Center for Psychiatry and Psychosomatic Medicine Studies   

                                 (CPMP)

Method “Searching How to Provide Answers”

 

Primary Prevention of Drug Abuse

This is a program aimed at parents and teachers, approved by CONFEN (Drug addiction Federal Council of Brazil) in 1997, to be used in the training of parents.

 

Preliminary commentaries: in January and February of 1997, for more than 2 years, this manual was composed with the aim of discussing drug abuse, the manual was accompanied by one video where these principles are exposed and dramatized, counting with the special participation of the renowned and loved Brazilian actress, Irene Ravache, together with young actors, that were sensitized about this problem. We had numerous opportunities to discuss this method with teachers, family members of chemically dependents, pediatricians, psychiatrists, neurologists and in highly frequent occasions with our targeted public: parents that wish to develop the best attitude for their children stay free from chemical dependence. We considered this contribution as an essential one towards a change from a casual attitude towards drugs as well as from an attitude of denial; the family and the community are stimulated towards responsible care of children and adolescents, concerning the continuous action of the destructive culture favorable to street drugs. In this edition it was included the Annex 2.

We are re-editing a well succeeded program.

Campinas, May, 1999

Silvio Saidemberg, M.D.

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Introduction:

The “Method: Searching How to Provide Answers” was developed with the intention of obtaining stimulus for reflections and position taking in relation to the drug abuse serious problem. The main objective, within the primary prevention scope is to evaluate the already existing attitudes and to verify if they are sufficiently adequate and consistent to offer a more steady platform to give support and learning experiences to children and adolescents, not only in the sense of helping them avoid recreational substances, also with the objective of fostering the development of a healthy personality, within a great number of possibilities offered by the life creativity and surprises.

The program is interactive, that is, it does not have for objective to offer a finished  and definitive program. It favors an exchange of ideas among adults within parental and/or educational roles. The program encompasses a written text to be read and commented in group, a video that illustrates the 10 principles of primary prevention, finally a collection of formulated questions in the Annex 1, with the objective to induce a debate among the members of every training group. A coordinator of group dynamics with previous training in this method is desirable to warm up a constructive conversation and to point out towards the conformist tendencies towards the blind acceptance of opinions when in reality the subject remains without satisfactory elaboration for each one of the participants.

You should attempt to organize new groups of discussion, don’t arrive to inflexible conclusions, the search for the truth presupposes the continuous doubt and re-structuring of your own ideas. Nevertheless, we need to maintain, with coherence, minimal basic rules.

We want to alert all of you that this approach does not encompass all the primary prevention aspects. It only includes those that favors the development of attitudes that make it less likely drug addiction.

You may freely copy and spread this method. After each experience, the final questionnaire may be individually answered and sent to one of the addresses of the Method: “Searching how to provide answers.” This feedback to our centers will give more impulse to the community action.

Please, receive our congratulations for your participation.

Dr. Albert Zeitouni and Dr. Silvio Saidemberg

 

 

Drug Abuse Primary Prevention

Method  “Searching How to Provide Answers”

 

As much parents as teachers have a fundamental role in the abuse of drugs preventive programs. They, parents and educators have a privileged access to the personality and character development of children and adolescents. The trust that children and pupils give to these adults make it possible that life and human values preservation be transmitted for generations in the form of solid attitudes and values. The worst parental attitude to be won over at the first stage of all prevention programs is the attitude of conformism and of naïve denial; “this is not going to happen to my children; this only occurs with other children”. Ï don’t have anything to do with this, my children don’t have and certainly will not have problems with drugs”. “If we talk about drugs this is only going to awaken the interest of the children”. “Drugs are problems that affect other children and youngsters, very rich or very poor, not mine, simply because thus I want to believe”.

The parents should hurry up to transmit their values before the children become less amenable to their influence; this should happen between 12 and 14 years old, coinciding with the beginning of adolescence.

Parents that smoke or immoderately drink alcoholic beverages need to admit that they have a problem and that they would like their children not to emulate them as far as those behaviors are concerned. They should admit that it is difficult for them to free themselves from habits and consequences. To deter destructive behaviors, parents need to develop constructive and respectful attitudes towards their children. “Do what I say, however don’t do what I do” causes a calamitous effect upon children. The parents smoke tobacco and inebriate themselves; however, they don’t want their children following their steps. It is even possible that they are able not to awaken the interest for alcohol, cigarettes and other drugs, notwithstanding, the example of disrespect for life stays as an evil seed planted in the fertile soil of young minds. Besides, the powerless and destitute parental image due to bad habits makes these parents unlike role models, or counselors for their children’s search for a healthy and successful life.

