The health and social care provider Turning Point has said alcohol misuse within families is an escalating concern in its new report "Bottling it up: the next generation". It says early screening and identification of families is needed urgently to prevent the ‘inter-generational cycle’ of alcohol misuse which blights the lives of children and undermines their life chances.
Up to 2.6 million children live with parents who drink at "hazardous" levels and around 700,000 children are thought to live with dependent drinkers. As picked up in the Daily Express, pressure put on women to be "supermums" was felt to be increasing alcohol use as a coping mechanism. Turning Point said more than 5,000 people who used their alcohol treatment services last year were parents.
The report says children of parents who misuse alcohol are more at risk of depression, anxiety and increased anger. Turning Point also highlighted JRF research which found that children who see their parents drunk are twice as likely to get drunk themselves. Children living with drinking parents are also more likely to experiment at an early age with alcohol and drugs, increasing the risk of their own later life substance problems.
In the report Turning Point call on the Government to place a duty on Local Authorities to develop strategies that take into account the harms to family life and children's development. They also advocate the development of services which are more family focused and home-based, better liaison between adult and children's services, and more information available to help affected children.
The charity Adfam exist to improve the quality of life for families affected by drug and alcohol use - and have a find help here page. Alcohol Concern's Embrace project was set up to develop better policy and practice around alcohol and children, families and domestic abuse. Embrace pilots aimed to develop a more family-focused approach to their clients and to take account of domestic violence and abuse throughout their work.
Further alcohol-related reports and guidance related to children and young people can be found here on the Alcohol Learning Centre, including the CMO guidance or see the Drinkaware web-page for parents.
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