Home  | Substance Misuse 2006

The Napier Family Centre’s Family Services team collaborated on this article to voice their observations about an increasing trend in substance misuse in our communities’ families.

 

Limor Strong, Val Chittenden, Heather Osborne, and Michelle Wilton work with families and youth in the community of Napier.

 

As a part of our work as family social workers we have noticed in the last year the increasing use of alcohol and drugs, particularly methamphetamine, amongst families in the community.

 

Substance misuse is not limited to young people or low socio economic groups but is spread throughout the community including many parents with children in their day to day care. Substance misuse affects children in many ways.

 

Children living with parents who misuse drugs and alcohol tend to live a chaotic lifestyle, with unpredictable boundaries. Parents’ behaviour can range from loving to withdrawn to aggressive. This unpredictability can lead to lack of structure and routine including parents who do not wake up in the morning to take children to school.

 

Due to the high cost of substances, money for rent, regular household bills and food is unavailable. This results in many household moves, changes of school and health providers, and children going hungry and unable to participate in out of school activities.

 

These children often have low self-esteem and are under achievers. They tend to lack basic social skills and often display challenging behaviour including anger outbursts. In many cases these children end up living with relatives and other caregivers in the community. This has a lifetime impact on these children, and our society, as they become the parents of tomorrow, often repeating the cycle.

 

So how can we, as members of the community, help these families to break the cycle of substance misuse? How can we support the children to have a safe and stable environment?

 

First we need to raise awareness to the phenomenon and not ignore what is happening on our doorstep. We need to encourage policymakers to recognize the impact of this issue on today’s and tomorrow’s society. There needs to be research to investigate why this increase in substance misuse is occurring. We need to be informed about the programmes available in our community and work together to ensure these are delivered.

 

We need to support these families to make better choices for the sake of the children. We need to stop this vicious cycle of substance abuse.