ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that what is needed is a holistic family assessment that includes parental capacity and functioning, alcohol and other drug use, and children's needs, within the limits of each worker's particular professional role and mandate. Typical barriers to comprehensive assessment include lack of trust between the parent or the child and the worker, leading to concealment of substance use and resulting in inadequate assessment of parenting capacity/performance, or of children's safety and wellbeing. Any parenting assessment requires attention to parents as people in their own right: their histories, health status, family relationships, and an understanding of their parenting. The child's own perspective provides a valuable insight into the impact of parental substance use on the child. Establishing the child's role in the family can help to determine if the child is assuming responsibility for self and siblings beyond what would normally be expected of a child that age in the wider community.
