Addaction, the drug and alcohol treatment charity, is to receive £1 million over four years from the Zurich Community Trust to address the hidden harm caused to children and families by parental drugs misuse.
This is the first comprehensive project to directly address many of the recommendations made in a major report on hidden harm produced by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) in 2003.
350,000 children are estimated to be at risk from parental and carer drug misuse in the UK. Research also tells us that children who live in homes where adults use drugs are 7 times more likely to become drug users themselves2. Although the statistical scale of the problem in the UK is known, a well informed picture of which children, in which families, are at risk does not exist. Parental drugs misuse is still therefore very much a ‘hidden’ problem.
Peter Martin, CEO of Addaction said: "Up to now, drug treatment has placed the chaotic adult user at its centre. This project, called Breaking the Cycle, aims to transform the way drug treatment is delivered in the UK, by placing children at its centre."
The announcement by Addaction and the Zurich Community Trust comes just a fortnight after the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) published the Government’s response to the ACMD report called ‘Hidden Harm’. The response makes clear that Government sees the issue of children and drugs as part of the evolving Children and Youth Policy, rather than placing it at the epicentre of drugs policy.
Peter Martin added: “It is clear that without taking action now, we are at risk of multiplying the numbers of drug users in the future. We have not responded fast enough in this country to minimise the range of harms to children that may be caused by parental drug misuse. Harms can include a multitude of reduced life chances from experiencing inappropriate behaviours, neglect, poor school attendance and long-term psychological harms to the potential risk of the child using drugs themselves.
"The Government response accepts almost all the 42 ACMD recommendations, which is good news. But there is a shortage of detail and specific dates for delivery. Many thousands of children at risk are still hidden from view and will continue to be so."
Although there are many health and social care agencies involved in protecting children from birth onwards, lowering the barriers of hidden effects of drugs misuse in the family requires the involvement of specialist drug treatment agencies like Addaction. Breaking the Cycle will provide a good basis for building partnerships working right across the spectrum of children’s services, Children’s Trusts, Drug and Alcohol action teams, and the major children’s charities.
"While children’s policy plans are in early stages of development, we believe we can’t wait for others to act. We have to act now. As a national drugs charity we are particularly well placed because of our professional expertise and access to the adult user. Now, with Zurich’s financial support we can provide the evidence base of what works, and how it works, to reduce hidden harm, which currently forms such a big gap in both children’s and drugs policy. Hidden harm is precisely that - hidden - and we must continually ask the question how do we draw back the curtains, and provide the answers to Government?"
Chris Gillies, Chairman of Zurich’s Community Trust said, “ We are delighted to be working in partnership with Addaction. With their expertise and our support, we hope to transform the lives of children of drug addicted parents”. He continued “ Breaking the Cycle will also provide opportunities for Zurich people to get involved, sharing their time and skills with Addaction whilst also increasing their awareness of drug issues. Furthermore, it offers excellent potential for replication and for leveraging funds from other sources."
A crucial part of Breaking the Cycle will involve detailed data collection across Addaction’s 73 services. Addaction will also be able to identify those adults who attend the services who have children and build a more detailed picture of need. This was a key recommendation of the ACMD report.
"We will be training our drug workers in child protection work,” says Peter Martin. “This is a highly sensitive area and encouraging parents with problematic drug use to come forward before too much harm is done is an ultimate goal. It is around identification, intervention and hidden harm that our work will be most innovative and will directly respond to some of the key ACMD recommendations. No other broad-based agency can really claim to be able to identify adult clients in this way because they are not working with them or assessing them in the way we are."
Many children who are identified as at risk are taken into care. There are currently 67,000 looked after children in England, 7000 of whom are placed in children’s homes. Nationally, there is no comprehensive picture on the links between drugs misuse and the numbers of children placed in care, whether residential or foster care. The local picture is also patchy and from information Addaction has from some local areas, it would appear that children’s social service departments only hold data at the local level, and much of this data currently requires manual sorting. Currently, it is impossible to state just how many looked after children there are in England and Wales where parental substance misuse was a factor in them being taken into care.
Peter Martin said: "We must recognise that secrecy is reinforced by fear that children will be removed from the family home. While for all agencies involved child protection must remain the pre-eminent goal, we recognise that for many reasons, alternative options to care can become a secondary consideration in practice. It is true that the threat of a child being taken away can act as a lever for a parent to seek treatment, it can also act as a barrier to parents who need help in coming forward. This is particularly true in a culture of stigma which many drug users are subject to. It is not the case that all drug users are bad parents, nor that parents who misuse drugs can’t be helped to change. What we need to ensure is that where it is possible to keep families together, and that this is right for the child, that this happens. We need a systemised evidence-based approach and to create a more open environment that encourages parents who misuse drugs to come forward for treatment."
