parental substance misuse - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

‘It must be me’

The impact on children of parental substance misuse 22nd April 2016

The impact on children of living with parental substance misuse

• Prevalence
• Impact
• Responses

Robert Dunne Project Leader Barnardos Lorien Child and Family Service

Prevalence

Prevalence

• The National Drugs Prevalence Survey 2010/11 found that 7% of

15-64 year olds used illegal drugs

• 587,000 children live with adults who engage in regular, hazardous

drinking

• 271000 of these are under 15 years of age
• 1 in 3 child abuse cases involved parental alcohol abuse
• 1 in 12 Irish young people said that parental alcohol use affected

them negatively

Impact of alcohol reported by adults

• 9% report children experiencing verbal abuse
• 5.4% describe children being left in unsafe situations
• 4.8% of the general population and 9.8% from lower social

classes report children witnessing serious violence at home

• 2.8% spoke of children being physically abused

Prevalance

Top three problems most commonly associated with child abuse/neglect and identified in families involved with Child Protection Social work are:

• Problem parental alcohol and
• ther drug use
• Domestic Violence
• Parental Mental health

problems

Impact

Developmental impacts

• f parental substance misuse on children
• Emotional Distance between parent and child and the burden of

silence on the child. I will refer more to this later

• Being at increased risk of abuse including neglect e.g. medical

needs not being met

• Living with other family member such as grandparents or in

foster care because their parents do not have the capacity to appropriately care for them

• Children being exposed to things that create emotional

difficulties for them that can continue into later life

• A parentified child who takes on inappropriate caring

responsibilities in the family

Developmental impacts of parental substance misuse

• n children
• A lack of good friends and difficulties in forming relationships

with their peers. Poor social skills

• Lack of routine at home
• A poor sense of identity and self-esteem
• Malnutrition, lower than average height and weight
• Emotional difficulties that can differ across gender. Girls can

tend toward ‘acting in’, withdrawing or experiencing depression while boys can tend to ‘act out’ and behave in anti- social ways

• Children can experience difficulties in regulating and

expressing emotions

• General behavioural difficulties
• Poor school attendance, delayed learning and/or poor literacy

skills

• A generational cycle of substance misuse that is repeated

through the children

Children report

• Feeling socially excluded
• Having a sense of not being loved
• Feelings of low self-worth
• Taking on responsibility for caring for adult

Impact

• Boy aged 12 – “I worry when my mam

goes out that she wont come home”

• Boy aged 13 – “My one wish would be

to take the stress of Christmas off my Mam”

• Boy aged 12 – “I wish mum would

spend more time at home and not hanging around the Square with all those people”

What does help look like?

Policy Context

National drugs strategy 2009-2016 ACTION 29 under prevention pillar

“Developing a series of prevention measures that focus on the family under the following programme headings:

• Supports families experiencing difficulties due to drug / alcohol

use;

• Parenting skills;
• Targeted measures focusing on the children of problem drugs

and/or alcohol users aimed at breaking the cycle and safeguarding the next generation” (DoCRGA, 2009, p.100

Barnardos Lorien Child and Family Service

The Support Parents Look For

• I decided to engage with Barnardos to learn parenting skills.

Coming from a broken background; I felt I lacked the skills to build healthy relationships with my daughters

• I was finding it hard to adjust to life as a single mother and felt

that Barnardo’s would be helpful

• I wanted to engage with Barnardo’s to help and support my child

with his confidence and to learn how to express himself

• I was starting to get visitation with my daughters, I didn’t feel

confident around toddlers, I needed help around what to do and different ways to engage with them, I was open to starting that process with Barnardos

• I decided to engage with Barnardos to help get

control back with my daughter

• I wanted to get help in been consistent with

boundaries and to get support with managing temper tantrums

• I wanted support for myself and the children to help

with situations in the family home and around their father, also to look at the impact of my own addiction and their behaviour as a result,

• to look at loss and grief and to learn to communicate

better as a family

Assessment of need

Practical Support

Interagency work

Friendship Group

Individual Work

• HEARING the Child
• Work on Emotional Literacy-Feelings

and self expression

• Work on the child’s Understanding of

Addiction

• Loss and language around this

Seasons for Growth

• Change is a big thing in life
• Happy safe lives is the path to a happy life
• Anything that changes is alright.
• Never give up in what you believe
• A great life is what you will achieve
• Great changes are in sight
• Everything will be alright

Key Messages for Children

• I didn’t cause it
• I can’t cure it
• I can’t control it
• I can make positive choices for myself
• I can communicate my feelings
• I can celebrate myself

In the words of the families.......

• “Now I understand the effect that me being

passive has had on my children. I am only realising now that I had no boundaries for them as I needed them to forgive me for the fact that I was using drugs.”

• “ I realise that I ended up on drugs

because my parents didn’t know how to show me they cared about me. I care about my children now I tell them every day.”

• “The kids are happy to see me so happy

and I talk to them constantly, about everything, they know each of them will be listened to.”

• “Before I was just living in denial I knew I had

to change but didn’t know how. I kept saying will I? Won’t I? Now I am just happy I did it.”

• “I am no longer afraid of services, now I know

they are there to help me and the children.”

• “I don’t want to look back at why I was using
• drugs. I want to look forward, focus on my

children and get better for them.”

• “Barnardos is making me a better father.

Since doing the Partnership with Parents I am understanding what my children need from

• me. I am detoxifying from benzos because I

want to be alert so to be able to play with my child.”

Further Information

• Barnard and Barlow –Parental drug dependence
• Living with the elephant –Growing up with parental substance

misuse (Brynna Kroll)

• Dianne Hogan-Children’s Research Centre: Trinity College

Dublin

• Substance Misuse and Child Welfare Special Interest Group

David Hayes d.hayes@QUB.AC.UK

• www.drugs.ie
• www.spunout.ie
• www.barnardos.ie