The impact of parental substance misuse can persist right through to adulthood and sometimes carries through into the lives of the following generation, a new report by the National Advisory Committee on Drugs (NACD) has found.

Children of misusers are more likely to experience problems with mental health, social skills, academic achievement and substance use, the report entitled ‘Parental Substance Misuse: Addressing its Impact on Children’ has shown.

Launched at a seminar on October 18, jointly hosted by the NACD, the HSE and Alcohol Action Ireland, the report recommended that additional research and data collection be carried out to properly estimate the number of children whose parents have misuse problems.