Sexual abuSe
SYSTEM FAILURE
Huge numbers of
people accessing
drug or alcohol
treatment have
experienced
childhood sexual
abuse, yet most
services remain ill
equipped to offer
them the support
they need.
DDN reports
‘I
credit alcohol as the coping
mechanism that saved my life,’
says Claire, one of the people
quoted in the One in Four
charity’s stark new report
Numbing the pain: survivors’
voices of childhood sexual abuse and addiction
(DDN, April, page 5). ‘The feelings of shame,
self-disgust, dirtiness, worthlessness lead to a
deep pain that only medication with alcohol
can pacify,’ says Elizabeth.
Although disturbingly common, the link
between childhood sexual abuse as an
underlying trauma and adult substance
misuse remains poorly understood, says the
report. The ongoing adverse childhood
experiences (ACE) study, which began 20
years ago, has identified that people who
experienced four or more types of ACE –
which includes sexual abuse as well as
emotional and physical neglect and
exposure to domestic violence – are ten
times more likely to be involved in injecting
drug use, seven times more likely to be
alcohol-dependent and 12 times more likely
to have attempted suicide. Anecdotal
10 | drinkanddrugsnews | May 2019
estimates by One in Four put the proportion
of people in substance treatment who have
experienced childhood sexual abuse at
anything up to 70 per cent.
One significant problem, however, is that
this data is not routinely collected in the UK,
and the document calls for all treatment
services to record anonymous adult disclosure
of abuse, which could then be collated via the
National Drug Treatment Monitoring System
(NDTMS). Services also need to make sure
that workers are trained to respond to
disclosure, and that appropriate processes to
support survivors are in place.
While some organisations have taken
measures to equip their staff with the
necessary skills to respond appropriately
(DDN, 19 October 2009, page 6), they remain
far from the norm. But what services really
need to do be doing, the report stresses, is
properly ‘making the link’ between the
underlying trauma of childhood sexual
abuse and adult substance issues.
The report is not the first to highlight the
need for better understanding and
cooperation – just over two years ago, a
Christiane Sanderson
is project consultant
for the One in Four
report and senior
lecturer at the
University of
Roehampton.
Chip Somers is
addiction consultant to
the study.
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