5.1 Effects of parental drug use
The Mirabel Foundation, established in 1998 to assist children who have been orphaned or abandoned due to parental illicit drug use, recently published two excellent literature reviews, Parental Drug Use – The Bigger Picture A Review of the Literature and The Effects of Parental Drug Use – Children in Kinship Care A Review of the Literature [Patton 1. and 2. 2003] They include commentary on Australian and overseas research. For example, in an audit of formal kinship care in Victoria the Department of Human Services [in 2000] found that at least 52 per cent of abusive parents were known to misuse substances. Likewise, in a study of grandparents raising grandchildren, Kelley et al [USA in 2001] found that 72 per cent were raising grandchildren due to maternal substance abuse. [Patton 2. 2003 P.4]
Some other findings mentioned are:
- There is almost unanimous belief that prenatal substance abuse negatively affects the outcomes of birth. ...infants with foetal substance abuse symptoms encompass one of the highest protective risk categories for short term and long term damage to their physical, social and emotional health and well-being. [Patton 1. P.4]
- women with alcohol and drug problems are more likely to be punitive towards their children. Punitive measures can significantly impact on a child's concept of self-worth. Drug use can result in parental behaviour that places their children at risk of abuse. Many children living in such environments are at an increased risk of exposure to violence from both within the family as well as from the community. ... Children may be exposed to hostile environments where time is spent in dealing, prostitution and criminal activities to help support the parent's habit. [Patton 1. P.6]
- The literature indicates that children of drug users are likely to have poor physical, cognitive and psychosocial development. They are more likely to come to the attention of the child protection system, however, according to Patton, 'strategies [for protecting these children] vary, depending on whether a child or adult-centred approach is taken.' [Patton 1. P.9]
Mary is the only one of the 6 who has been afforded the opportunity to have a decent start in life because of our intervention and determination. Her 5 half siblings now have no future and will take the impacts of their unfortunate upbringing into the next generation who will also have no future. One who has fathered a child at 16 years of age is a drug addict. The scenario will be repeated from generation to generation until some strong measures are taken to break the cycle of drug usage. But before that begins to happen let's all be aware of what the widespread collateral damage drug use and abuse has done:
- Child abuse and neglect – often culminating in death. Over 60% of notifications to Human Services are drug related.
- The road toll - history has repeated itself and drug driving is now worse than drink driving
- 85% of prisoners are in jails because of crimes associated with drug usage. Psychiatric problems are drug induced – enormous cost to society Just about every adverse thing happening in society has a linkage to drug usage.
(Grandparent couple 70 & 65, Grandchild 9)
5.2 Incidence of emotional problems and/or ADHD
The incidence of children being diagnosed with ADHD is growing in Australia and around the world. The Mirabel Foundation report suggests that the following issues need to be considered in order to better understand the experiences of grandparents raising grandchildren:
- Exposure to parental drug abuse may damage the psychosocial development of children more than any other developmental area. It affects the way these children interact, think and feel about themselves, others and society. Left unaddressed, such thoughts and feelings can escalate into obstacles preventing the development of healthy adults. The literature indicates children may develop anti-social behaviour, hostility, depression, and a wide range of other stress related difficulties. [Patton 1. P.7-8]
- Children may be wrongly diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder after exposure to a drug-using lifestyle when increasing evidence suggests that the children may actually be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. [Patton 1. P.8]
Anne Mann, in the recently published Cries Unheard: A New Look at Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, writes 'Children, perhaps, are our contemporary canaries. Their mental health is telling us that all is not well.' P.10 ...'A specialist professional, who worked with 'challenging' kids in Australian childcare, mentioned her concern that children who were indeed troublesome were increasingly being diagnosed with ADHD and prescribed Ritalin. She felt that they were not really ADHD. Rather, their difficulties concerned the intertwining of multiple factors of the parental time bind, poverty, absent fathers, relationship breakdowns and insecure attachments, and most importantly, separation anxiety. It was not ADHD but such disadvantaged circumstances which left children struggling to cope.' P. 20 [Halasz 2002]
Service providers at one workshop on mental health issues commented that the number of children with ADD/ADHD and other behavioural problems is very high in families where there is a mentally ill parent. Sometimes two or three children in the same family have a behavioural disorder. Many of these diagnoses relate to reactive behaviours in the children, arising from either the very unstable home situation or the cumulative effects of discrimination at school (because the grandparents cannot afford to pay for excursions, child has no uniform, homework is not done, they are bullied by other children, etc).
When I was first offered Joseph he was 8 months old, family and friends offered help. Joseph was born heroin addicted and continues to have ongoing academic, social and behavioural problems. He is ADHD also. So care is continuous, often aggressive behaviour with no break. A difficult situation with a difficult child (through no fault of his own) whose mother is still drug affected and now diagnosed with schizophrenia.
(Grandmother 50, Grandchild 9)
5.3 Family Violence
An alarming number of grandparents who participated in this project are raising their grandchildren because the mothers had been killed by their partners. Many of these grandparents believe that the tragedies were due to the system failing because of poor coordination between government health, welfare, justice, education, and police services.
Services appear fragmented and defined by the service network rather than the needs of the whole family. Funding of services is according to age group or specific target group, not the client's whole family; counselling and other services are time limited, and issues of confidentiality and privacy mean that the needs of families at risk are not addressed in a comprehensive manner. An issues or diagnosis based approach to funding (for example, drug and alcohol funding, parenting program funding) means that the problems families face are compartmentalised.
Violent males are usually ignored by services aimed at protecting and supporting children. In fact, there is a lack of support generally for men. If an appropriate response is provided at times of crisis, then the ongoing trauma, cost, the time that the person or family need to resolve their issues and move on are all minimized.
The connection between child abuse and family and community violence is not widely recognised. The totality of violence which may occur within a family and the impacts this has on children needs to be understood.
Grandparents are very concerned that their grandchildren have witnessed arguments and abuse in their lives which could lead to their developing similar attitudes. Some grandchildren can be very abusive, foul-mouthed, physically violent and verbally abusive to the point where grandparents may decide they cannot take any more. Others accept that their grandchildren have suffered so much that their aggression needs to come out.
Unfortunately, my granddaughter can be very abusive when she feels threatened, and can often reduce adults to tears with her vitriolic diatribe! She has no special friends and is quite lonely I think, though her own worst enemy at times.
(Grandmother 52, Grandchild 13)