Helping children of problem drinking parents...

The Eurocare Report `Alcohol Problems in the Family: a Report to the European Union' has helped to draw attention to the problems experienced by children as a result of parental drinking not only in the UK but across the European Union.

Here, Jane Livingston describes a special project to help such children being undertaken in Scotland.

The Alcohol Advisory and Counselling Service (AACS) based in Aberdeen, Scotland secured start-up funding for a child/family worker post in 1995, in order to develop ways of helping children living in households in Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire where there were parental and or family alcohol problems.

AACS Director, Janis McDonald, who has twenty years experience in the alcohol field identified the need for such a post early on her career and had lobbied continuously to see it realised. In doing so she anticipated the recommendation made in the 1998 report Alcohol Problems in the Family that specialist alcohol agencies should designate a member of staff responsible for family and children's services.

Whilst start-up funding ceased in March 1998, Aberdeenshire Council agreed to fund the post part-time thereafter. The agency is currently in discussion with Aberdeen City Council to secure additional funding.

I took on the post in January 1997 and it quickly became apparent that parental drinking was a priority. In reports published in November 1997, Child Line and Alcohol Concern highlighted that there are nearly one million children in the United Kingdom who are likely to be living with a parent whose drinking has reached harmful or risky levels - just over 85,000 of those children live in Scotland. At a local level a progress report by the Grampian Alcohol Development Officer, Sally Wilkins, entitled `Impact of Alcohol on Public Services' noted that in August 1997, Aberdeen City Social Work Department cited 24% of childcare cases as having alcohol as the reason for referral.

I became particularly interested in the impact of maternal drinking on children and the challenge it poses for social services. This interest was heightened by the introduction of the new Children (Scotland) Act 1995 with its emphasis on support and preventative work, as it is an area of work which is made difficult by the stigma that surrounds alcohol problems.

In October 1998 I completed a research thesis in which I examined the experiences of eight young people whose mothers have a drink problem. As an agency AACS firmly believes that an individual will go through a number of stages in relation to their drinking, in line with Prochaska and Di Clement's Cycle of Change Model, within which they identity five stages, including relapse, that an individual will move through. Direct work with clients has highlighted that there is a general lack of awareness of these stages and that relapse is more often than not viewed as failure as opposed to an integral part of change.

When carrying out the research for my thesis, each of the young people interviewed vividly described their experiences of living with someone going through these stages and their deep frustration at trying to get other people to understand what it is actually like for them. It was clear that the quality of their lives revolved around the drinker and their behaviour: in effect they determined the tempo of family life. The study makes the key point that there are different ways of working with both a parent and their children throughout the Cycle of Change and that an environment must be fostered within which parents and children feel secure in asking for help at. difficult times, without fearing that the family will be split up indefinitely. Ideally a family should be asking for support as opposed to fearing that they will be found out.

Through carrying out the research and continuing to work at the agency, I have seen more clearly that the existing system does little to support the family who is living with a drinker. It is evident that there is a distinct lack of training for professionals in addition to very few clear alcohol policies and that this leads to a wide variance in the quality of help available for families.

Current childcare services take little or no account of the process an individual will go through before changing a drinking behaviour. It is disheartening to witness a drinking parent promising repeatedly at. a childrens hearing or child care review that they will not drink again. How much more productive it would be to have an open and supportive discussion on relapse prevention strategies, action plans for children which take account of the Cycle of Change Model and even to hear the fundamental question being asked how can we support you in changing your drinking behaviour.

The answer may be as basic as providing childcare to enable a parent to attend counselling. To simply demand that a parent must change without taking account of the process they are going through is doing a disservice to them and to the child. This is often justified as focusing on protecting the child. I would argue that it is short. sighted and more damaging in the long run.

AACS has addressed the recommendation in the 1998 report that agencies should ensure that adequate training is provided to staff in relation to child development and the family aspects of alcohol problems by developing a two day training pack which we are marketing both internally and externally. Our aim is to continue to work to improve services for families and we have a number of goals that we still wish to realise.

As well as working at AACS Jane Livingston also runs her own consultancy focusing on children who are affected by a family members use of alcohol.

Copies of her research are available for £8 (includes printing, postage and packaging). She can be contacted at
Tel/Fax 01224 709922

Email janelivingston@btconnect. com
For further information about the child family project or the training pack please contact Jane Livingston directly or Mike Hutchinson (Training Manager) AACS
Tel 01224 573887 Fax 01224 213479

Email info@aacs.co.uk
A report on the child family project 1995-1998 is available from the agency for £2.50 (includes printing, postage and packaging)