The use of drawings to explore young people's views of a service for those affected by parental alcohol misuse

Abstract

Background: As services for young people affected by parental substance misuse evolve, it is important that young people are invited to express their views on the service they receive.

Method: As part of the evaluation of a new service for young people living with parental alcohol misuse, a self-report drawing method was used with 11 young people to elicit their views of the service.

Findings: The most common changes noted were: feeling happier and less confused, and having a more harmonious family life with families spending more time together. Many of the young people placed parental alcohol misuse centrally in their drawings.

Conclusions: Self-report drawing enabled the young people to reflect on change, and thus is a powerful tool for further research in this area.

Keywords:

• Young people
• parental alcohol misuse
• self-report drawings

Acknowledgments

Most importantly, we would like to thank the children and young people for taking part in the evaluation of Base Camp and for providing such valuable and insightful drawings. We would also like to thank Sue Winterburn, Val Day, Graham Woods and the Base Camp workers, for supporting the evaluation generally and the drawing component specifically. The evaluation is funded by the Big Lottery.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.