Ms Anita Harris:

I absolutely highlight what Ms Tackaberry talked about in the context of early intervention. There are many services around the country for people with substance misuse. What we have heard today is that families and children need to be treated in their own right. Recovery needs to be seen through the lens of families and children. Unless we have strategies within the national drugs strategy that recognise them in their own right, they will become an add-on. The family and children element will become an end-of-year add-on and given to organisations that can provide those services really quickly without any good strategy.

When we talk about early intervention and hidden harm, many of our children are not hidden at all. They are not hidden, as Ms Tackaberry talked about. The schools, neighbours and everybody on God’s earth know who they are. If the only option given to us is to be at fault for taking their child off them, all that does is put people under shrouds of secrecy and silence and to cause people to operate in pain. People need it to be their own strategy, where they become their own pillar in a strategy to look at the needs and supports of families, other family members and children, as well as what actually is in place. If an initial scoping exercise was carried out, there would be absolute shock because there are counties in the country that have no family support services and zero services for children. In the case of some counties, those services might just be in a part of the city but there is actually nothing in place elsewhere. That is where we could start in order to see where the needs are.

The national drugs strategy needs to be national. Unfortunately, sometimes the mouth that shouts the loudest gets the most, and that is applicable to areas, personalities and relationships. If we are ever going to be able to do anything about the national drugs strategy, it should not depend on relationships; it needs to be national and concern the national needs of the country.