Also for a substantial minority of the affected children, the problems continue into their adult lives and indeed, some children of problems drinking parents themselves become transmitters of the problems to the next generation. Children whose parents are problem drinkers are unheard, invisible casualties. Reticence and secrecy characterise their lives. The stigma associated with alcohol misuse keeps them silent to protect their families. Alcohol misuse has cast a blight on lives made much worse by the difficulty families have in asking for help.
These children and young people are struggling with situations far too great or serious for them to manage, often isolated and unsupported; experiencing a family life driven by conflict, tension, sexual, physical and emotional abuse, problems at home and at school. These young people will be adept at maintaining the secret in their family, often being young carers to their parents and to others in the family, carrying the burden of a huge responsibility.
A reason why there is so little provision for this group of children is because of the way society deals with alcohol is often unhelpful and inconsistent. When a parent is found to be using illegal drugs, the family is very likely to be seen as one that needs help. When the issue is alcohol, the situation is likely to be ignored or treated with amused tolerance until the family hits a crisis. In 1997, Alcohol Concern’s research concluded that there was very little help available for this group of children, Specialist alcohol services often have no tradition of working with young people and many expressly exclude children.
Added to this are the facts that families with alcohol problems have powerful reasons for keeping it secret, specialist services are often not funded or trained to provide for children and general childcare and family services are rarely trained in managing alcohol problems. The evidence shows that these children are children in need. As a result of this, all agencies who come into contact with children or parents must be seen as having a responsibility to protect and support them and to do this without increasing the stigma that is already attached to alcohol problems.
Thus, it is apparent that existing strategies are failing this group of children, as only the requirements of the person perceived to have the problem or difficulty is taken into account. Children must not be left out. Wherever problem drinking is under discussion, the effect on children should also be on the agenda. Each local authority has responsibility for bringing together all relevant local agencies, especially, health, education, police and social work, to draw up children’s services plans to provide for children in need living in their area. However, teachers, medical and nursing staff, social workers, the police, young people’s counselling services and a whole range of other professions that encounter children suffering because a parent has an alcohol problem, are on the whole still not well equipped to recognise, or respond to, this problem (Brisby, et. al., 1997).
Working Together to Safeguard Children sets out how agencies and professionals should work together to promote children’s welfare and protect them from abuse and neglect. Section 24, ‘Drug and Alcohol Abuse,’ states that it is important that the implications for the child living with a substance misuser are properly addressed as some substance misuse may give rise to mental states or behaviour that put children at risk of injury, psychological distress or neglect (Department of Health, Department for Education and Employment, 1999). The second is the guidance for the new Framework for the Assessment in Need and their Families. This framework make clear that assessment is a process not a single event and that action and services should be provided in parallel with assessment according to the needs of the children and families (Department of Health, Department for Education and Employment (2000).