Documentary doubles therapy requests, but age and municipality limit access

Requests for therapy and counselling from adults who grew up with parental addiction have doubled since DR aired a documentary series about their experiences, DR reports. But access to help can depend on a person’s age and municipality.

Tuba, which offers free support to people up to 35 who grew up with a parent with alcohol or drug problems, received 388 enquiries after the programme aired, compared with just under 189 during the same period last year.

Alkolinjen, a helpline run by the organisation Alkohol og Samfund, has also received more than twice its usual number of enquiries in recent weeks. Many have come from relatives of people with alcohol problems, said Bjarne Stenger Elholm, who leads the helpline.

One of those moved to seek help was 26-year-old Lulu Fich. She grew up in a home where alcohol played too large a role, and says becoming a mother brought difficult feelings from her childhood back to the surface.

“I have feelings that I find difficult to process on my own,” Fich said. “I want to create a home for my son that is always safe.”

Fich contacted Svendborg Municipality, which works with Tuba, but was told the municipality only provides help to people up to and including age 24. She was not ready to seek support at that age, she said. In Odense, where Tuba also works with the municipality, she could have received help until she turned 35.

Tuba provides digital support nationwide, but therapy through the organisation is available in only about one in three municipalities. Other municipalities have chosen different forms of support for relatives.

Tuba’s national chair, Bente Ryberg, said she hoped society would take treatment for relatives as seriously as treatment for people with addiction. “There is addiction treatment in every municipality, but treatment for relatives is something we can provide if we have the time, the capacity and a little money left over,” she said.

Liberal Alliance social affairs spokesperson Katrine Daugaard said the party wants a treatment guarantee for people with addiction and their immediate family, including spouses and children. She said adult children of people with alcohol problems should also be covered, adding that readiness to seek help does not depend on a fixed age.

SF social affairs spokesperson Christina Lykke also said all children of parents with addiction should have the opportunity to receive treatment, for example through therapy.