| Abstrakt: |
This research explores the views and experiences of employees at Finnish outpatient substance abuse treatment clinics about helping children of substance-abusing clients and about the practical provision of help to children. It works with the concept of child and parent-sensitive practice, which means that both adult clients' needs as parents and their children's needs are identified and taken into account in treatment. The research material consists of interviews with 17 employees from different substance abuse clinics. Interview questions concerned the collection of information about children and their needs for help, helping children directly and through the provision of support to parents, and collaboration with child protection authorities with a view to helping the children of parents with substance abuse problems. Based on the interview responses only very limited information is collected about the children of adults admitted to care, and it is very rarely that children are met in person. One of the clinics offered a special group for children of parents with substance abuse problems, and at four clinics children were helped as part of the provision of family care. At some clinics children get help via professional collaboration and through the personal activity of individual employees, but there are many clinics where children receive no help at all. The main reason quoted for the exclusion of children was that this was not part of the substance abuse worker's job description. The tools available for supporting parenthood in the field of substance abuse treatment are very limited or non-existent. Most typically, employees said that they supported parenthood through substance abuse care itself, although it was at once pointed out that the non-use of substance does not yet in itself resolve the problems of parenthood. The research identified two different ways of working with child protection services. The first is the virtual non-existence of cooperation: this is the practice at clinics where staff do not meet with children, where they offer no support for parenthood and where they submit the least number of child protection reports. The other approach to collaboration is characterised by the idea of shared clients, personal communication and flexible practices to help individual clients and whole families. This approach is associated with more frequent child protection reports and with the provision of support to children and parents. It is concluded in the article that the right of family members to assistance, support and care as spelled out in the Substance Abuse Treatment Act does not materialise in the case of children. Extensive development efforts are needed in the substance abuse treatment field to create practical models for the provision of effective help and support for children of parents with substance abuse problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
