DISC News Spot - Updated 10/12/08

The light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter for children living with parental alcohol misuse

 Despite Turning Point’s ‘Bottling it Up’ report highlighting that five times as many children are affected by parental alcohol misuse than by parental drug misuses, and common knowledge throughout the treatment and research sectors about the impact and needs of these children and their families, public recognition of the extent of familial alcohol misuses and its devastating impact, particularly on children, has long fallen far short of the high profile given to drug misuse. Many have called for the ‘Hidden Harm’ agenda, so successfully applied to the children of drug misusers, to be mirrored for alcohol misuse but for many years these calls have been falling on deaf ears.

Given this, the work undertaken by Comic Relief in recent years, which has culminated in the development of the ‘Alcohol Hidden Harm’ funding programme, represents perhaps the largest single investment in this issue to date and signifies a real shift in action in this area. The aim of the funding programme is to “help reduce the risk to children and young people of alcohol hidden harm and help improve the protective factors and processes that increase their resilience” by funding a small number of projects across England as well as an independent external evaluation of the work of the funded projects.

The Advisory Group was impressed, if a little overwhelmed, at having to shortlist from 75 applications, which in itself highlights the amount of work which is already being done in this area. All applications provided evidence of local partnerships already in place, acknowledging the necessity for such cross-agency/cross-sector collaborations to support service developments in this area. However, in some cases there were multiple applications from the same geographical area, highlighting that appropriate partnerships might not be in place and that opportunities for collaboration were being missed. Whilst some applications did simply list local partners rather than demonstrating how strong and active such links might be, it was refreshing to read from many applicants that such strong partnerships were in place and seen as central to the potential success of the funding. Some applicants had clearly identified specific gaps in their locality and thought of innovative ways of responding to that need with some applicants advocating service development based on already established models of practice (such as Strengthening Families, Option 2 or models of family therapy). Many applications also displayed experience and knowledge, often in very creative ways, in involving service users (particularly young people) in the design and delivery of the work. However, some applications did not provide enough detail on the therapeutic work that they would undertake or on how the work with such vulnerable people would be supported.

Many services face a constant struggle to balance the requirements placed upon them to monitor the extent of their work, and the outcomes for clients associated with that work, despite the obvious links that exist between the presentation of such evidence and continued funding (and with other factors such as staff retention, confidence and development). It was disappointing therefore that this area of the applications was often the weakest. There was very broad interpretation of what should be the main outcomes of the work for which funding was requested, with some applications defining outputs rather than outcomes or listing unrealistic or unclear outcomes. Further, in many cases, the identified outcomes and the means by which attainment of those outcomes would be measured fell far short of what the Advisory Group felt was required. Funding for evaluation was often very limited or completely lacking, although some applicants had established or forged links with other local partners to access support and guidance in this area.

Eleven applicants were invited for interview, five of whom have been awarded funding. An external evaluator will be appointed by the end of 2008 and the work with the projects will start in early 2009. The 5 successful projects are CoreKids at the Westminster Drugs Project, Lifeline in Leeds, the DISC Safe Voices project in Hartlepool, Bristol Drugs Project and the CASA Family Service in Islington in North London. All the projects demonstrated a clear commitment to filling a gap that has long been known to exist in treatment by continuing or extending work already being done in this area, or by describing how they planned to include the needs of these groups in their work. The successful projects varied across a range of domains, including geographical spread, the models on which they based the ideas put forward for funding, the outcomes by which the success of the work would be assessed and the partners who would be involved. However, all the projects had the children at the heart of the planned work, and together they represent an excellent step forward in understanding a range of ways in which this population group can be supported.

The Advisory Group will continue to work with Comic Relief over the next three years and we are all very excited about working with the five successful projects, knowing that this initiative will further raise the profile of the issue. We hope that this commitment from Comic Relief and the successful projects will be mirrored by commitment from Government and other relevant parties to further integrate the needs of the children of parental alcohol misusers and their families into national policy and its local delivery.

Peter Argall
UK Grant Manager
Comic Relief
p.argall@comicrelief.org.uk

Lorna Templeton
Research Manager
Mental Health Research & Development Unit (MHRDU) in Bath
(Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust and the University of Bath)
L.Templeton@bath.ac.uk, http://www/bath.ac.uk/health/mhrdu

Anne Delargy
Team leader – Embrace – Children, families and domestic abuse project
Alcohol Concern
ADelargy@alcoholconcern.org.uk

Vic Evans
Chief Executive
Adfam
Viv@adfam.org.uk

Wendy Robinson
Independent Child and Family Substance Misuse Consultant
wendyrobinsonconsultancy@hotmail.co.uk

Updated 10/12/08