Home > Hidden harm action plan. Responding to the needs of children born to and living with parental alcohol and drug misuse in Northern Ireland.

Public Health Agency, Health and Social Care Board. (2009) Hidden harm action plan. Responding to the needs of children born to and living with parental alcohol and drug misuse in Northern Ireland. Belfast: Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety.

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This Hidden Harm Action Plan prepared jointly by the PHA and HSCB aims to provide direction, guidance, and clarity in addressing Hidden Harm in Northern Ireland. It lays out the commissioning requirements. It is intended that the plan will make a real difference to the lives of children and young people affected by Hidden Harm. Monitoring and evaluation of the actions in this plan should demonstrate positive outcomes. The document is written in response to the best evidence and guidance available on creating the structures, processes and continuum of care that is needed to impact meaningfully on the lives of those affected by Hidden Harm.

The plan takes account of the views of stakeholders across Northern Ireland including children affected by Hidden Harm, their parents and carers, front line workers, managers and commissioners in the HSC and key individuals from other statutory, voluntary and community organisations whose work can contribute to this agenda. It sets out to draw together what has been learned from wide consultation. It describes those actions that must be taken to ensure that children and young people who experience compromised parenting due to alcohol and/or drug abuse can receive the support they need to reduce harm today and assure their health and well-being in the future.

To effectively address Hidden Harm it is essential that it be viewed firstly as a children and young people’s issue. Therefore the action plan places emphasis on the role of services supporting children and families, including those outside Health and Social Care, notably in Education and Community & Voluntary Sectors.

The success of the Action Plan will be determined by the extent to which it contributes to the six high level outcomes outlined in Our Children and Young People – Our Pledge A 10 Year Strategy for Children and Young People in Northern Ireland 2006-2016. This will be assessed by a series of agreed performance indicators. The activity will be based where possible on best practice and where evidence does not exist; evaluation of pilot initiatives will be carried out to measure effectiveness.


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