In a prevention program against the abuse of drugs, in the first place, the parents need to review their attitudes and values. Have they been able to be truthful? Have they spent a good amount of quality time with their children? Have they carefully observed each child to know what seems more individually advisable and desirable?

 

Basic Principles to help children not to get involved with drugs:

 

First principle: to begin the earliest as possible. Information about drugs needs to be shared very early, as soon as children become able to understand what parents consider right or wrong. They include: basic notions about hygiene, stories about real people that got in contact with street drugs, including people that became addicted to alcohol or that became sick due to the use of cigarettes. It should also include the true stories about younger children being influenced by older ones in the drug use. Finally each child should hear from a parent that they disapprove the tragedy caused by the world of trafficking and drug abuse.

 

Second Principle: it is important that parents feel free to actively express their own opinion, they should avoid staying passive before negative influences their children are receiving from publications, media in general, friends and other adults. Even if those parents don’t have a conversational talent, even if they don’t know how to talk in a very logical and organized fashion to make the most definitive impact,  the statement “I don’t approve the recreational use of drugs” openly expressed to whoever might be present will stay as a message of the greatest impact in the young mind. A declaration being it the most laconic, in spite of its shortness, shows what strong positioning have the responsible adults. The positioning is an act that talks louder than many thousand words.

 

Third Principle: it refers to the most adequate moments for the parents to intervene and transmit a specific knowledge about drugs – it can be a short talk during one of the meals, about people that got problems due to drug use, about the world of the traffic. Also parents can share their wish to be helpful to the community for less violence and tragedy. Maybe, they can share about one situation in which they were helpful to someone in need.

Also, they can talk about how parents, teachers, politicians should work harder towards the solution of the recreational drug problem; our civilization could already be quite successful in the control of the epidemics of smallpox and poliomyelitis.

 

Fourth Principle: it has to do with the need to reinforce over and over again the position contrary to the recreational drug use. Information and attitudes in favor of that use reach the children and adolescents on a daily basis, frequent pro sobriety ideas need to neutralize that influence. Parents need always to be watchful to give their opinion.

 

Fifth Principle: “Know your child’s friends”.  Know everyone that influence your child and know how they influence. In informal conversation, you may discover a lot about the basic attitudes of those friends. Invite your child’s friends for the lunch, for a small meal at a relaxing opportunity and spend time with them. Listen to them attentively; also to pay attention to what they avoid to say is as important as to try to entertaining. Preoccupations about the influence of those friends should afterwards openly discussed with your child. The omission in giving opinion does not contribute for parents and other adults to be seen as coherent and consistent in their position.

 

Sixth principle: know the ideas of those that have that are opinion makers and are close to your child. Are they favorable of a certain drug? Defend they a casual attitude towards the drug use dissemination? You have as parent the right and the duty to oppose this, your child will not be the guinea pig of any experiment with human beings, usually sponsored by people that have no morals and by traffickers in search of easy money.

 

Seventh Principle: it requires your firmness and coherence. I your child has participated in drug experimentation and this becoming your knowledge, position yourself immediately about this. If you need professional help there should be no delay, be careful with professionals that put themselves in a lenient attitude neighboring omission. Every individual that began the use of drugs and was destroyed in the process had a first experience.

 

Eighth Principle: It deals with the need to know the signs of drug abuse. What is happening with the child? Is it a fall in the school performance? Maybe, there is a lack of care for personal objects or personal appearance. Does some confused ideas are expressed at times? Are the eyes reddened? Duties and being on time are treated with carelessness? A sudden loss of interest for sports has taken place? Does it seem that there is lack of motivation? Are there attempts to avoid family members? Is stealing suspected?

Have dissimulation, omission of information and even lying been detected? Are old friend being exchanged for new companions? Are these new friends of irregular conduct? 

 

Ninth Principle: Parents need to approach their child and frankly to mention their preoccupation about the possibility of any substance that alters behavior being used. This intervention must be friendly, though fir; the idea is not of punishment to be administered, support and help are the objective. The undesirable changes of behavior if more long lasting should be examined through a psychiatric evaluation.

