NEWS: The Australian - 21/05/2007 '1 in 8 kids live with binge drinker or drug user'

1 in 8 kids live with binge drinker or drug user
By Stephen Lunn
May 21, 2007 08:10am


230,000 kids under 12 live with binge drinker
More than 50,000 kids live with illicit drug user
These kids most likely to be drug users

ONE in eight Australian children lives with a problem drinker or drug user, a new report says, and a steep rise in the use of "ice" will only add to the misery in their homes.

The report, "Drug use in the family: impacts and implications for children", found more than 230,000 of the nation's children aged 12 and under were living in a household where they were at risk of exposure to a binge drinker.

More than 40,000 children live in a house where an adult uses cannabis daily, and more than 14,000 live in a household with an adult using ice, or crystal methamphetamine, monthly, warns the report, to be released today by the Australian National Council on Drugs.

"Given the most recent statistics show that there are 70,000 regular ice users in Australia, I think that final figure would be very conservative," clinical psychologist Sharon Dawe, the report's lead author, told The Australian.

Parents' drug and alcohol problems don't happen in a vacuum, the report found, with poverty, mental illness, criminal behaviour and a history of being abused and neglected often running alongside substance abuse.

The consequences for many of the children are appalling.

"These children are most likely to be the next generation of drug users, juvenile delinquents and people with mental illness," said public health expert Margaret Hamilton from Melbourne University.

"Some of them will be subject to neglect right through to physical, emotional and sexual abuse. But probably the most profound impact on the largest number of these children is that their parents just aren't able to fulfil their roles as parents.

"The parents are not emotionally available to them, preoccupied as they are with their own drug seeking and drug use."

Professor Hamilton said it was important to remember that not all drug users were bad parents, "but it certainly makes it a lot tougher to be a good parent".

Australian National Council on Drugs chairman John Herron said the number of children potentially in harm's way was "enormously concerning".

"It's clear from this report that alcohol misuse is a major problem in Australian families," Dr Herron said.

"All children have the right to grow up and develop in a positive, safe and supportive environment."

But Dr Herron warned against the report being used to punish parents who had drug or alcohol problems.

"The ANCD wants to use this report to help governments and the non-government sector establish a system that will encourage parents to seek treatment," he said.

Professor Dawe said the report made the critical finding that substance abuse occurred in families with complex circumstances, experiencing a lot of problems.

"Any solution that is going to really improve the outcome for children will require an intensive, long-term approach that is focused on all levels of family life," she said.

"There are not enough programs, and not enough money for the kind of programs that work.

"Ideally, social workers should have case loads of six or seven families, but many have between 40 and 60 cases.

"Of course the cost of increasing programs would be huge, but it would save so much down the track in welfare services, jails, mental health facilities, and so on."

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Children exposed to binge-drinking, drugs
Farah Farouque
May 21, 2007

ONE in eight children aged two to 12 live in homes where they are exposed to at least one adult who regularly binge-drinks, a study by the Federal Government's drug advisory body has found.

Data for the Australian National Council on Drugs — the first of its kind — also says that at least 24 in every 1000 children in this age group encounter an adult who uses cannabis daily at home, and more than eight in 1000 will be exposed to a methamphetamine user at least once a month.

"This represents a huge, huge problem," the council's chairman, John Herron, said. "This is a clarion call for action now that the problem has been quantified — these are the adults of the future."

Dr Herron, a former Howard Government minister, declined to criticise the Federal Government, citing the $1.5 billion spent on treatment services over the past nine years, although he acknowledged many more services were needed.

The report highlights the shortage of family-friendly treatment services available nationally. It also lays out the complex relationship between abuse of alcohol and other drugs and broader social problems such as mental illness, domestic violence and intergenerational child neglect and abuse.

Eight researchers collated data for the study from sources such as the Australian Bureau of Statistics, universities and drug and alcohol services such as Melbourne's Odyssey House, to come up with the numerical estimates, the first time it has been attempted on this scale in Australia.

However, lead researcher Sharon Dawe said that while the data on drinking was "about right", the findings on children's exposure to illicit drugs showed "an extreme under-estimation of the extent of the problem".

She was at pains, however, to stress that not every parent who misused alcohol or drugs was necessarily a bad parent. The report explicitly rejects such simplistic depictions, although one of its findings is a clear pattern that the highest rates of binge drinking occur among single mothers and the lowest among women in couple households.

