If you don’t talk to your children about drugs and alcohol, who will?

That is the question being posed at a series of awareness sessions that are open to parents and carers and free to attend.

The sessions are being staged jointly by the Department of Education and Children, the Isle of Man Constabulary and the charity Care for the Family.

The timetable is as follows, with all sessions running from 1.30pm - 3.30pm:

28th April - St John’s Primary School
5th May - Onchan Primary School
12th May - Scoill Ree Gorree
19th May - Scoill Phurt le Moirrey

Carolyn Shipstone, National Representative of Care for the Family, said, "These two-hour sessions are an introduction to the four-week, detailed drug and alcohol awareness programmes that we run on a regular basis.  However, parents and carers will pick up lots of valuable information just by attending one of these sessions."

Orla O’Donoghue, the DEC’s Drug and Alcohol Liaison Officer, explained, "We will address signs and symptoms of substance use, new trends of drug use, how to keep channels of communication open with teenagers and where to seek drug and alcohol support."

The sessions will complement recent public information seminars on drugs of concern, run in Peel and Ramsey and co-hosted by Margaret O’Reilly, Director of the Isle of Man Government’s Drug and Alcohol Policy, and Allan Johnston, of Scottish Training on Drugs and Alcohol (STRADA).

To sign up for one of the four sessions, please contact Carolyn Shipstone on (07624) 491043.