Emotional PSA Gives Disturbing Glimpse At Children Living With Parents Who Abuse Alcohol

Emotional PSA Gives Disturbing Glimpse At Children Living With Parents Who Abuse Alcohol

If children could choose their own mom and dad, they'd likely pick amiable, responsible folks over slurring, stumbling, angry ones. But children can't choose their guardians, as a new PSA out of Finland reminds us.

The short film, titled "The Orphanage," shows its child characters in a window-shopping scenario, walking among displays of lovely-looking potential parents before stopping in front of an inebriated, arguing couple. The children look troubled, as does the woman leading them from scene to scene. But suddenly the orphanage melts away, and the children find themselves walking down an isolated road while the drunken mother and father reel and bicker ahead of them.

The short film was released by Finnish marketing agency Havas Worldwide and the organization Fragile Children, which promotes discussion of parental alcohol abuse and how it affects children.

Alcohol abuse has been a chronic problem in Finland. In 2012, the Official Statistics of Finland found that "[a]lcohol-related causes have for several years been the most common cause of death for both working-age men and women."

In the United States, a recent study estimated that "[m]ore than 10 percent of U.S. children live with a parent with alcohol problems," per the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

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