Help for mums torn apart from children while fighting addiction
A new project in memory of a Sunderland mum torn apart from her beloved son by addiction is helping other women facing the same heartache.
Tina Robson, 35, from Penshaw, was found dead at her flat in Bridgehouse Mission in Stockton in July 2020. Her son Vinnie was just 11.
Now Tina’s mum Dr Sue Robson has set up Tina’s Haven in her memory, to provide women separated from their children by trauma-based addiction with holistic and therapeutic nature-based support and learning in a calm, safe, outdoor environment at The Barn in Easington.
Tina’s Haven was officially launched with an event at East Durham Trust, which also saw the start of an initial “Field of Hope”, project funded by East Durham Creates.
FieldofHopeisintroducing a group of women from Addictions North East to Tina’s Haven.
“Many children are permanently severed from their birthmothers and families through closed adoption because of untreated traumabased addiction, resulting in lifelong tr auma and attachment difficulties,” said Sue.
"It is these circumstances that Tina’s Haven is seeking to transform.”
Steering group members
are highly experienced in addictionrecovery,nature-based healing, the treatment of trauma, child-protection and violence against women and girls, while artists Nell Catchpole,SharonBailey,andNicola Balfour are working alongside
trauma expert and trainer Ingrid Ford on the project.
“The development of addiction support services has been largely driven by concerns about crime and public safety, and subsequently shaped around the needs of
men,” said Sue.
"Addiction services designed to respond to the broad and multifaceted needs of women are rare. As a result, women’s unmet needs become entrenched and ‘complex’.
“Women like Tina are highlyvulnerabletoriskanddanger and their intensifying trauma is frequently misunderstood and untreated.”
The second phase of the work, funded by Awards for All (Community Fund), seedfundingfromAddictionsNorth
East, and donations in Tina’s memory, will see women participatingina12-week“ownmy life” course.
A fundraising page has been established at https:// www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/tinashaven