The Words We Use

What does drug prevention mean?

There are several words we use throughout the chapters. Here is a list of terms and how they are defined:

Drugs: refers to all substances including alcohol and tobacco as well as illegal drugs
Youth: a general term that refers to young people of all pre-adult years
Teenager: refers to the age range of 12 – 19 years.
Parents: traditional parents, single parents, guardians and other primary caregivers to the child.
Family: the immediate and extended family of a child.

Drug prevention means: efforts to help avoid the illegal, inappropriate, unhealthy, harmful use of drugs.

Your Concerns

What are the things that concern you most about your children’s behaviour – either now or as you face the future? Make a list.

Ask a trusted friend or relative the same question and compare your lists. Are you alone? Or do all of us have real concerns about what our children do and the way they behave?

Summary

You have now completed the 1st chapter of prevention-smart parents.

This short chapter tried to help you realize that you are not alone when facing the problems… and the joys… of your children growing up. Even concern about your children’s use of drugs is very normal.

But remember – Don’t Panic – the majority of young people do not abuse or become dependent on drugs!

What is important is that we try to become prevention-smart and discover how we can improve our communications with our children. We should do what we can to make it less likely that they get involved with drugs. Remember that parents and carers are human too and we can only do so much – but we should try our best as part of our responsibilities as a parent.

The rest of the chapters aim to help you with this so that you can be better equipped to be prevention-smart.

Remember: You are not alone!

Well Done!

You are now at the end of our brief introduction to prevention-smart parents. Please fill out the chapter evaluation questionnaire and proceed to Chapter 2: Why do teenagers act the way they do?, or feel free to skip ahead to any of the other chapters listed on the right.