"The ACMD recommended that residential care should be considered as an option of last resort. They said that for good reason. Twenty per cent of the adult clients in treatment surveyed in 2004 had been in care3. However, the Government has rejected this ACMD recommendation on the grounds that they published good practice guidance in relation to decision-making last year."
Anecdotal evidence has revealed cases where families have been broken up, either because there has been no alternative response on offer, or there has been no attempt to link in with treatment services and encourage drug-misusing parents to attend. We also know of many cases where drug or alcohol misuse in the family home contributed to the subsequent addiction and dependency of our adult clients.
The Breaking the Cycle pilot services will be based in three areas selected for their balance of demographics – in London in Tower Hamlets, in Derby city and in the rural area of Cumbria. Addaction has already obtained the interest of two drug action teams in extending the scope of the projects with extra funding. “This shows just how investment from a corporate funder can act to lever in other funding streams. We are using the money wisely, and are also looking to find a further partner so that we can simultaneously set up an alcohol family work pilot”, said Peter Martin.
"We are very keen to contribute to Government policy in this area. We have briefed Ministers in the three key departments (the Home Office, Health and Education and Skills) on our initiative, and will continue to do so as the project develops. We are also seeking Government involvement and a relatively small sum to conduct an independent evaluation of Breaking the Cycle. Addaction remains very committed to campaigning on this issue and to keep it high on the Government public policy agenda."
-Ends-
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For further information:
Addaction Communications Department:
Rosie Brocklehurst
Tel: 01424 435 032 and 07773 270 649
Zurich Community Trust Press Office:
Kate Hodges
Zurich Press Office
Tel : 01793 503711/07708 269653
email: kate.hodges@uk.zurich.com
Notes for Editors:
- Photographs are available on request
- Two case histories of children whose parents used drugs are attached.
- Addaction is the leading drug and alcohol treatment charity in England and Scotland and helps 20,000 clients a year in its 73 services.
- Addaction has 12 dedicated youngaddaction services helping children and young people with substance misuse problems.
- Addaction was founded in 1967 as the Association of Parents Against Addiction (APA) and changed its name to Addaction in 1998. See: www.addaction.org.uk
- The ACMD report on Hidden Harm published by the Home Office in June 2003 and the Government (DfES) response published on March 17th 2005, are available by contacting the Addaction press office or The Home Office website: www.homeoffice.gov.uk or the DfES website: www.dfes.gov.uk
- Zurichs Community Trust, a registered charity funded by pre-tax profits and donations from its people, provides an umbrella for all Zurich’s community involvement in the UK.
- Zurich Community Trust Programmes create sustainable change through long-term funding and active employee involvement. Zurich works closely with innovative partners to significantly impact the lives of disadvantaged people in the UK and overseas. The Programmes tackle social exclusion and the most vulnerable older people’s issues. In addition, there is a programme in southern India with personal development opportunities for employees. Breaking the Cycle is the latest programme as other programmes come to their natural end.
- Zurich Community Trust manages and matches Zurich employees' and financial advisers' £1 million donations, 20,000 hours of volunteering including 160 annual challenge activities.
- Visit Zurich’s website on www.zurich.org.uk for more details.
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Case histories:
1. Debbie, 15 (Youngaddaction Impact service)
"I've got a real problem with my anger and I take it out on everyone. I find it really hard to forgive people. If you're nice, you're all right but if you do something that isn't I don't forget it. Smoking spliffs really takes your mind off things and gets you out of it. The thing is, though, when it wears off it's like, boom! All your problems are right there. I thought I was going crazy, you get so paranoid.
"I've got some big issues at home. My dad's an idiot, he's like a kid. I can't figure him out. I don't really trust my new stepmum either, my dad gets violent with her. My dad smokes weed and does coke. I remember showing off to my mates when I was in year four! I knew how to roll a spliff and all of that. In year four, though! I've been around drugs all my life.
"My mum's a crackhead and a prostitute, she's a slag. I haven't seen her for years. It's mad, we live in her old house. My dad got custody of us but we live in the same house, it's not as though she doesn't know where we live! I don't care, though. I don't miss her. I've got some photos, but the thing I remember most about her is seeing the back of her head. I was only a baby and I was in the crèche in Holloway prison. I remember seeing her talking to my dad when we'd been to visit her. She had her back to me and I remember the back of her head.
"My auntie's in rehab now as well, we get on really well. She did crack a lot. We're just like each other, really loud and stuff and now we're both doing stuff like this [counselling] now. It's funny, really.
"I smoked about five spliffs a day. Probably more, actually. From the morning all the way through to a 'bedtimesy'. That's what I'd call it. I used to buy three tensies [ten pound bags] a day, I don't know how I got the money. I was spending over two hundred quid a week.
"I used to do robberies, street robberies and from clothes shops. I used to take bikes as well. Really expensive, like two hundred quid bikes and I used to sell them for, like forty quid! It sounds mad now, I know I'm laughing. It just seems weird that I used to do all that. I used to dress up in thick tops and pull my hoody down over my face so people weren't sure if I was a boy or a girl. People tell me that now they can see my face I'm really pretty. It's nice.
