Revealing Substance Abuse Secrets: Facts, Myths and how Parenting Matters
The Center for Counseling and Learning Services of ISA organized an event that aimed at sensitizing both parents and students about substance use. This effort aimed to support parents in helping their children successfully face the numerous challenges of growing up.
For this reason, on Thursday, March 16, ISA hosted two workshops for the students by Mrs. Pamela Cuthill, who is the senior Substance Misuse Practitioner with Foundation66, based in London, UK. Mrs. Cuthill is the coordinator of a project within this organization called CEDA. The Creative Education for Drugs and Alcohol (CEDA) Project is a free education service for schools across Greater London. CEDA provides interactive workshops and assemblies to secondary school students on the physical, psychological and legal risks associated with drug and alcohol abuse. The project is funded by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.
In addition, on Wednesday, March 15th, ISA organized a lecture for the parents titled:
“Revealing Substance Abuse Secrets: Facts, Myths and how Parenting Matters”.
The lecture focused on raising parents’ awareness of substance use, the stages leading to substance abuse, and the role of parents and family dynamics in the prevention or the intervention, including boundary setting, effective communication and decision making, parental attitudes and environmental influences and was followed by an open discussion with the audience.
The lecture was delivered by Mrs. Pamela Cuthill, who also led the students’ workshops and Mrs. Maria Korre, MSc, Psychologist and Family therapist with extensive experience in working with addictions.
The event, organized with the support of the ISA Parents Association, was very successful. Students reported on how it helped them become better informed and feel more empowered while parents provided positive feedback focused on their gaining awareness of the importance of parenting as a preventive tool.
ISA is looking forward to organizing more, and equally successful, events for its school community.
