A charity has said the stigma surrounding addiction is starting to ’unravel’.

Motiv8, which specialises in addictive behaviours, helps clients make positive changes to their lives with a therapeutic approach.

Its most recent figures for uptake has shown its family service, which was recently updated to include support for parents, children and young people impacted by substance misuse, gambling and gaming disorders, has had 61 referrals from January to October of this year.

The family service had offered 6,397 appointments to parents and children in the island from 2016 to October 2021. There has been 370 referrals overall from 2016 - that’s 174 adults and 196 children.

From April 2020 to March 2021 alone, there were 1,544 sessions held across Motiv8.

Thea Ozenturk, chief executive officer at the charity, said: ’These figures show that, like mental health, the stigma of addiction is starting to unravel and is disappearing. People now are more willing to accept help to talk about it, and that’s the help they find at Motiv8.

’If anything, the sessions went massively up during the pandemic. The numbers are going to be increasingly going up I think, there’s definitely going to be an uptake.

’I think people don’t feel quite as judged. I think the whole "mental health and gender" discussion has become more talked about and more understood, it has helped for people with addiction as well.

’Addiction does present these complex issues, substance misuse, behavioural addictions and mental health issues as well, whether that may be anxiety or depression or even things like bipolar disorder or something quite significant.’

She added: ’People and families who are impacted by addiction often feel very judged, so it’s important that they feel that they’ve got people to help them.

’And very often, any type of addictive behaviour is in response to a trauma. People who misuse substances are trying to find a solution to that problem - that’s what we do.’

’The family service is a range of professionals who are there to support these people and not to judge them, and to try to find out how they can help a family overcome their issues.’

According to statistics from the charity, 21.5% of families in the Isle of Man are affected by alcohol use.

Ms Ozenturk explained that the pandemic had highlighted the need for the service within the community.

She said: ’I think Covid has had an impact because before in families, and particularly for children and young people, when they had their source of support in the community, in school, their friends, periods of lockdown for families who are in trouble would have been particularly challenging.

’I think that has shone a spotlight on how traumatic it is. Some people that are not living in nice homes have trouble at home with domestic violence, drinking, drug use, and that must be very traumatic, especially during the pandemic when it felt like there was nowhere to go.’