 

Tenth Principle: It must be emphasized that is important to know and to maintain contact with the parents of your child’s friends. Thus, a greater cooperation among families should develop towards better safety measures.  For example, parties and meetings discretely supervised by parents are less likely to have incidents of utilization of drugs or alcohol.

 

Some Points For Reflection:

 

Naturally, some changes in the development of personal characteristics should occur. However, any suspected change should minimally be examined with friendship and respect. In the professional offices it is frequent to see in the clinical history changes of behavior that are suggestive of drug abuse. Those changes might precede in years the more obvious psychiatric disorder of the patient that now can be identified by the family members.

Even if one takes all preventive measures, still there will be the occurrence of drug abuse in children that were taught to be successful and healthy by their parents and caretakers. In spite of all imperfections of every program that has as its scope the development of the best attitudes, as a consequence of the influence of the culture favorable to drug abuse the lack of  opposite ideas  will leave the future generations under the influence of those that have interest to take them to the drugs.

 

Summary:

01-  Talk about drugs as early as possible.

02-   Be active against the recreational drugs.

03-   Take the opportunity to talk about this subject as often as possible.

04-   Repeat and reinforce opinions; be watchful of all possibilities to develop ideas about this subject.

05-   Know all friends of your child.  To know includes understanding how they think about values and attitudes.

06-   Know the opinion about drugs of the teachers and everyone that has some influence upon your child.

07-   Be firm and coherent in your opinion about drugs.

08-   Learn to know the signs of drug abuse.

09-   Investigate in a friendly and respectful way – every youngster is in the group at risk.

10-   Know the parents of your child’s friends.

 

It is the wish of everyone that has contributed for this program of primary prevention to reach success in creating a world that is more safe, healthy and free from the tragedy caused by recreational drugs. The task is hard and the reward for the efforts that are spent won’t necessarily be visible, well established and recognized.

 

Annex 1

 

How to use the “Method: Searching How to Provide Answers”.

01-    Listen to the video of the method in a group of parents and interested adults.

02-    Each item that is commented in that video has only the purpose of stimulating a debate. Each participant may imagine a better way, a more adaptable to one’s communication style. It is important to transmit one’s involvement in helping and giving support for the basic rules that need to be assimilated by children and adolescents. (Naturally the communication should be appropriate and adjusted to the age and understanding level.)

03-    Try to find reasons that impede the functioning of the basic principles that were suggested for your children not to be involved with drugs. Explore the possibility of the existence of several other basic principles that were not commented by the presenters of the “Method: searching how to provide answers”.

04-    Debate your resistance in being more active against street drugs; it is important that the motivation for this resistance be compared to the reasons of the other participants.

05-    What would you do if a loved person becomes involved with some type of chemical dependency?

06-    Which behavioral rules would you choose for children and adolescents? How would they be taught?

07-    What specifically could be done about the drug favorable opinion from people that exercise an important influence upon your child?

08-    How would you teach your child to exercise self defense to neutralize the group pressure?

09-    Deep down, would you prefer a more conformist child that avoids developing own opinions and also avoids searching for the right attitudes? Or would prefer your child as a more brave to the point of taking risk staying with honesty and justice, even when rejected by others?

10-    Would you protect your child against the unwarranted influence from friends and from people that he admires? How?

11-    If you found this an important experience what would prevent you from influencing others, even stimulating parents and future parents to know the “Method: Searching to Provide Answers”?

12-    After completing your experience, listening to the video and organizing each discussion group, answer to the questionnaire below and give it to the coordinator of your group.

13-    If you need help or if you want to get advice to initiate a substance abuse preventive program, please send an e-mail to: ssaidemb@yahoo.com.

 

Individual questionnaire:

 

Age (   ), sex m (  )  or  f (  )

Was the program discussed in group? Yes (  )   No (  )

1- Did you like this program? – Yes (  )   No (  )

2- Did you find it useful to discuss the program with other adults? – Yes (  )   No (  )

3- Did you improve your attitudes? Yes (  )   No (  )

4- Do you intend to organize groups of adults for this theme? Yes (  )   No (  )

5- Give your ideas and suggestions, send a message to ssaidemb@yahoo.com.

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