Just over two years ago now, I spoke out about my experience of being the child of a father with a serious drink problem in the Houses of Parliament.
Along with other MPs who also spoke out movingly like Caroline Flint and Liam Byrne, just over a year ago we were able to persuade the then Secretary of State for health, Jeremy Hunt, to resource a package of measures, backed by £6 million in joint funding from the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Work and Pensions, designed to help support children in England living with alcohol-dependent parents.
Many people say speaking out won’t make a difference, that’s there is no point especially from opposition. But today I’m speaking at The Children’s Society, who are launching CAPE, a new project to support the children of alcoholics, made possible by that funding.
The new project involves providing better training and resources for health professionals to support the children and families that they work with and ensuring better identification and support for those at risk. This is something that the APPG on children of alcoholics directly called for in its manifesto for change.
It proves that you can make a difference by campaigning for what is right, speaking with conviction and making an argument based on facts and sound analysis. I’m especially proud that by coming forward and telling my story has had such a positive impact.
Supporting children with an alcoholic parent, or indeed a parent grappling a wider substance misuse problem, is a cause very close to my heart.
Last year the research from the Children Commissioner, showed there are 103,000 children growing up in families where domestic violence, parental mental ill health and alcohol or drug abuse are present – the so-called ‘toxic trio’. This includes 52,000 children aged five or under.
We know that children of parents with alcohol and drug use disorders (COPADs) not only suffer from physical, mental and behavioral problems at higher rates than other children but are also more likely to develop their own substance use problems in adolescence.
And it ultimately creates a so-called ‘cycle of violence’ – where substance misuse impacts on children who have their lives coloured by these experiences and are, in turn, at an increased risk of exposing their own children to adverse experiences such as substance misuse.
It’s why action is so necessary and it’s why the projects like the one by the Children’s Society will be so crucial, giving frontline health professionals the skills and confidence to identify children and families in need of that support to help break the cycle.
Helping vulnerable children impacted by alcohol and drugs will be a personal mission of mine in government as part of our vision of building a society where the health and wellbeing of children is a public policy priority across government. Quite simply, I want us to help our children to become the healthiest in the world, I want the wellbeing of our children to be the best it can be. A big ambition certainly, but we should be ambitious for our children.
We will put in place an overarching children’s health strategy so that every child matters. Our strategy will be adversity informed as well. Adverse Childhood Experiences – ACEs – whether a single event or prolonged trauma experiencing ranging from domestic abuse, sexual abuse, bereavement, being a young carer, or substance misuse in the home can have a lasting and sometimes devastating effect.
One in three diagnosed mental health conditions in adulthood are known to directly relate to adverse childhood experiences and ACEs can increase self-harm and suicide amongst children and young people. Research has also shown the more ACEs a child experiences, the more likely those children are to suffer in adulthood from conditions like heart disease, diabetes, cancer and substance abuse.
Not only does the prevalence of adversity in childhood effect health outcomes, it can impact wider life outcomes too, with evidence pointing towards poorer academic achievement or an increased likelihood to be involved in violence, crime and being bounced around the criminal justice system.
These experiences reinforce that ‘vicious cycle’ as men and women with four or more ACEs have greater odds of reporting binge and heavy drinking compared to their counterparts.
When drug overdoses and chronic alcohol abuse cuts thousands of lives short in the UK every year we have to act. Just last week a major international study found that drinkers in the UK get drunk more than any other nation in the world.
Figures from February this year revealed one in five people drink more than the recommended limit of 14 units per week, while the number of people admitted to hospital primarily due to alcohol has increased by 15% over the last 10 years.
But at the same time, the Tories are cutting alcohol addiction services in our communities as part of the public health cuts of £700million in recent years, at a time when austerity has undermined communities leading to increases in all of the social conditions that breed drug and alcohol problems – poverty, homelessness, youth crime and alienation.
Just last week the IFS reported on the increase in so called ‘deaths of despair’ – rising death rates for those in middles ages from suicide, drug and alcohol overdoses, and alcohol liver disease. It’s shameful.
Therefore drug and alcohol addiction services will no longer be a neglected, under-resourced service with a Labour government.
We will ensure the most vulnerable in our society are given the support, help, rehabilitation and care they need, while ensuring we have a fully resourced strategy to support children affected.
Nelson Mandela said “there can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way it treats it children.” Well, too often in our society children, their health and wellbeing outcomes receive scant attention by policy makers. I’m determined to change that.
Jon Ashworth is the shadow health secretary and Labour MP for Leicester South
- If you need help with a drinking problem, call the Alcoholics Anonymous national helpline for free on 0800 9177 650 or email help@aamail.org.
- For advice on how to reduce drinking, visit Drinkaware’s website or Alcohol Concern.
- Find alcohol addiction services near you using this NHS tool.