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CFC#12020
CFC#12020
Every member of the learning community is a teacher. They teach by example and they are in a unique position to teach children about healthy relationships by providing the help specific to their role. They are often entrusted with a child’s worries and concerns about their lives outside the school setting. Every member of the school community, at some time, will be called upon to help a child who is experiencing difficulties. Many of these children come to school every day from homes impacted by alcohol or other drug problems. It is the educators who are there every day for children and they are often the ones who come to the aid of children in their care. The following groups of educators have unique opportunities to form relationships with children who need someone to listen and someone to trust.
At least 25% of the children in your school live in desperate situations and suffer in silence as a result of the chaos and fear brought about by a parental Substance Use Disorder or mental illness, which in turn causes their ability to concentrate and achieve in school to be disrupted. In order that no child “falls through the cracks” Student Assistance Teams use existing staff to systematically identify and assist students in need of various kinds of support and direction. It may be an academic or behavioral problem. It may be the result of a bullying situation. Or it could be an unidentified learning problem. A Student Assistance program creates a faculty and support staff educated in the reality of what impedes a child’s becoming a balanced and productive student, and it provides educational support groups that counter these issues and increases academic achievement and classroom discipline, decreases absenteeism, and produces higher graduation rates – all educational goals.
Faculty teams seek to find the source of a student’s need and move to find the proper services to address their needs, which often are educational support groups specific to their situation. For more information about Student Assistance and support groups, read “Help Is Down the Hall,” a Handbook with an abundance of information about effective strategies to institute and maintain a low-cost program that can be downloaded below and salvage many hurting children and youth in your schools.
Children trust their teachers to educate and inspire, and they often trust teachers with their fears and worries about problems at home. Many children, however, exert great effort to hide the fact that they are struggling with substance use or mental disorders at home. For some, a teacher will be the one who notices that a child’s academic performance has changed and perhaps seems preoccupied. The resources on this page were selected to put tools and information into your hands so that:
The child’s ability to learn and develop may depend upon your knowledge and understanding.
The responsibilities of a school administrator are countless. In addition to the academic and instructional challenges, the maintenance of the behavioral and emotional wellness of the students also falls to you. Children and families with substance use or mental health disorders will often come to your door. The resources included here were chosen with the intention of giving you practical information to help you support your staff as they assist children from families with alcohol or other drug problems and help you offer guidance to parents who may come to you for help. It is hoped that these tools and information will be useful and effective as you interact with students from families with alcohol and other drug abuse problems.
Children trust their teachers to educate and inspire, and they often trust teachers with their fears and worries about problems at home. Many children, however, exert great effort to hide the fact that they are struggling with substance use or mental disorders at home. For some, a teacher will be the one who notices that a child’s academic performance has changed and perhaps seems preoccupied. The resources on this page were selected to put tools and information into your hands so that:
The child’s ability to learn and develop may depend upon your knowledge and understanding.
Children trust their teachers to educate and inspire, and they often trust teachers with their fears and worries about problems at home. Many children, however, exert great effort to hide the fact that they are struggling with substance use or mental disorders at home. For some, a teacher will be the one who notices that a child’s academic performance has changed and perhaps seems preoccupied. The resources on this page were selected to put tools and information into your hands so that:
The child’s ability to learn and develop may depend upon your knowledge and understanding.
Children trust their teachers to educate and inspire, and they often trust teachers with their fears and worries about problems at home. Many children, however, exert great effort to hide the fact that they are struggling with substance use or mental disorders at home. For some, a teacher will be the one who notices that a child’s academic performance has changed and perhaps seems preoccupied. The resources on this page were selected to put tools and information into your hands so that:
The child’s ability to learn and develop may depend upon your knowledge and understanding.
Children trust their teachers to educate and inspire, and they often trust teachers with their fears and worries about problems at home. Many children, however, exert great effort to hide the fact that they are struggling with substance use or mental disorders at home. For some, a teacher will be the one who notices that a child’s academic performance has changed and perhaps seems preoccupied. The resources on this page were selected to put tools and information into your hands so that:
The child’s ability to learn and develop may depend upon your knowledge and understanding.
PTA and other parent organizations intend to advocate for children and provide valuable resources to the learning community. However, the needs of children living in homes with alcohol and other drug problems may remain hidden, even to the caring parent leaders in the school community. The following resources have been selected for the parent leadership in the schools in order to:
NACoA is pleased to offer several options for professionals to complete desired and necessary training and accreditation online. Here are some of the more popular courses for Justice System Personnel, and you can click the See More link below to search, sort and view all available courses.
While NACoA provides increasing amounts of information to help children and families, especially with the broad reach of internet communications, it is not feasible to provide needed direct services to children and families across the country and around the world. Therefore, NACoA’s approach to addressing family alcohol or other drug addiction as effectively as possible is to work with a network of relationships with professional groups who serve kids on the front lines.
Primary Care Physicians see children suffering from the physical and emotional results of addiction in the family.
The Court System sees the ravages of parental addiction to alcohol and other drugs in their courtroom every day.
Social workers touch every system that seeks to help children cope with a variety of family problems, many of which are rooted in parental addiction for many generations.
Educators may notice that a child is withdrawn or unable to do school work because of the chaos at home caused by alcoholism/addiction.
