JACQUI Lambie is incredibly brave for standing up in Parliament and telling the world about her son Dylan's ice addiction. The reality is that there are thousands of parents across Australia who share her pain.
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Many parents go down the same path as Senator Lambie – kicking your child out of home seems like the only option when they have stolen from you or threatened violence. As the senator has suggested, it feels like you're talking to a drug not to your child.
Regrettably, there are only a few services that parents can turn to in this time of need. Programs like Family Drug Support and the Ted Noffs Foundation operate at the coalface and, with little financial support from governments, work with thousands of families each year to help them through this critical time.
One thing these agencies have learnt from their years of experience is that forcing teenagers into drug treatment or "tough love" or "boot camp" type services simply doesn't achieve the desired results.
When compelled to attend treatment by their parents, kids tend to stay a short while, go back to their previous life and start using all over again. As hard as it may seem to some families, emotions need to be put to the side and a strategic approach to solving the problem adopted.
However tenuous the current relationship with your drug-using child is, it is crucial that it be maintained. The bond between family and the drug-dependent young person is vital for their recovery. It could be just the thing that saves their life.
On the very same day that Senator Lambie revealed her family's struggles, the Mornington Peninsula News reported on an ice forum recently held in the area.
At the forum a local resident, Kerrie Knight, spoke movingly about her own daughter Indya's addiction to ice, with Indya now in her second stint of rehab.
Central to Knight's speech was the point that the family had always provided consistent and loving support to their child. She also noted that "what we were lacking in our approach were knowledge and the skills to know how to support her without enabling her addiction".
"Simply advising young people not to take drugs is not the answer. Family and community are the key elements to help deliver education, early intervention and harm minimisation. We have a huge gap in the community for a local family support network," she said.
Kids need to trust that their parents will be there for them when times get tough. Forcing them into detox won't achieve that.
Working with your kids, encouraging them to access professional help, and being with them throughout the journey to recovery can achieve it.
We need governments to commit to proper funding, not just for adolescent drug treatment services throughout the country, but also for family support services to help parents and families deal with this devastating problem.
