Secret Lives: Growing with Substance: Working with Children who live with Substance Misuse

Secret Lives: Growing with Substance: Working with Children who live with Substance Misuse
Edited by Fiona Harbin and Michael Murphy,
Russell House Publishing
ISBN 1903855667,
£16

STAR RATING: 4/5

This book is an informative guide for anyone working with families where substance misuse is an issue, writes Jenny Pardoe.

It includes chapters with various examples of good practice, and how to put these models into practice, and theoretical constructs underpinning the practice. Most books of this genre discuss either how to assess the issue or how to work with it; this book does both, leaving the reader with a sense of confidence as to how they might go about working with this group of service users, as well as why they are working with them in this way.

There is a useful discussion of how to overcome the common difficulty of working within child and adolescent services or adult mental health services and the need to maintain attachment within the family for everyone’s sake.

There is an emphasis on working with young people’s strengths rather than emphasising the past problems. Also the book recommends that the child or young person develops peer group support which can offer strength to a young person, when being asked to “talk about it” by professionals can sometimes exacerbate the problems.

I recommended this book for all concerned about substance misuse.

Jenny Pardoe is a trustee, Bridgegate Drug Services, Peterborough

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