Akamas

ADDRESSING ADDICTIVE AND SELF-HARMING BEHAVIOUR

Written By

Liza Lomax and Kate Cairns

Learning Outcomes

To achieve this unit a learner must:

1. Explain how carers can enable children to address issues of addiction and self harm effectively
2. Clarify the particular difficulties faced by looked after children and young people in relation to the misuse of alcohol, drugs and other substances
3. Describe how carers can work effectively and safely with children and young people who self-harm

Content and Structure

MODULE 1

Enabling children to address issues of addiction and self-harm effectively

Unmet attachment needs and the phantom benefits of addiction

• Key issues for infants: dependency and control
• Links between infant needs and adolescent needs in looked-after children
• Perceived benefits of addiction: relationship needs met, generates rituals, offers easily accessed coping mechanism, predictable outcome

Obsessive-compulsive behaviour

• How rituals impose order in chaos and help to alleviate stress in traumatised children and young people in care
• The shape of the ritual and its compulsive qualities

Supporting looked-after children with obsessive-compulsive or addictive behaviour

• Helping children to regulate stress and manage anxiety without recourse to rituals or drugs
• Helping children to manage the unpredictability of relating to people rather than the certain outcomes derived from substance misuse
• Ensuring that the carers/practitioners do not function as objects in the child's life

MODULE 2

The difficulties faced by looked after children and young people in relation to the misuse of alcohol, drugs and other substances

The context of infant deprivation and adolescent disaffection enhanced for looked-after children

• The nature of vulnerability and the lack of resilience in the looked-after population
• The responsibility of government and community in informing attitudes to alcohol and substance misuse - and the impact of this on the looked-after population

The motivational factors for substance and alcohol misuse among looked-after children and means of access

• Why looked-after children and young people misuse alcohol and substances
• How they were introduced to particular substances and the risk-taking behaviours involved
• The cost

Gender difference

• How looked-after girls are increasingly vulnerable to substance and alcohol misuse
• Exploring the gender differences observed in the misuse of specific substances and in alcohol, particularly binge-drinking

Practical guidance

• What drugs are most commonly misused by young people in care?
• What are the specific effects and dangers of those drugs?
• How can carers and practitioners support young people in reducing their problem drug use?

MODULE 3

Working effectively and safely with children and young people who self-harm

The extent and prevalence of self-harm among children in care

• More pervasive and more varied in the forms of self-injury
• Why might this be?

Links to early experience

• Repeating the abusive relationship
• Early childhood loss

A strategy for regaining control

• Issues of control for looked-after children
• How self-harming works as a solution to problems
• Dealing with anger and hatred

Caring for children and young people who self-harm

• Issues around control
• Conflict for carers on the side-lines of self- injury
• Enabling children and young people to articulate needs and feelings differently

This material provides a notional 30 hours of learning.

Level: 3

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