Seminar 2: Drug use and parenting support: a conversation about power

How is ‘power’ negotiated between families affected by parental drug use and the services they come into contact with?

How much power do family members affected by parental drug use, particularly parents themselves, have over key life decisions and the care and support they receive? To what extent are services empowering for parents who use drugs? And how do services and professionals use the power they are entrusted with?

How do families negotiate this through the demands and expectations of the services involved? And how do these relations shift and change with time?

In this seminar, our speakers use these questions as a starting point to reflect on issues of power, parental drug use, and services who support families affected by it.

Drawing on ongoing research with families affected by parental drug use, and some of the health and social care services who work with those families, this seminar explores how ‘power’ is felt and used by both parents and services.

We will think about different ways that power might be understood and negotiated by those involved – to what extent people feel in control of what is going on, if and how this may change, and why it might need to.

About the ESRC Relations Study Seminar Series 2022

These seminars aim to provide a safe and non-judgemental space, bringing together parents, practitioners, policy-makers and researchers to share insights and knowledge. Topics covered are inspired by our ongoing research project about drug use and family life. To find out more, visit our website: https://relations.stir.ac.uk/