For kids’ sake: alcohol & drug use & child safety!
The issue of alcohol & drug use & child safety is one of great importance with a urgent need for us to focus on prevention, education and working together across sectors. In light of this child safety is a key focus of this year’s Australian Winter School conference, a leading national drug and alcohol conference, organised by Lives Lived Well, a not for profit support organisation for people with drugs and alcohol problems.
Presenting more than 60 speakers across 15 streams and 4 great workshops over three jam packed days from July 22-24, the AWS2015 conference explores a wide range of topics in the area of alcohol and other drugs.
A focus child safety presenting the stream: For kids’ sake: alcohol & drug use & child safety
Alcohol or substance misuse is involved in about half the cases of child abuse or neglect reported in Australia. Misusing alcohol and drugs doesn’t make someone a bad parent but it can negatively affect a person’s ability to care for a child’s needs and wellbeing. It can also lead to greater harms such as emotional, physical or sexual abuse. All children have a right to grow up in a safe environment. While family support and child protection services play a significant role, they still cannot help all vulnerable children. A need for a more unified approach has been identified with better links to a range of community supports and services, especially those that address risk factors for abuse. This would help to avoid service duplication and allow for a sharing of planning, information and innovation. It would also allow for a greater focus on health promotion, early intervention and prevention and the involvement of other working professionals, families and the wider community. There have been some excellent working relationships taking place between AOD treatment services and Child Protection in supporting vulnerable children. Learn more as to what is being done and achieved.
This informative and thought provoking stream will include presentations on:
· Reporting substance use during pregnancy to child protection services: Does it increase child safety? presented by Associate Professor Stephanie Taplin
· The family environment & young people’s wellbeing & substance use: is it all bad news presented by Caroline Salom
· Child safety: creating service-wide impact in partnership presented by Christine Gibson, Australian Centre for Child Protection