Children talking to ChildLine about parental alcohol and drug misuse.

ChildLine Casenotes is a series of reports based on analysis of calls to ChildLine, a free confidential helpline for children and young people in the UK provided by the NSPCC. This report is based on detailed analysis of calls to ChildLine from April 2008 to March 2009. Key findings • Children who were counselled by ChildLine about their parents’ alcohol and drug misuse often also talked about their experiences of physical abuse, family relationship problems, neglect and sexual abuse. • Children talked about being worried, frightened and confused by their parents’ alcohol and drug misuse. • Children often took on a caring role and saw it as their responsibility to solve their parents’ alcohol and drug misuse problems. • Almost twice the number of children were counselled by ChildLine about their parents’ alcohol misuse than about drug misuse. • Children who were cared for by habitual alcohol or drug users could be inducted to rely on alcohol and drugs in order to cope with life’s challenges