How to … support families with addiction problems

When a parent is addicted to drugs or alcohol, they risk having their children taken into care. But while some children are genuinely better off elsewhere, many would prefer to stay at home – if things could get back to normal. In some cases, the threat of having children taken away can push a parent to make the changes needed to keep them in the family home – if they are given the right support.

Cardiff council's Option Two project keeps three quarters of the children with whom it works out of care, through four- to six-week bursts of intensive support. Its scheme is much cheaper than taking a child into care: it costs £2000-3000 to help one child over a year, compared to more than £25,000 a year spent by the council to house a child away from its parents.

Option Two, although based in the council's social services department, has drawn interest from housing officers hoping to extend the support offered to vulnerable tenants. In view of the longer-term implications for antisocial behaviour of taking children into care, involvement from the housing side makes a lot of sense.

To follow Option Two's model, work closely with council childcare services. They can identify families at a crisis point where the children are about to be taken into care. Rhoda Emlyn-Jones, Option Two project leader and Cardiff council substance misuse service manager, says: "Difficulties include chaotic lifestyles, dealers coming to the house or the parent losing the ability to maintain routines for children."

So data protection is not breached, the families must agree to take part before social services can refer them – most parents are happy to get the extra support.

Assess the safety of the situation. If there is domestic violence or the child is at risk, childcare workers should take court action to remove the child. But in many cases, behaviour modification is possible. If there has been a dangerous situation – for example, drug users coming to the house – agree a safety plan of what is and isn't acceptable with the parents, and make sure they stick to it.

It means a lot of hours. You must visit the family first thing in the morning and at weekends

Intensive support means a lot of hours. Your team members should be experienced social workers, psychologists or therapists. They need to visit when the family is together, such as first thing in the morning or at weekends. Option Two's staff of four work with one family each at a time and spend 20-30 hours a week with them, as well as giving out their home phone numbers. They will need to be tough to cope with night time call-outs, but Emlyn-Jones stresses that parents do respect staff's privacy. "We have never had to change a staff member's telephone number afterwards," she says.

To protect your staff, get them to sign in and out each day and use lone worker initiatives such as a buddy system, where workers see or contact each other throughout each day. The scheme manager should be available for regular briefings and advice – day or night.

Before counselling can start, basic problems may need addressing. "If they have no gas, nappies or food they will find it very difficult to concentrate on what we want to do," says Emlyn-Jones. Sorting this out might mean helping the parents to organise their bills and shopping, or providing a small grant to kick-start things.

When counselling begins, don't tell the family what to do: get them to identify their own strengths and resources – perhaps they're good at talking or have had long periods of stability. Then ask them what they value – qualities such as honesty, love and support, for example – and make a record of this. "Very few people have been asked about their values before. They are more used to being told off," says Emlyn-Jones.

The project should set clear goals for the parents to maintain these values and keep the family together. The goals might be about establishing good communication with each other, bringing routines back into family life, such as taking children to school, bedtimes and meal times, or reducing drug or alcohol consumption. But don't try to tackle the drug taking itself – other agencies will focus on this. "The important thing is not the drug use per se, it's the behaviour it creates," Emlyn-Jones says.