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Understanding and modifying the impact of parents’ substance misuse on children

Richard Velleman is Professor of Mental Health Research and Director of the Mental Health Research and Development Unit (MHRDU, Wessex House, Level 7, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, UK. Email: R.D.B.Velleman{at}Bath.ac.uk), a joint unit of Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership (AWP) NHS Trust and the University of Bath. A clinical psychologist, Richard has set up statutory addictions services, helped develop the families and psychosis service within AWP and worked as an NHS trust board director. He has undertaken numerous research projects and published very widely, especially on the impact of addiction in families. Lorna Templeton is deputy manager and a senior researcher at the MHRDU, where she also manages the alcohol, drugs and the family research programme. Lorna has chaired and is a current committee member of the New Directions in the Study of Alcohol Group, and is a committee member of the Addictions Forum and of Alcohol Concern’s Children and Families Forum. She has worked in the research field since the early 1990s, having worked previously at the National Addiction Centre in London and the Addiction Research Foundation in Toronto, Canada.

We outline the huge literature on the potentially negative impact on children of growing up with a parent who has an alcohol or drug problem, the risk factors that can exacerbate this effect, and resilience and the protective factors that can reduce it. Clear ways that practitioners can intervene to reduce risk and to increase resilience are discussed. All practitioners have a responsibility to work in holistic ways if damage to children and families is to be avoided, and we summarise the key common skills needed to work with individuals (children as well as adults) and families. The differences between a resilience and a deficit approach are outlined.