Children may be off school quite a lot, not necessarily because their parents haven't got them there but because they fear their parents are using heroin back at home," says Sheryl Dago. "They'll tell the teacher they have a tummy ache so they can go back and watch them. They're almost carers."
Dago is describing the grim collateral damage from drug abuse and how it becomes ingrained across generations. She believes passionately that a co-ordinated family-based approach is the only way to help the users and the luckless, often hidden, child victims.
Only four months into her job as co-ordinator of Addaction's family-focused project in Derby, she is spearheading the charity's drug and alcohol treatment Breaking the Cycle initiative. As Dago details how she works with other agencies, you get a sense that this is ground that should have been broken on a national scale years ago. Valuable time has been lost and she is determined to ensure that these families and individuals get the service they need.
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