3.4: What Challenges You?
Activity 3.4: What Challenges You?
Part 1: Consider the following effects of substance abuse as you watch the video below.
It is important to remember that when a parent is involved with drugs or alcohol to a degree that interferes with the ability to parent effectively, a child may suffer in many ways:
A parent may be emotionally and physically unavailable to the child.
A parent’s mental functioning, judgment, inhibitions and/or protective capacity may be seriously impaired by alcohol or drug use, placing the child at increased risk of all forms of abuse and neglect, including sexual abuse.
A substance-abusing parent may “disappear” for hours or days, leaving the child alone or with someone unable to meet the child’s basic needs.
A parent may also spend the family’s income on alcohol and/or other drugs, depriving the child of adequate food, clothing, housing and healthcare.
The resulting lack of resources often leads to unstable housing, which results in frequent school changes, loss of friends and belongings and an inability to maintain important support systems (religious communities, sports teams, neighbors).
A child’s health and safety may be seriously jeopardized by criminal activity associated with the use, manufacture and distribution of illicit drugs in the home.
Eventually, a parent’s substance abuse may lead to criminal behavior and periods of incarceration, depriving the child of parental care.
Exposure to parental abuse of alcohol and other drugs, along with a lack of stability and appropriate role models, may contribute to the child’s future substance abuse.
Prenatal exposure to alcohol or other drugs may impact a child’s development.
Part 2: As you watch the clip of the news story, “Saving Kids ... Children of Addicts,” think about advocating for a similar family as a CASA/GAL volunteer
Part 3: After watching the clip, participate with your classmates in the online discussion, take time to respond to a few of the following questions:
1. What was going through your mind as you listened to the stories of the siblings impacted by their mother’s substance use disorder? How did you feel about the mother?
2. Did anything change for you the way you think about people impacted by addiction? Why or why not?
3. After watching the video and thinking about your role as a volunteer, what challenges might you have balancing the children’s best interests with their mother’s addiction?
4. If you were the CASA/GAL volunteer in this case, what concerns would you have regarding these children and potentially reunifying with their mother?
5. Unlike what happened in this video to the mother, most addicts don’t have that one dramatic experience that “scares them straight.” It’s often a difficult journey to sobriety with peaks and valleys. What concerns would you have supporting a child of a parent who struggles with addiction? What additional information would you want to have at your disposal to inform your recommendations to the court?