« Previous | Contents | Next »
Listen
Working with young people: A profile of projects funded by the Partnership Drugs Initiative
East Ayrshire Carers' Centre: Substance Misuse Family Support Project
This project was established to complement the service offered by the young carers' part of East Ayrshire Carers' Centre by offering support to young people whose parents are misusing drugs and alcohol. The project tries to avoid stigmatising young people whose caring role is related to drug and alcohol misuse by integrating them into the host project's original groups of young carers. They can participate in the host project's activities on the same basis as other carers but have discreet access to additional one to one support from the family support worker (who also helps run the activities offered as part of the larger project).
January 2002
The PDI funded post is that of a Family Support Worker dedicated to supporting those who are affected by drug or alcohol misuse (including some support for the carers' extended family). The Family Support Worker has a background in working with young people, including detached street work.
The service operates within the East Ayrshire Carers' Centre in Kilmarnock town centre and a Young Carers' Centre in Cumnock (the host's other base).
The host project offers weekly group sessions for carers, based at the two centres. Clients can attend these sessions or they can access individual support from the family support worker either at the centre or away from it.
Children and young people in families where parents misuse drugs.
As of 30 September 2003 there were 39 children with substance misusing parents attending the project.
The age profile of the clients is illustrated in Figure 5.
Figure 5
The gender profile of the clients is as follows:-
Twenty-one clients have had their cases closed, while 18 are still in contact with the project. The project also offered support to 44 parents during this period, 33 women and 11 men.
When young people are referred to the project, they are taken through a formal registration procedure. This involves filling in a form, which records a range of factual information such as age, name of doctor, school, who they live with. This form also records other baseline data relating to who they are supporting and what their caring role involves. Project staff keep individual files for each young carer. Parents and other agencies in contact with the young person are also consulted as part of the monitoring process.
As noted above, the weekly group work sessions are geared towards helping the young carers to build their confidence and develop their social skills in a fun environment. Young carers are also offered a range of respite break and residential opportunities. Recently, project staff and young carers helped to organise and run a national young carers' conference. Individual support is offered by the Family Support Worker, who speaks to the children on a one-to -one basis and also provides practical support such as making sure the parents are aware of all the benefits available to them.
The project receives referrals mainly from social work but also from local projects offering support to drug misusers, for example the Bridge Project. Carers with drug using parents have also been referred to the project as a result of their parents' involvement in family centres such as Shortlees & Royal Bank Nursery. The host project also runs an interactive workshop session in local secondary schools to promote their service among other workers and young people. While this has proved quite effective in recruiting young carers' whose parents have a disability, it has not been as successful in engaging children with drug using parents. Thirty-seven referrals have been made by social work, the other two were voluntary sector referrals.
« Previous | Contents | Next »