Professor Dawe said it was important to consider the context in which misuse of drugs and alcohol occurred when assessing effects on children. A once-a-week binge-drinking episode involving a parent, for instance, might not constitute "chronic, heavy dependency".

"But when the context includes heavy substance abuse (of drugs), and other parental problems such as anxiety and depression, and severe financial stress, the outcomes for children are very adverse," she said.

The report also records high rates of child sexual abuse experienced by illicit drug users — in the range of 30 per cent to 70 per cent for women.
CHILDREN AT RISK

■More than 230,000 children, 2-12, live in households where they are at risk of exposure to at least one adult binge-drinker.

■More than 40,000 live in households where one adult is taking cannabis daily.

■More than 14,000 live in households where one adult uses methamphetamines monthly.

SOURCE: AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL COUNCIL ON DRUGS/www.ancd.org.au.

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Drug-addled raising children
May 21, 2007 09:57am

THE Federal Government will examine the impact of drug use on families after a study found more than 230,000 Australian children are being raised by adults who abuse alcohol or drugs.

The figure equates to 13 per cent of Australian children or almost one in eight - higher than international estimates of 10 per cent.

And many of those children would also be exposed to related problems such as domestic violence, child abuse and mental illness, the Australian National Council on Drugs report said.

The federal minister responsible for drugs, Christopher Pyne, said the impact of drug use on children has not been the Federal Government's main focus.

"Something that the national drug strategy has focused on (is) the fight against drugs, but certainly something that we should be looking at is the impact on families," Mr Pyne told ABC radio today.

"So I do welcome the National Council on Drugs report; it's something that we will study closely."

The 18-month study found that on best estimates, more than 230,000 children live in households where they are at risk of exposure to at least one adult binge drinker.

More than 40,000 live in a household where an adult smokes cannabis daily, and more than 14,000 children live in a household where an adult uses methamphetamines at least once a month.

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NSW govt failing on drugs: O'Farrell
21st May 2007, 12:43 WST

The NSW opposition has accused the state government of failing to provide adequate drug rehabilitation and treatment programs, following the release of a new report on Monday.

Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell said the government must take some responsibility for the figures in the Australian National Council on Drugs report, which says more than 230,000 Australian children are being raised by adults who abuse alcohol, cannabis or amphetamines.

Mr O'Farrell said NSW funding for drug initiatives had been slashed by 24 per cent since the 1999 Drug Summit.

"The national report makes it clear that too little in the way of treatment options is available in NSW," he told reporters.

"The Iemma government has shown itself unable to invest in rehabilitation programs. It talks big about community service and fails to deliver.

"What this report finds is that the Iemma government is not putting its money where its mouth is.

"Despite lots of promises, too many families are missing out on the sort of drug treatment processes that should be available in this city and across the state."

Mr O'Farrell said an Institute of Health and Welfare report indicated drug prevention activities made up 5.2 per cent of the state's health budget, down from 10.2 per cent in 1999-2000.

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More needs to be done to fight drugs: PM
May 21, 2007 - 6:14AM

A distressing report showing at least 280,000 children are living with parents who abuse drugs or alcohol shows more needs to be done to fight drugs, Prime Minister John Howard says.

Mr Howard said the government's tough on drugs policy had been working, but it was committed to continuing the fight.

The prime minister related details of the report by government advisory body the Australian National Council on Drugs during parliamentary question time.

"Although the findings of this report make distressing reading, we should be grateful to the committee for having carried out the analysis and made it public," Mr Howard told the lower house.

"It reminds us that although a lot of progress has been made over the last decade - the government has invested more than $1.4 billion in the tough on drugs strategy which aims to target law enforcement, education and rehabilitation - there is still a great deal more to be done."

The government last month announced another $150 million over four years to tackle ice and other amphetamines, Mr Howard said, including $100 million for rehabilitation services with an emphasis on family support.

Australia had come a long way, as it now had a better recognition of the dangers of marijuana and fewer deaths from heroin, Mr Howard said.

"I think our campaign has been very very successful, but this report is a grim reminder that there is a great deal more work to be done and this government remains totally committed to that task."

The testimony of a young mother who suffered a drug related-seizure while driving with her children in the care would have an impact on most Australians, Mr Howard said.

"I think what Dr (John) Herron's report has done is to bring to the attention of the community, and particularly to Australian parents, the impact on families and those otherwise closely associated with people who have a severe drug addiction," Mr Howard said.

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It seems though that almost every one who drinks would fit the definition of a binge drinker.

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