Stigma and Drug Misuse

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Vivienne Evans Chief Executive Adfam
www.adfam.org.uk
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Families, Drugs and Alcohol

• There are up to 7 million people in England that
  are affected by someone problematic drug or
  alcohol use.
• Between 250,000-350,000 children are affected by
  parental drug use and up to 2 million children
  are affected by parental alcohol use.
• c.150,000 family members are affected either
  directly or indirectly by drug activity in
  prison at any one time.
• Research shows that involving families can
  improve engagement of users in treatment and can
  improve outcomes not only for the user but the
  family as a whole.

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Adfams Mission

• Adfam is the voice of families affected by
  someone elses drug or alcohol use, the leading
  national organisation providing support,
  information and services for these families.

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Adfams key activities

• Informing
• We provide a wide range of information to
  families to help equip them to manage their
  situation. We also offer opinion and evidence to
  professionals and government to influence
  policy.
• Challenging
• Using information gathered directly from
  families, and from research and evaluation
  findings, we challenge and influence
  policy/decision makers and the media to
  understand and represent more accurately the
  issues affecting families of drug and alcohol
  users.
• Supporting
• We run direct services to families coming into
  contact with the criminal justice system and
  provide training and consultancy to help family
  agencies, community groups and the statutory
  sector to improve their ability to help their
  local communities.

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Why engaging families matters

• Families are identified as one of the pathways in
  the National Reducing Reoffending Action Plan
• With the increased overlap of DIP and NOMS work
  Models of Care is having a greater impact.
• One of the new quality requirements for drug set
  out by Updated Models of Care 2006 states that
  treatment providers must ensure that partners,
  families and children should be provided with
  support in their own right in order reduce the
  overall drug related harms.

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Impact on families

• Social
• Physical
• Psychological
• Financial
• How do families respond?

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Needs of families

• Coping with stigma
• Accessing services
• Being involved in treatment
• Range of support services

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Why involve families?

• Personal
• Strategic
• Economic
• Why not?

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Adfams Criminal Justice Work

• Prisons
• Drug Intervention Programme
• Young People
• Parenting
• Training
• Consultancy

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Adfams prison work

• HMP HollowayOne full time support worker
• HMP PeterboroughTwo full time support workers
• HMP BrixtonOne full time support workers
• Greenwhich and Southwark DIPAdfam counsellor
  working as part of the DIP teams
• Somali ProjectProviding specific help to the
  Somali community and will be active at HMYOI and
  RC Feltham

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Case Studies from Adfam Holloway

• An imprisoned drug user asked us to contact her
  mother who was looking after her daughter. The
  mother was at the end of her tether and not
  willing to give her imprisoned daughter another
  chance.
• Through our continuous support and mediation the
  user engaged in several courses in prison,
  looking at drug use and resettlement. The mother
  felt more positive regarding her daughters new
  focus and considered letting her daughter come
  home on a Home Detention Curfew. The daughter
  was released and both parties felt supported and
  their needs addressed giving them another chance
  to sustain the users treatment and family life.

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Case Studies from Adfam Holloway

• An 18-year old user, who underwent an alcohol
  detox in prison, was placed on suicide watch and
  was very tearful, disturbed, distressed. She was
  unwilling to engage in any support.
• The inmate referred her mother to the Adfam team
  for support. It came to light that her mother had
  in fact given birth to the inmate in the very
  same prison. This explained why she had been so
  distressed and the information aided in her case
  management, resulting in her being give end the
  appropriate support.

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Challenges and Opportunities

• What works?
• What doesnt?
• Where next?