CC Live news: Split of services hinders support for substance misusing families

The split between children and adult social services is hindering support for Scottish families with substance misuse problems, delegates at Community Care Live Scotland heard today.

Dave Liddell, director of Scottish Drugs Forum, said that professionals needed to “bridge the gap” between adult and children’s services to ensure families with substance misuse problems were adequately supported.

He added that without this there would not be a shared understanding of the needs of substance misusing parents and their children or when information should be shared.

Families needed to be considered in both the planning and delivery of services, Liddell said.

“If we are not coming together at a strategic level then we can’t expect services on the ground to come together,” he explained.

Romy Langeland, chief executive of the Aberlour Child Care Trust, agreed that the needs of families as a whole were not being considered enough by children’s and adult services in Scotland.

“I think it’s part of the cultural change that needs to happen so that when you are looking at an adult or a child you look at them in terms of their families and their communities,”she said.

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 Amy Taylor