Page 25 - MELD Stimulant service

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Focus Group B – Experiences and barriers of family
support members supporting a loved one

Summary: Five participants attended the session. Individuals were
asked to describe their experience of supporting a family member affected
by substance use issues. Participants described the impact upon families
and relationships. Some individuals had found it very difficult to try and
find support services as were not sure where to look and some lacked in
confidence and skills to find information online. Some people, despite
living in the local area, were not aware that services were available. They
also felt that they were not aware of the effects of stimulant drug use and
the dangers of poly drug use and lacked the confidence in knowing how
to approach loved ones and engage in helpful conversations about this
topic. As a result, it could feel quite overwhelming and stressful trying to
keep this information secret from other family members and friends to the
fear of being judged as a bad parent.
Family support attendees voiced that the following factors would help
to reduce future barriers for other families trying to find support.
1. Advertise MELD services in more public places including toilet doors
in pubs and clubs, bus stops and within local community groups. This
would enable more people to become aware of services, especially
if they do not know how to search for support online. It would also
reduce the stigma of only advertising services in more formal places
such as websites.
2. Develop the MELD website and promote support services for stimulant
drug use. Increase the information currently on the MELD website and
Facebook page going into more detail about the effects of stimulant
drug use and the dangers.
3. Offer more guidance on how to take early steps in discussing drug use
with adult children.

Conclusion: Focus groups are an effective and efficient method to
explore opinions and gain feedback to barriers accessing or attending
services. Information gathered in this study will be used to improve
service engagement and encourage referrals from people who may
find it difficult to access support unless they already know or have
accessed support before.