Families and Alcohol

Deborah GornikHead of early intervention,

prevention and partnerships

Covering today

• Why are we doing this?

• The approach we have taken

• Outcomes to achieve

• Lessons learned

• Things to share

Why are we doing this?• Studies show that children of parents who misuse

alcohol are at a higher risk of mental ill-health, behavioural problems, police involvement, and alcohol / substance misuse

• The annual cost related to alcohol misuse in the Blackburn area is £33m

• 17.6% of BwD 16+ population drink at hazardous levels (18,090 people)

• 5.5% drink at harmful levels (5,653 people)

Why are we doing this?• Looking for ways to improve strategic objectives:

– Reduce alcohol-harm related hospital admissions (NI 39)– Reduce the all age, all cause mortality rate (NI 120)– Reduce the mortality rate from all circulatory diseases for citizens

under 75 (NI 121) – improving the health, well-being and development of children

across Blackburn with Darwen.

•  Looking for ways to work smarter & in partnership– Identify efficiency savings and improve effectiveness of public

sector resources

The approach we have taken• Phased approach (with review at end of phase)

– Phase 1: Understand the current situation of services, front line staff opinion and customer opinion to identify

areas to improve.– Phase 2: Develop conceptual models of potential improvements. – Phase 3: Develop improvement plan with costings

• Involve stakeholders• Be practical and pragmatic• Produce useful product

Phase 1 - activity• Customer definition workshop • Service provider interviews• Customer engagement workshops• Challenge workshops• Costing research• Interim improvement report

Phase 1 - findings• Alcohol was only part of a complex picture.• Treating the symptoms didn’t necessarily remove

the cause• Once misuse starts it is costly and difficult to

stop • There is a knock on affect to other members of

the family

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Brief Interventions – GMW / EvolveFamilies United Service - LifelineYoung People Clinical Treatment - LifelineNational Helpline – AA

Extended Interventions – GMW / EvolveSupport Groups – EvolveStructured Day Programmes – EvolveFamilies United Service - LifelineBreakfast Club - Voice

Home Detox – GMWRecovery Support – GMWAbstinence Group – EvolveWork Routes – EvolveFamilies United Service - LifelineBreakfast Club - Voice

TIME

Phase 1 - conclusions• More effort needs to be put into prevention and

earlier intervention– More brief interventions– More early referrals– More big society type action– More holistic family support

• Decided to move the project into a Think family context to focus on prevention and earlier intervention.

Phase 2 - Concept

• Family Service Planner– Organise services such that they can be easily identified

by a lead professional (and any front line worker)– Aim to include all ‘services’ across the place– Group costs to identify place based sharing opportunities – Develop a means to justify a family intervention– Develop a family service plan to be more holistic and

encourage proactive referrals

Family service planner

Family Service Planner

Phase 3 - Plans

• Firm improvement plans– This will be planned after a review of phase 2 but

intention is to present options to senior management that will deliver the objectives given at the start.

The outcomes to achieve• Cultural shift in being more customer and partnership

focused• Efficiency savings and more effective services by

working better as a public sector• Reduction in higher levels because of level 1 and 2

interventions• Sustainable change with more community

involvement• Improvement in the strategic objectives for the longer

term

Lessons learned• This is ‘hard to justify’ work and needs driving forward• There are too many stakeholders to get on board but

worth giving everyone the opportunity to speak • There are a lot of services available but they aren’t

always cohesive in meeting customer need• Need to define useful SMART products and tools not

more theory• Having a private sector PARTNER helps

Things to share

• Findings & Improvement Report

• Family service planner concept

• Final improvement plan

Thank you for listeningAny questions?