Earlier this month the National Advisory Committee on Drugs (NACD) launched a new report entitled Parental Substance Misuse: Addressing its Impact on Children.

The report reviewed all major international research on the impact of parental substance misuse on children and identified what steps can be taken in Ireland to reduce its impact.

Seminar
The report was presented in Croke Park, Dublin, on October 18th 2011, at a seminar jointly hosted by the NACD, the Health Service Executive (HSE) and Alcohol Action Ireland, the national charity for alcohol-related issues. The seminar was entitled A Family Affair? Supporting Children Living with Parental Substance Misuse.

Speaking in advance of the seminar, NACD Director Joan O’Flynn said that: “Alcohol and drugs misuse by parents can impact negatively on a child’s experience of positive parenting and can create stressful family circumstances that impact on child development. For many of the affected children, the effect of their parents’ substance misuse continues into their adult lives. For some, the impact can be multifaceted and persist not only into adult life but even into the lives of the next generation."
Video interview

For this feature, Ms. O’Flynn talks to drugs.ie about the background to the report, and also identifies some of the key messages and recommendations from the report.