Skills and principles for cultivating a relational approach to addiction in child protection
Bringing together personal and professional experience to shift our understanding of parents who misuse drugs and alcohol.
Part of BASW's Child Protection Social Work Practice Masterclass Series - click here to view the full programme
Back by popular demand, new dates for the Child Protection Masterclass series have been released for 2024! Get inspired with highly practical, research-based training that will equip you with ideas to implement in your social work practice. These focused sessions will be jam-packed with knowledge, practical ideas, and research. Delivered by Richard Devine, who draws on his wealth of experience and expertise. You will leave feeling more confident and re-energised in the work you do with children and families.
Suitable for all social workers nationwide with an interest in child protection.
This session focuses on how to interact effectively and help parents who are misusing drugs and alcohol, drawing on the most up-to-date research.
In this focused masterclass, Rich Devine, drawing on twelve years of frontline experience will use a blend of personal experience, practice experience, theory and research to examine how and why people use drugs and alcohol, and what we can do to help them within a child protection context.
A common myth is that people choose to use drugs, and therefore if they are told not to do so, especially if it is harming their children they would. The masterclass explores how individuals who misuse drugs and alcohol often don’t have a choice, examines why telling what to do doesn’t work, and what can be done instead so that the probability of change occurs.
Learning outcomes:
- Learn about the bio-psycho-social model of addiction
- Learn about what causes addiction, and why the common myth that drugs are addictive because of the chemicals is wrong and harmful
- Develop ideas and tools for talking to parents about addiction in a way that increases openness, reduces defensiveness and resistance
- Find out about how to support parents experiencing addiction issues
The trainer:
Rich Devine (Twitter @RichardDevineSW) is a Consultant Social Worker, with over 12 years’ experience working with children and families in a child protection context.
He has a Masters in Attachment Studies from Roehampton University, London (2018) and is trained in several attachment procedures. Currently, he is a Visiting Researcher at Cambridge University. He writes one of the UK’s most popular social work blogs, exploring topics such direct work with children, assessment, and relationship-based practice.
In 2022, he co-facilitated a series of webinars on co-design and co-production with Tim Fisher, one of the leading UK experts on participatory approaches and he undertook research on parental advocacy with Dr Clive Diaz from Cardiff University (to be published in 2023).
Delivered online using MS Teams.