"I didn't like living at home so I moved out and went to stay with my friend for a week. I had two mentors at school. One's my form teacher and the other one's the counsellor at my school. I told the counsellor everything and she decided I should come to Addaction. I just thought 'Oh great, I'm going to have to sit and tell someone everything again'. I was getting sick and tired of having to repeat myself all the time.
"My social worker just talked a whole load of bull and completely misunderstood where I was coming from - just didn't know what they were talking about or anything about my situation. When the worker from Addaction came up to my school I thought 'Oh yeah, she's fun' you know? She was funny and when I told her things she would talk with me, whereas the others just sat there. She'd help me say what I really wanted to get out, she would help me say what I really wanted to say. She's helped me put together a goal action plan to get me where I want to be.
"I want to cut down on my smoking and eventually stop. I've cut down by about half now. I don't have a proper date to finally give up just yet though. If I set a date and I missed it I'd get really angry with myself, really angry. I'd hate myself. I'm sixteen next year and I'm going to move out of my dad's place and start a plumber's apprenticeship. I'll move into a hostel for a bit, at first but I'm definitely doing that apprenticeship. I didn't have any of these plans two months ago.
"This place is brilliant. It's brilliant. I had no idea there was stuff out there for people my age, I thought all drug places and counselling places were for adults. People should really know about places like this."
2. Emma, aged 17 sought advice from youngaddaction Impact project:
"I’ve never used a drug, never. I don’t even smoke. I mean, I have a drink every once in a while but I don’t smoke and I don’t do drugs. I came to Addaction to get help with my dad. My dad smokes cannabis and I found out he’s been doing heroin. My mum and dad split up ages ago, they don’t get on and it’s actually much better that way.
"I’ve got a half brother and half sister through my mum’s partner. I’m part of a youth club and I was talking to one of the staff members there and I found out about youngaddaction.
"I wanted to find out more about what drugs my dad was doing, what those drugs were doing to him, and why, you know? I just didn’t understand any of it. I was doing it for me though, like when I found out about the heroin, I just didn’t know what to do. And I couldn’t talk to him about it because I didn’t know what I was talking about. He kept saying that heroin wasn’t as bad as I thought, that all the things I’d heard about it were exaggerated and that I shouldn’t worry. I knew this wasn’t right, but I didn’t have any facts, you know?
"So I couldn’t talk to him about it, he was sure he knew everything and I didn’t know anything. Me and my mum had suspicions for years about my dad and heroin, but it was funny, you know?
"He had friends that used heroin, one of them even had a kid, and my dad fell out with him massively about it. He was really anti-heroin, my dad. So whenever we thought he might be using it, we immediately thought ‘No, he can’t be. Not dad, he really hates it’.
"My mum and him still have a lot of the same friends, and so she found out about it through them. I just couldn’t believe it when I heard about it. I couldn’t stop crying. I mean, my dad’s always letting me down and stuff - he’s always trying to lob me off with money and things like that.
"For an example; he called me the other week, ten minutes before he was about to get on a flight to America, to tell me that he’d be away for a month. He only told me at the last minute. It really annoys me, but then, I supposed I’m used to it, too. Him doing heroin was yet another let down in a lot of ways, but it really, really upset me.
"I was really scared. I just want a dad and some love and support, you know? I’d rather have his love than money, that’s for sure.
"A few years ago, me and my mum and everyone moved out into the countryside. When we moved back we were staying in my stepdad’s flat and it was tiny. I just wanted to live with my dad. When I went over to see him he’d changed my bedroom into a place to work from and I didn’t have a room at his house anymore. I couldn’t believe it, I was so let down. And the heroin, well, I am not sure if he is chasing the dragon4. I’ve seen needles and things at his house before. Whenever I do see him these days, he’s usually out of it. Before coming to youngaddaction, I never really understood why he was behaving like that.
"Youngaddaction gave me a load of information and facts and help with how to talk to him about the drugs. Even things like, recognising if he was really out of it so I’d realise that it probably wouldn’t be the best time to talk to him. The first person I spoke to was his girlfriend, and I asked her straight out if he was using heroin. She didn’t say anything and she just said that I should talk to my dad about that and that she wasn’t go to say anything. The first time I spoke to him about it wasn’t so great I guess, I broke down crying almost straight away. I hadn’t cried at all since I found out about the heroin, not at all. That’s weird for me.
"But I’ve been back to youngaddaction since and I come back regularly. They’ve helped me in coping with him and trying to sort things out with him.
"Without the support, I would never have been able to confront him about things. I just never would have done it. It took me a good two or three months of coming here to get the confidence to do that. I’m still not emotionally strong enough to deal with all of this, though - and the people here really help."
Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) report ‘Hidden Harm’, June 2003
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