Subscriber login Close [x]
remember me
You are not logged in.

Charities launch Alcohol Awareness Week

Published:  18 October, 2010

Alcohol Awareness Week has got under way with a call for a national enquiry into the way harmful drinking among parents impacts on their children.

Alcohol Awareness Week has got under way with a call for a national enquiry into the way harmful drinking among parents impacts on their children.

Alcohol Concern, which is coordinating the week, teamed up with the Children's Society to commission a report which claims that 2.6 million children live with a parent whose drinking puts them at risk of neglect and 705,000 live with a dependent drinker.

The report, Swept Under the Carpet, calls for mandatory social work training as recent research found that one third of social workers received no training on alcohol or drugs and half received just three hours of training or less.

More than 100 children as young as five contact ChildLine every week with worries about their parents' drinking.

Alcohol Concern chief executive Don Shenker said: "It's shocking that in spite of the worrying numbers of children affected by parents' heavy drinking and domestic abuse, so little is being done to address this.

"The whole system sweeps the problem under the carpet and together with the secrecy and stigma involved, millions of children are left to do their best in incredibly difficult circumstances. A government enquiry must look into all aspects of parental alcohol misuse so that we can improve outcomes for these children."

Keywords: