Parental involvement
(written by Dan Caruana)

"Throughout the care process, efforts should be made to establish the possible role of parents. The young person's views should inform this process. An intervention with a young person will be more effective if there is support from a parent, family or carer. There are circumstances where treatment without parental consent might be justified. The principles applied to the “Gillick Case” are relevant.".(Effective Interventions Unit 2003: 2) (our emphasis)

Parental involvement is an important issue in working with young people using substances problematically.  Although there is clearly a legal and policy mandate to work individually with those young people who are competent to give consent to assessment and treatment, good practice guidance in the field suggests that the involvement of a parent or carer is to be encouraged and discussed with young people while working with them (HAS 1996,2001).  The important 'Substance of Young Needs' reviews (HAS 1996, 2001) stated:

"There are many agencies and individuals that have an active interest in the welfare of young people.  Not the least of these is their parents and other carers.  Parents are a key resource.  Ordinarily, they wish to recognise and support young people with problems arising from substance use, but, in addition, they are an important client group which has its own needs for information, advice, support and, sometimes, integrated or collateral treatment" (HAS 1996, p107).

and

"It is important that commissioners and providers of services respect parental responsibility and consider their involvement in keeping with the spirit and intentions of the Children Act [1989]" (HAS 2001, p57).

These documents, therefore, can be seen as placing an emphasis on the involvement of parents and carers in responding to young people's use of substances, at three levels:

1. Within the context of ongoing individual work with a young person.
2. Support and advice to parents where the young person declines services but has an ongoing need.
3. In the general design, delivery and evaluation of services across the 'four tiers' (see section on services for young people).

The first two will be explored further below.

Involvement in the context of ongoing individual work with a young person
In your role as social worker to a young person the issues around parental involvement are likely to consist of one or more of the following:

• Engaging their general support in any plans to address problematic substance use
• Seeking their views on the young person’s use.
• Their consent to referral to a specialist service in your area (not always required but it is good practice unless it would put off a Gillick competent young person from accessing needed treatment).
• Offering them general advice and support in relation to any substance use or identifying other sources of information and advice. 
• Helping them to engage with their child around the issues.
• Helping them identify positive strategies for minimising harm and distress caused by any substance use (eg. through the use of solution focussed discussion where positive existing strategies are identified and built on).
• Supporting them in identifying how their own substance use interacts positively or negatively with their child’s use of substances.
• Encouraging and clarifying the need for parental involvement with the young person. 

Social workers have a value, knowledge and skill base, which is very compatible with the issues around the importance of parental involvement in substance interventions with young people.  For example, for years social workers have been seeking to balance a focus on the child or young person’s needs with the importance of parents and family to the young person.  This work has taken place in a number of contexts including young people's contact with parents while living in care, parental involvement in planning for their child's welfare in core group meetings/LAC reviews, partnership with parents in family support services and family centres and, perhaps most contentiously, in the context of child protection investigations.  Therefore, you will be able to transfer this experience and knowledge to the issue of involving parents in work with a young person around substance issues or referrals to more specialist services (see McCarthy and Galvani 2004 for models on how social work skills might contribute to assessment and treatment of substance use).

Even with parents who may also be using substances, whether or not this is the cause of child protection concerns, their involvement in plans to address their child’s substance use is equally as important as the involvement of parents who do not use substances. 

Parents are also a valuable resource for any assessment and intervention.  They may well have a great deal of knowledge about substance use themselves, and are certainly likely to have experience of their child’s behaviour under the influence of substances.

Support and advice to parents where the young person declines services but has an ongoing need
Given that young people under and over 16 have some degree of autonomy in choosing whether or not to use services, and that courts will tend to overide this only in very rare and extreme circumstances (Kaplan and McArdle 2004), it is important that the needs of parents for support and advice are addressed (HAS 1996, 2001).  As a social worker it is not possible to have 'expert' knowledge on all aspects of young people's substance use. What is important is to:

• Have a working knowledge of the main substances used by young people, such as cannabis (Jenkins 2006).
• Apply the idea of the 'individual in their social context' to this work. 
• Have a working knowledge of substance use terms like use, misuse or experimental and problematic use?
• Have a working knowledge of the idea and definitions of harm reduction.
• Be confident about what you do know and be honest about what you dont.
• Know where to access further advice and support and what services are available in your area. 
• Understand the referral pathways and criteria for local services (eg, do referrals need to go via a particular professional or can they be made directly from parents and young people?). 

One potential area of conflict with parents may be the ideas in harm reduction around adopting a neutral stance on drug taking and the implementation of pragmatic responses which do not insist on total abstinence from young people.  Some parents may find these ideas challenging and feel that they have to do everything possible to stop their child using any drugs or alcohol until a more socially acceptable age.  This is where an open and honest relationship with parents will become important. 

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