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DEDICATION to helping families turn their lives around from problems with substance misuse has seen a Middlesbrough Council Officer recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours.

Families First Team Manager Suzy Kitching said she was ‘overwhelmed’ to receive an MBE for her work.

Suzy was instrumental in setting up the Families First team in Middlesbrough and manages the joint adult and children’s service working with all members of the family from pre-birth to carers impacted by adult substance misuse.

“The Families First team make a real difference to people’s lives, offering hope in some of the most difficult circumstances imaginable.

“It’s great to see recognition of that, and I wish Suzy and the team every success for the future.”

‪'Outstanding service and achievement deserves to be recognised. I congratulate all those who have received an award. Through their work, they are helping to raise educational standards across the country and ensuring that every child and young person fulfils their potential, whatever their background or circumstances'

The Stronger Families: IFSS initiative in Wales has the Option 2 model at the heart of it. Rhoda & I are working with the Welsh Assembly Government during this 3 year Pioneer period before lessons learnt contribute to the proposed roll out to the rest of Wales.

(Please send me more details, service outlines and structures, pictures of the teams, contact details

Dave also tells us that they are re setting up an Option 2 therapist support network within the region. Elaine (Changing Trax) and John (Families First) will facilitate this.

Dave also let us know that a summary of Donald Forrester's research on Option 2 and the DH evaluation of Families First has been published in the journal 'Findings'. You can access this at:

In the Queens Birthday Honours List, June 2009, Rhoda Emlyn-Jones, Principal Officer for Substance Misuse Services, Cardiff and The Vale of Glamorgan, was awarded an OBE for services to disadvantaged people. Very many congratulations Rhoda, a well deserved award.

Rhoda said: “I was shocked when I found out, whoever nominated me didn’t breathe a word of it. It’s not just for me, it’s for everyone I have worked for and everyone I have worked with over the years.”

With much love from your teams here in Cardiff and the Vale and from the Option 2 Network across the UK.

who were named Drug Team of the Year 2008 for their innovative and ground breaking work in helping children at risk due to parental substance misuse.

Team winners 2008

The Tackling Drugs Changing Lives Awards recognise individuals and teams who have really made a difference in their local community. The overall winners receive £10,000 for their project or organisation to spend on the prevention of drug misuse.

Run by Middlesbrough Council, Families First offers support to families with drug or alcohol difficulties where there is a real risk that children may be placed into care as a result of their parents' substance misuse.

The team has been described by the local Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership as a 'groundbreaking service that goes to the heart of the drugs strategy in reaching and supporting families at risk'.

Research shows that family conflicts and drug and alcohol misuse have been significantly reduced: 77% of children now stay in their families, and 90% of families who stay together have maintained progress or exceeded goals at one-year follow up.

A call is made every minute to the UK police reporting an incident of domestic abuse. DI Gary Bohun South Wales Police Service Public Protection Unit recognised that officers have little or no training in relation to domestic abuse (DA) after completing their initial training. Drawing on his own experience as a police officer he recognised how officers can become “conditioned” towards domestic abuse as a result of the number of incidents they deal with. DI Bohun approached the Option 2 Team to consider devising a 1-day training programme for Shift Supervising Officers. Read More

What is Option 2?

Option 2 is a crisis intervention service for working with families in crisis, as described in ‘Preventing Breakdown'. Option 2 was brought to the UK by Rhoda Emlyn-Jones and developed in the UK by Cardiff Social Services. Launched in 2000, it quickly won the Community Care award for child protection.

Option 2 use a solution focussed and goal oriented model of intervention. We work with families where there are serious child protection concerns and professionals are considering the need to remove children from the family or place them on the child protection register. We focus on exploring people’s strengths and values, using those strengths and values to help people to develop motivation and set their own achievable, measurable goals. It has proved to be a particularly successful and powerful approach to working with families who are having difficulty. Click here to read more

The Option 2 projects have together created a supportive network, we communicate through our own mailing list and we meet several times a year. Go here to read more.

The different projects in this network use the model in a remarkable variety of different settings and with a wide variety of funding streams. In Middlesbrough Option 2 is part of a Families First Project, Norwich has Option 2 as part of the Family Assessment and Support Team, Conwy has Option 2 based in Conwy Care and Housing, whilst in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan, Sheffield and Newcastle, Option 2 is part of children's and adults substance misuse services. Click here for more.

Beware of imitations:

All the projects on this website have had intensive training by us, in a well researched and evidenced model and use it as the core of their intervention. If it isn't mentioned on this site, it isn't an Option 2 project.

I hope that you find the website useful and informative. If you have any comments or questions, please get in touch with us.

“... I've had more happy times in the last six weeks than I had over the last three years.”