Drug use in the family: impacts and implications for children
From PhilanthropyWiki
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This report focuses on the impact of parental substance abuse, particularly alcohol and illicit drug use, on children aged 2-12 years. It finds that high levels of substance use are linked to other significant lifestyle and functioning deficits, including exposure to violence, mental health problems and high levels of criminality. These factors occur both in adults living with children and in those with children who are financially dependent upon them. The report also concludes that these negative life circumstances heighten the risk of negative outcome for many children of substance-abusing parents, some of whom will go on to replicate their parent’s social disadvantage.
The report makes a series of recommendations, including separate good practice principles for funding bodies, clinicians and treatment programs. It also makes a series of recommendations for determining the prevalence of children living in households with substance abuse, for the content of treatment programs, for Indigneous communities and for government policy and practice.
The report's Good Practice Principles for Funding Bodies and/or Organisations are as follows:
1. Organisations and funding bodies need to recognise the importance of addressing the needs of children of substance misusers and regard this as core business. 2. Organisations and funding bodies need to give recognition to the importance of this work and provide organisational support for such work to take place. 3. Organisations and funding bodies need to endorse a treatment model that addresses many aspects of families’ lives. Simply providing a ‘play group’ as an added extra, for example, will not improve child outcome. However, if a play group was part of a range of family-focused interventions that aimed to enhance a parent’s social support and improve parental functioning, this would be a worthwhile endeavour. 4. Organisations need to develop interagency practice guidelines that facilitate staff across different agencies working together in a safe, ethical and helpful way. 5. Organisations need to be responsive to the needs of families to ensure treatment engagement.