Schedule

Dr Myriam Laventure Title: The elephant in the room: Living with a parent with a substance use problemelephant in the room: Living with a parent with a substance use problem Short description: The aim of this presentation is to paint a picture of children exposed to a parent's problematic use of alcohol and drugs. In families where one or both parents are drug users, the dynamics of denial and distortion often mean that drug use becomes the central organising factor in the family. However, not all children are affected in the same way by their parents' drug use. Several factors may explain this difference: gender, age, number of years of exposure, whether the mother or father who is addicted, the presence or absence of a parent who is not a problem drug user, the presence of a social network (extended family or other adults) and the child's level of resilience. Despite suffering from the situation, children are often stuck in a position where they are reluctant to ask for help and admit their fears. Interventions should therefore be accessible to free these children from the guilt associated with their parents' drug use, to help them regain a sense of control over their environment and, above all, to give them the space to be children.

Dre Pauline Stewart Title: Support For Impacted Family Members: Learnings from a Decade of Practice Short description: Supporting family members impacted by the alcohol or other drug use of a relative or friend is an area increasingly being explored by alcohol and other drug services throughout the world. Well over 1000 peer reviewed articles attest to the huge challenges faced by Impacted Family Members (IFMs). Transforming research and good intentions into high quality, evidence-based services, however, is a challenging undertaking. Over the past 10 years Dr Pauline Stewart, a Counselling and Educational Psychologist, has worked with IFMs, both in private practice and latterly in her work with Family Drug Support Aotearoa New Zealand, an organisation she established over 6 years ago and has continued to develop. During the past decade there have been many learnings along the way to inform the continued development of evidence-based services at Family Drug Support Aotearoa New Zealand. These learnings can be considered as signposts for support provided to IFMs, irrespective of where the focal person with substance use is on their journey. Facilitating IFMs to build coping and resilience for a journey they did not chose to be on, is the basis of all findings discovered and implemented to date.