The Alcohol and Families Alliance (which Bottled Up has been a member for some years now) is a loose group of service providers helping families who have problems with alcohol.  We are currently in the process of sending a letter to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, calling for the reinstatement of funding for children of alcohol dependent parents.

For many years, funding for alcohol and drug services in the UK has been inadequate.  Even when the funding has not actually been reduced, inflation and the rising cost of living has eroded the service impact.  Sadly, but understandably, that has meant that services not regarded as the ‘core’ services have suffered.  So services for children and family members who live in an alcoholic household have been reduced as the meagre funds have been concentrated on the drinkers.

What the letter calls for is that funding targeted at children is provided and ring-fenced so that it cannot be diverted into other services.  We at Bottled Up strongly support this letter and are proud to be co-signatories of the proposal.

Sara Britcliffe MP

There is a timeliness about this letter as Hyndburn MP, Sara Britcliffe was interviewed on GBTV after calling for more funding for services for the families of alcoholics.  In the interview she revealed some of her own personal history struggling with her mother’s alcoholism and finally losing her to alcohol when she was only nine years old.  See the picture above.

If you would like to read more about her story you can find it here.

Or if you would rather watch her interview you can see it here.

Hopefully her support fuelled by her personal experience will help to sway the government to view this issue as a priority.  Sometimes for change to happen we need to see a ‘good cause’ become a personal crusade to provide the impetus to highlight the issue and to put a personal, recognisable face rather than being more abstract and faceless.