Hidden Harms and Hidden Data

Project title: Hidden Harms and Hidden Data: Estimating the number of children of parents who misuse substances and exploring risk and protective factors of young people with parents who used heroin. Ms Karen Galligan, PhD candidate with Professor Catherine Comiskey

Karen Galligan, BSc, MSc, (Phycology) MSc (Information Systems) has worked extensively in the area of youth mental health and is an experienced national level research and evaluation manager. She is currently a researcher in Addiction and in Child Wellbeing at the School of Nursing and Midwifery, Institute of Population Health with Professor Comiskey’s team.

There are two primary aims of the research, one to provide an original framework to estimate of the hidden number of children with parental substance misuse (including alcohol) in a local setting, and apply that framework for the first time in a defined Irish urban setting. The second is to describe and explore in detail the association between parental heroin use, risk and protective factors, and the mental health of young people aged 18-25 form in-depth interviews with former children of parents who used drugs and alcohol, parents who currently use, grandparents who currently care for children and adult and child service providers who provide services to families impacted by drug and alcohol use.