30.03.12 Government must harness family-based treatments if it is serious about tackling the UK's drug and alcohol problems.

In 2011, Addaction set up a commission of experts, chaired by David Burrowes MP, to study the impact of family-based interventions and to highlight the wealth of benefits that can be experienced by trying to tackle inter-generational substance misuse head-on.

This 'Breaking the Cycle' commission publishes it's first report today - A BETTER FUTURE FOR FAMILIES: The importance of family-based interventions in tackling substance misuse. It exposes the huge challenges faced by this country to provide a better future for families whose lives are blighted by drug and alcohol problems.

Despite a planned annual spend of almost £5 billion on children and families by the Department for Education (DfE) across the UK, and £466 million allocated in the pooled treatment budget from central government, millions of children are growing up in families blighted by substance misuse.

The financial equation is very simple. It costs up to £4,000 to provide an effective single family intervention against an estimated yearly cost to society
of over £75,000.

The continuing waste of this country’s human capital if we do not urgently and more effectively address this issue is beyond calculation.

The UK’s Coalition Government has recently pledged almost half a billion pounds to try to tackle troubled families in our communities by providing trouble-shooters to work with them. At present it is unknown how many of these families have significant drug and alcohol problems, but this could be seen as an opportunity to encourage any parents with substance misuse problems into treatment and take action to break the cycle of inter-generational substance misuse.

You can download a copy of the commission's report here.

You can read a press release about the report here.

You can also read a blog, written by the chair of the commission David Burrowes MP, here.