Silent voices : supporting children and young people affected by parental alcohol misuse

Main table of contents: • Summary of Key Messages and Recommendations • Section One: Background • Section Two: Methodology • Section Three: Consultation with children and young people • Section Four: Review Findings • Research Question One: What is known about the experiences of children and families where there is parental alcohol misuse and to what extent is this informed by the views of children and young people themselves? • Research Question Two: What are the key wider issues associated with PAM (e.g. unemployment, domestic abuse, mental health) and how do they relate to risk/protective factors for children and families? • Research Question Three: What is known about protective factors and processes in this population and how they can minimise risk/negative outcomes? • Research Question Four: What is known about services, and their delivery, and the impact/benefit of such services for children (and families) where there is PAM and to what extent is this informed by the views of children and young people themselves? • Research Question Five: What is the current policy context for children and families where there is PAM and how might it be improved? • Research Question Six: Thinking about questions 1 to 5 above, what are the gaps in our knowledge about children affected by PAM and services for these children

Alcohol and older people: learning for practice

This practice guide is for all health and social care practitioners who work with older people aged 50 years and above. It is a brief aid for practice development and draws on a range of sources, including existing research evidence and more recent work evaluating new alcohol projects specifically targeting older people and their families

Compassion or stigma? How adults bereaved by alcohol or drugs experience services

How to promote compassionate care within public services is a concern in several countries; specifically, some British healthcare scandals highlight poor care for service users who may readily be stigmatised as ‘other’. The article therefore aims to understand better the relationship between stigma and compassion. As people bereaved by a drug- or alcohol-related death often experience stigma, the article draws on findings from a major British study, conducted during 2012–2015 by the authors, of people bereaved in this way, in order to see how service provision can be improved. One hundred and six bereaved family members were interviewed in depth about their experiences of loss and support. Thematic analysis developed theoretical understandings of participants’ lived experiences. This article analyses our data on how bereaved people experienced stigma and kindness from practitioners of all kinds. We found that stigma can be mitigated by small acts of kindness from those encountered after the death. Stigma entails stereotyping, othering and disgust, each of which has emotional and cognitive aspects; kindness entails identification and fellow feeling; professionalism has classically entailed emotional detachment, but interviewees found cold professionalism as disturbing as explicit disgust. Drawing on theories concerning the end of life, bereavement and emotional labour, the article analyses the relationship between stigma, kindness and professionalism, and identifies some strategies to counter stigmatisation and foster compassion

Alcohol Misusers' experiences of employment and the benefit system

This study was commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to explore the experiences of adults with alcohol misuse problems in the UK in relation to employment, unemployment and benefit uptake. A separate report contains the findings of a study to estimate the number of people who are accessing DWP benefits and who have a problematic relationship with alcohol (Hay et al., 2010)

End of life care for people with alcohol and other drug problems. Secondary analysis of interviews with family members, friends and carers bereaved through a relative’s substance use.

This research presents findings from secondary analysis of qualitative interviews with adults bereaved through substance use. As the first half of a two-phase piece of work, this analysis aimed to: • explore how families of people with alcohol/drug use problems experience their relative’s end of life; • examine the extent to which services recognised or responded to the whole family’s needs; and • inform design and delivery of primary qualitative data collection (the second half of the two-phase piece of work). The research team accessed interview transcripts from an ESRC funded research project on Bereavement Through Substance Use, where 102 people talked about the deaths of 93 relatives/friends