The Chrysalis Project

The Chrysalis Project aims to reduce the harm done to children by a parent’s substance misuse.  It sets out to do this by supporting both the children themselves and their parents or carers.

Children are offered individual or group sessions of drama and play therapy.  In these they are provided with a safe space to share and explore how they are feeling.  The Project currently has two Creative Arts Therapists leading this work.  The children benefit from the opportunity to express what they are feeling with the support an adult who is not otherwise involved in their life;  they are helped to develop confidence, self esteem and resilience.

However, the children also have a great need for good parenting, and to improve the quality of parenting it is necessary to engage with their parents or carers.

Worthing Together LSP allocated £7,500 of ‘Choosing Health’ money to The Chrysalis Project to help fund the post of a ‘Parent Support Worker’.

Where possible, while a child is participating in therapy, the Parent Support Worker engages with an adult who has caring responsibility for the child, providing them with an individual, safe and protected space in which to reflect on particular issues affecting family functioning, the quality of parenting and the impact of substance misuse.  The adult may well be one of the parents – possibly one who is using substances or abstaining from them – or it could be another person with caring responsibilities for the child, for example, a grandparent.  The aim of this work is to build upon existing skills and develop protective and responsible parenting which will improve relationships and the quality of family life.

By adopting this dual focus – on the children who have experienced parental substance misuse, and also on the adults who have caring responsibilities for them, the Project aims to lessen the problems the children may have to face in both the short term and in the long term future.