Early childhood Professionals see children from birth through age three, the youngest and most vulnerable population to be affected by parental addiction.
Faith leaders are often the first to be contacted by a spouse who needs help for themselves and their children.
Working in compassionate professions that touch the lives of traumatized children and teenagers regularly can emotionally exhaust and at times physically impact the best of professionals. Depending upon the level of daily involvement, these responsibilities have the capacity to even elicit PTSD-like symptoms, especially if you grew up in a family that struggled with substance disorders that created trauma in your earlier life. It is important for anyone working in these professions to exercise appropriate self-care, and if necessary consider attending Al-Anon or Nar-Anon meetings. NACoA provides a wealth of information for those professionals who see children every day: profession-specific research, kits, books, online educational opportunities, trainings and videos to educate and support those who are in the best position to identify and assist children who live with alcohol or other addictions in the family.
Our training and program resources equip professionals and individuals with tools and knowledge to help provide support to children and families impacted by a loved one’s alcohol or drug addiction.
The library of webinars provides an archive of critical topics on addiction, its impact on the family, children and the community. The speakers are all well-known and knowledgeable subject-matter authorities, providing key insights and information for the listener. The webinars range from 1 ½ to 2 hours in length.
The library of webinars provides an archive of critical topics on addiction, its impact on the family, children and the community. The speakers are all well-known and knowledgeable subject-matter authorities, providing key insights and information for the listener. The webinars range from 1 ½ to 2 hours in length.
This NACoA-developed kit provides all the tools needed to implement educational support groups for children of clients in treatment for addiction, for educational support groups and other educational prevention activities in schools, and for support groups and educational programs in youth-serving community based and faith-based organizations.
The Celebrating Families! curriculum is an evidence-based cognitive behavioral support group model written for families in which one or both parents have a serious problem with alcohol or other drugs and in which there is a high risk for domestic violence, child abuse, or neglect.
It only takes one caring and understanding adult to change a child's life.
When a child’s family struggles with alcohol or substance misuse/addiction issues, the most powerful assistance to the child can come from a caring adult in their lives. Often the child turns to a relative or friend of the family who has acknowledged in some way that they are concerned and available, thus making it feel safe for the child to talk. It could be the mother who is terrified of what is happening to her children as she watches her husband’s addiction grow more concerning, the grandmother who knows her son has a problem with prescription drugs, the best friend who is worried about the mother who routinely is drinking to excess and passing out before dinner, the older brother who works close by and is contacted regularly because no one picked up his younger brother from basketball practice, and many others, whom the child can trust with their “biggest worry.” The goal here is to put tools in the hands of these caring family members who take on the role of caretaker so that they might do the following things:
As a result of broken promises, harsh words, and the threat of abuse, children in many families dealing with parental addiction learn the “Don’t Trust” mantra all too well; silence and isolation can become constant companions. Perhaps the most important gift is the bonding and attachment children attain in healthy relationships with others.
In their book The Resilient Self, Drs. Sybil and Steven Wolin describe "Relationships" as an integral part of the Resilience Mandala.
In her ground-breaking research, Dr. Emmy Werner noted that resilient COAs often had a nurturing adult in their lives. Building trust is a process, not an event; time is the key. Simply caring about a child is all that it takes to start. Listening, regular time together, playing with, validating, respecting, and empowering a youngster will build a positive connection.
Jerry Moe, national director of the Betty Ford Center Children's Programs, often reminds us that "children don't care about how much adults know until they know how much adults care."
There simply can’t be resilient children unless caring adults lead the way. As bonding grows, a nurturing adult’s words take on added meaning and significance as the youngster deeply considers the source. A child may hear accurate information about alcoholism in a brand new way. Moreover, a kid can build upon his or her strengths and resilience as a result of the conscious modeling provided by that caring adult.
Whether we have children of our own or not, many of us can become a nurturing adult in a young child’s life. A youngster desperately in need of such an alliance is very close by. Downloading and reading through the Kit for Kids with a child is a great start to helping them cope with their situation.
Most people are uncomfortable with the idea of approaching someone about problem drinking. But when a child’s well being is at stake, you may be the one to begin the process of reaching out to the problem drinker.
The Road to Recovery series, provided by the SAMHSA Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, features eight episodes focused on the field of recovery. Click here for a special episode dealing with intergenerational issues, and the hope that early intervention can bring for years to come.
At times, the best efforts to help the person struggling with alcohol and/or drugs are not met with a willingness to acknowledge and understand what is happening to him/her and heart-wrenching deterioration in the addicted person — physically, spiritually and socially — continues. The increased concern, anger, and feeling of helplessness grows as the family experiences alienation from the person they love who, in their view it seems, is choosing a relationship with alcohol over one with them.
Watching a person struggle with addiction is incredibly painful. Denial can be strong, shielding a person from admitting that the addiction is affecting day to day living, performance at work, and/or the family. It is often thought that it requires significant challenge – losing a job, one’s family, a tragic accident or experience – to “wake up” a person to the truth that there is a problem. This epiphany, it is believed, results in a commitment to treatment and recovery. Unfortunately, the desperation at this level of challenge can make successful recovery appear insurmountable, and actually may be too late for effective behavioral change. Instead, structured family intervention with the assistance of a professional can help lead a loved one to accept help and the possibility of recovery, before such devastation occurs.
