Parental Substance Use and Child Protection
Developing National Guidelines and Strategies
On Monday 25 June 2007, a national forum on parental substance use and child protection was held at the Australian Institute of Family Studies: Parental Substance Use and Child Protection - Developing National Guidelines and Strategies.
The forum was co-hosted by Odyssey House Victoria and the Australian Institute of Family Studies with support from the Australian Centre for Child Protection, Griffith University, the FADNET (Family Alcohol and Drug Network) conference, and the Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs.
Forum delegates included representatives from relevant departments in every state and territory government and the Commonwealth, academics, practitioners and representatives of non-government organisations. List of participants
Forum content
The forum was opened by Professor Alan Hayes (Director, Australian Institute of Family Studies), followed by a welcome from Dr Stefan Gruenert (CEO, Odyssey House Victoria) in which Stefan set the context for discussion by providing examples of media headlines across Australia, all of which related to children affected by parental substance use. Media headlines
There were three keynote addresses throughout the day, along with a panel of representatives talking about current government thinking.
Professor Sharon Dawe gave a presentation authored by herself and Dr Paul Harnett titled Children, families and substance misuse: The way forward.
Dr Dawe is an Associate Professor at Griffith University, and lead author of the Australian National Council on Drugs report Drug use in the family: Impacts and implications for children.
Professor Dorothy Scott gave a presentation titled Child protection when parental substance use is an issue. Professor Scott is the foundation Chair for Child Protection at the University of South Australia and Director of the Australian Centre for Child Protection.
A panel was convened to discuss Current Government thinking.
The panel comprised:
- Eija Roti (Department of Community Services, NSW)
- Paul Mason (Tasmanian Children's Commissioner)
- Robyn Miller (Office for Children, Vic)
- Muriel Bamblett (Secretariat for National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care)
- Jean Urquhart (Drug and Alcohol Services, WA)
- The panel was chaired by Dr Leah Bromfield (National Child Protection Clearinghouse)
Following the panel discussion of Current Government thinking in Australia, David Best provided a presentation titled The UK experience - the Government response to hidden harm.
David Best is an academic at Birmingham University, National Treatment Agency and one of the authors of the UK Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs' report Hidden harm: responding to the needs of children of problem drug users.
In the afternoon session, forum participants broke into four groups to discuss moving forward in four priority areas:
- Developing evidence-informed principles for practice (Chair: Dr Sharon Dawe)
- Programs and interventions - implementing local interventions (Chair: Dr Stefan Gruenert)
- Data collection and information sharing (Chair: Dr Fiona Arney, Australian Centre for Child Protection)
- Influencing the policy agenda (Chair: Dr Leah Bromfield)
Outcomes
The forum was an informative day, and provided participants with the opportunity to meet and discuss the issues with others in the area.
A report documenting the forum outcomes is being prepared and will be made available in due course.
Moving forward
The forum resulted in several very promising outcomes:
- Participants at the forum discussed drafting a resolution to government highlighting the importance of recognising the impacts of parental substance abuse on children and calling government to action.
- After the forum, Professor Scott drafted the resolution in consultation with others.
- The resolution was put to the participants of the FADNET (Family Alcohol and Drug Network) conference, which was held in the days following the forum where it received unanimous support.
- Participants from the forum agreed for the formation of a small working party to take the outcomes from the forum and refine this into a draft national strategy. Other participants agreed to take part in consultations to review the draft national strategy. Participants wanting to find out more about being part of either the small working party or the review committee can contact Stefan Gruenert: tel 03 9420 7610 or email sgruenert@odyssey.org.au