In partnership with Ecominds, Aquarius has recently launched an outreach scheme for young people in Erdington, Birmingham providing outdoor and community activities which encourage them to be active, care for their local environment and develop new skills. The activities provide fun and sociable alternatives to inactive modern lifestyles which can lead to mental health and behaviour problems. The scheme also provides one to one support for every participant involved.

To find out more information on this and the Erdington Young People’s Outreach Scheme read the latest newsletter here

Research commissioned by Aquarius and Birmingham Drug and Alcohol Action Team shows the stresses of having to take over caring for grandchildren.

When families are in crisis because of an alcohol or drugs problem, their children can often be the first casualties.  This can cause various short and long-term harms to children, such as developmental problems, difficulties at school, family relationships and their attachments with parents and others. 

Children can also suffer from the problems which coexist with substance misuse, including domestic abuse, parental mental health problems and criminal activity.  In these difficult situations, parents turn to people they love and trust to look after their children, and who are often eager to help – grandparents.

These “kinship care” arrangements are often in the children’s best interests and have many benefits – children stay out of the formal care system, they keep their sense of family belonging and identity, and avoid the trauma of family separation.  

“she benefits from having stability in her life, knowing that somebody’s going to be here to support her and get her to school……….”

But these arrangements sometimes come at a heavy cost to grandparents themselves. Kinship carers have been found to risk a range of health, personal social and economic problems – like being lone carers, living in overcrowded accommodation, having a disability or chronic illness, experiencing financial hardship and suffering problematic relationships with the children’s birth family or other family members. 

“……if I only knew some other person, a grandparent going through what I was going through so I could at least have someone to talk to it would have helped….I can pick up the phone but who am I to talk to?”

Often they have to reduce their work hours or give up work completely, and aren’t made aware of the benefits they’re entitled to. The drinking or drugs problems of their own adult children can have a huge impact, leading to feelings of guilt or helplessness.

“I don’t think I’ll ever, ever forgive her – not for what she’s done to me, but for what she’s done to them”.

Aquarius and Birmingham DAAT have commissioned research which examines the experience of kinship care for grandparents, and indicates what needs to change so that their role can be recognised and properly resourced. Read the full report here

The team have made real inroads into the community with outreach work extending across the entire city. Interventions are delivered in community settings and have been able to reach those who perhaps wouldn’t normally engage into alcohol mainstream services.

Now that data is available for 2 years of work it has allowed for comparative evaluation to be undertaken. The findings demonstrate the significant growth and achievement of the BOAT project. The following headline data reveal the impact we have made to date.