Babies and substance abuse

Lino Spiteri (The Sunday Times, September 7) applauded Anthony Girard, a social worker, for making it his mission to highlight the dangers of energy drinks, especially mixed with other types of drink. Mr Girard has told youths that the drink Cocaine is lethal. So has Joe Gerada, social worker and CEO of the Foundation for Social Welfare Services. Yet, as Mr Girard contends, "our children are knocking down... whatever they can lay their hands on".

Mr Spiteri also drew attention to another fact now known to all, namely that "our early teenagers have been identified as among the most addicted to drink in Europe."

Our teenagers, plus some others, have also been identified as the bearers of a little less than a third of newborns born out of wedlock on the Maltese islands.

Many in Malta know the dangers to the unborn child when a pregnant woman smokes, drinks or uses any kind of drugs.

Today we also have sufficient information, available to youths, how drugs, alcohol and tobacco adversely affect the development of the foetus. They cause miscarriages, still-births, and problems which put both the mother and foetus in danger.

Our youths should also know that sporadic use and consistent abuse can be damaging.

The Malta Unborn Child Movement (MUCM) and the Health Promotion Department, an organisation in MUCM, is promoting this kind of awareness. Yet who is listening? Who cares? asks Mr Spiteri. The Commissioner of Children is listening, he says, and she intends to call a national forum to deal with these issues. MUCM, made up of 45 Maltese organisations, agrees with Mr Spiteri.

The Commissioner, a social worker, is listening. Like her predecessor, she has already supported the formative and preventive social action project of MUCM about the rights, protection and development of unborn children. It is suggested that when the national forum is called, alcohol and the negative effects of other substance misuse and abuse on babies in the womb are on the agenda.

This should also include the contribution of fathers to a healthy foetus, the social and economic effects of having an impaired child, and the benefits of discontinuing substance use after becoming pregnant.

Parliamentary Secretary Chris Said is listening too. The MUCM met him on these issues and he showed remarkable insight into the significance of these problems.

Also, the Malta Association of Social Workers has given a very valuable contribution on these matters in the MUCM so far.

Gradually social workers are emerging as the social conscience of the nation.