by Eulana Weekes
St. Kitts and Nevis (WINN): The St. Kitts-Nevis National Council on Drug Abuse Prevention organised several substance misuse prevention and intervention initiatives at schools in the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis.
The programme, “Living Above the Influence Primary School Substance Education and Prevention Programme”, aims to sensitise the nation’s youth on the effects of substance abuse and teach students how to make informed decisions when encountering situations relating to drugs.
The St. Kitts-Nevis National Council on Drug Abuse Prevention has since decided to incorporate a parenting programme geared towards “equipping parents with the knowledge and tools to encourage and guide their child(ren) to make prosocial decisions and to help parents make the best of parenting.”
The first parenting session was held at the Tabernacle Community Centre in St. Kitts on Thursday, March 16, 2023. The facilitator is Miss Konje Byron, a locally based Licensed Mental Health Counselor in North and South Carolina, an Emotional Processing and Parenting Coach, and the owner of Safe Space Parenting.
According to the SKN Council on Drug Abuse, it is working on improving the programme as it continues across the public primary schools in the Federation. One improvement thus far is the introduction of monitoring and evaluation tools into the manual. Miss Ishelle Huggins – Drug Misuse Prevention Officer, is leading the monitoring component of the programme.
The programme’s manual was introduced to the guidance counsellors in the last quarter of 2022 and entails class activities, homework and lesson plans. However, the programme was rolled out to the Grade 4 students in January 2023.
The programme was made possible through a collaboration of the SKN Council on Drug Abuse and the Ministry of Education Guidance Counselling Unit.
