Ernesto Gutierrez-Crespo, psychologist, and educator. President of the Asociación de Psicopedagogía de Euskadi and collaborating lecturer at the University of Deusto and the University of the Basque Country.
According to various studies, technical youth teams, educators and school counselling teams often show willingness to actively participate in preventive work. However, they also recognise that they have limited knowledge about addictions and difficulties in carrying out effective prevention and risk reduction strategies in their work environments.
What are we looking to work on during this course to address this situation?
Considering the challenges identified by these professional groups, the training aims to:
- Provide information and training on the specific risks linked to substance use, such as gambling, sports betting, video games and other types of behaviour.
- Provide strategies to promote risk and harm reduction behaviours, as well as self-care before, during and after risk situations.
- Raise awareness of their fundamental role in the dissemination of preventive messages related to possible consumption.
What educational tools are needed to work with adolescents who may be using drugs?
In order to address the issue of drug use with the adolescent population, it is not only essential to have basic knowledge about the issue, forms of use and effects, but also to gain their trust and closeness. Some key aspects of this relationship include:
- Fostering effective communication.
- Listening carefully, understanding the adolescent and their behaviours.
- Acting as role models, promoting values and behaviours that can be learned through observation.
It is important to remember that our actions, even the most everyday ones, transmit messages about ways of thinking, feeling, and acting, often unconsciously.
How can you help them develop coping skills?
Some of the key areas to work with adolescents include:
- Strengthening protective factors against drug use, promoting healthy attitudes and habits to delay the age of onset, reduce use and avoid problematic behaviours.
- Reducing risky consumption, raising awareness of the possible consequences, and how these decisions can affect other areas of their lives.
- Providing accurate and up-to-date information, so that they can make responsible and well-informed decisions, and help them to develop a critical sense of consumption.