You may have heard an excellent documentary on RTE 1 radio over the weekend looking back at the Concerned Parents Against Drugs campaign in Dublin’s inner city and in particular in the North East Inner City. We would encourage you to set aside 45 minutes or so to listen to the documentary. Sadie Grace who is CEO of the National Family Support Network took part in the programme as did Bernie Howard former management committee member of NFSN.
The documentary is called “We Say You Have To Go” here is the link https://www.rte.ie/radio1/doconone/2020/0702/1151050-we-say-you-have-to-go/
The National Family Support Network exists to support families dealing with substance abuse by a family member. The overall aim of the National Family Support Network is to improve the situation of families coping with substance misuse by developing, supporting and reinforcing the work of family support groups and regional family support networks, by working for positive change in policy and practice and by raising public awareness about the problem of substance misuse for families and communities.
What is family support?
Family Support can be offered on a one-to-one basis or in a group setting. The model of family support that the Network advocates is peer family support. This is where a number of people with a common problem, in our case living with drug use, come together to share their experiences.
The Benefits Of Family Support:
- It interrupts the negative dynamic of drug use within the family
- It helps family members look after their own needs
- It helps families help the drug user to make constructive choices
- It helps families to reinforce the work of the service agencies
- It enables families to be a resource to their own communities
You can find out more about the NFSN here http://www.fsn.ie/
If you are living with the effects of substance abuse in your family you can find contact details for help and support here http://www.fsn.ie/directory-of-groups/#connaught-ulster