Ms Anita Harris:

The biggest issue with addiction services and children is that they lie between two Departments. We have the Department of children and the Department of Health. The best way to manage it would be to get the two Departments to co-ordinate at policy level. One policy is conflicting with other policies. The Hidden Harm statement provided a framework and foundation for addiction services but unfortunately it simply was not enough. It delivered training on recognising and identifying harm of parents, assuming there is a linear relationship between substance misuse and bad parenting. The training involved identifying risk, which is really important and absolutely vital for addiction services. There has, however, been what is called a double silence. This is where a parent does not talk about their substance misuse and the child understands not to talk about their parent's substance misuse. We now have a triple silence because addiction services are quite apprehensive and hesitant to ask parents about their substance misuse or their children. To me, and everyone here who works in the sector, this is causing a lot more harm than what it was intended to help with.