Using Family Skills Training to Combat Substance Abuse

Parenting style and family dynamics can play a key role in drug use prevention among young people. Families can act as powerful protective forces in the health development of children and adolescents. In the same vein, families can be a destructive factor in the wellbeing of children and adolescents and can indeed contribute to substance abuse and risky behaviour.

In light of this, family skills training can be utilized as an important intervention to prevent substance abuse. Family skills training basically help to promote a familial environment of trust and care in order to build full relationships which can help children and adolescents avoid substance abuse.

According the recently published United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) “Guide to Implementing Family Skills Training Programmes for Drug Use Prevention” family skills training programmes combine: (a) training of parents to strengthen their parenting skills; (b) training of children in personal and social skills; and (c) family practice sessions.

Malaria: Taking the Sting Out

WHEN I was about ten years old, I came down with malaria. The mere memory of it still makes my knees jiggle, and I can smell the acrid chloroquine pills which left a bitter after-taste that stayed with me for days and made my urine yellowy and stinky of medication.

I remember feeling sweaty and cold at the same time that I was not sure whether to cover myself with a blanket or jump in a tub full of ice-cold water. My appetite for food was next to nothing; no matter how much my mother tried to entice me to eat, I would simply throw up.

As an African child, I was very lucky to have survived though the memory of my illness still sends shockwaves up my spine. Unfortunately, the chloroquine pills that saved my life are not considered as effective across Africa anymore because the malaria parasite has become resistant. With each dose, the little pest has evolved, so to speak.

Malaria is a big killer on the continent. Of the 30 countries ranked as high-burden malaria countries in the world by WHO, 18 are in Africa.