Toolkit for alcohol workers

   The role of alcohol services

With the exception of one or two, services for problem drinkers do not seek to work with children of problem drinkers. (Some residential services do have provision for adults with young children but their treatment programmes remain adult focused.) Whilst alcohol counselling services often provide for ‘affected others’ this most commonly means working with the problem drinker’s partner or, occasionally, an adult family member. Few services take a whole family approach, focusing instead on individual problems and issues.

There are only a handful of services in England which specifically aim to meet the needs of children affected by problem drinking parents.

There is a debate ongoing about the extent to which alcohol services should or should not change their approach towards a more family-centred style of delivery. Whatever the merits of arguments on either side, alcohol services as they stand are not appropriate for children’s therapeutic services. They could be in a good position to provide such services if appropriately qualified and experienced children’s workers were employed and adequate and child-friendly safe spaces were made available. Services would also need regular high quality clinical supervision and support and have clear lines of accountability and defined child protection procedures.