The most effective proven programme in the prevention of alcohol and substance abuse in the US is now being taught in Ireland, a conference in Cork has heard.
A psychologist and associate professor of health promotion and education at the University of Utah, Dr Karol Kumpfer is currently training Irish health workers and teachers in her Strengthening Families programme, which uses parenting and family strategies to prevent drug and alcohol abuse.
"If an adult recovering from drug or alcohol addiction is not offered a family-based training programme as part of their residential or outpatient treatment, they will relapse as soon as they go home again because there is so much guilt involved," she says.
A former director of substance abuse prevention in Washington DC, Dr Kumpfer addressed the annual seminar of the Tabor Lodge addiction treatment centre in Belgooly, Cork .
Her Strengthening Families programme has been found to be the most effective in the prevention of alcohol and drug abuse in schools all over the US over the past 25 years.
In 2003, the Oxford Review concluded that Dr Kumpfer's family-based programme was twice as effective as any other drug and alcohol prevention programme.
She explains: "At the end of the day, what's important is working with the whole family. If a therapist works with just the individual person, they will not get the same results.
"Any family or parent-based educational programme will be more effective than any school or youth only programme."
Parents and their children attend separate classes for the first hour where parents learn how to be better parents and children learn how to communicate better. They then come together for a second class.
"Children are taught how to communicate effectively with their parents, how to avoid peer pressure and how to deal with bullying. They are also encouraged to talk about their goals and dreams.
"Research shows the most important factor in building resilience in kids living with alcoholic and drug-addicted parents is to have dreams and goals for themselves, even though they are living in a tumultuous family situation," says Dr Kumpfer.
Dr Kumpfer trained 40 people in her four-month programme all over Co Kerry earlier this week and is training another group in Cork at the weekend.
She first visited Cork in 2006 at the invitation of the Regional Drugs Task Force and trained her first group of Irish therapists, community and probation workers.
"I have just got the results back from that first group and they are excellent, better than at many of the sites where the programme is being taught in the US."
