Moving to virtual learning platforms has not been a bad thing for the DSM Foundation. First and foremost, we have been able to keep providing drugs education in a world in which in-person visits to schools and colleges just aren’t practical or sensible, but it has also encouraged us to embrace technology such as live streaming and video recording platforms.
So it was not much of a leap to realise that we could really augment our offering for parents and carers, who we know always want to know more, but are often so strapped for time that it can feel daunting to tackle something as big as “drugs and young people”. So Fiona had the bright idea of adding to our workshops and webinars with some short videos on specific subjects, which then became our Facebook Live video series.
Once these drew to a close – kind of, if we think of new topics, we will definitely do them, and do feel free to get in touch if you think we have missed something important! – we took a moment to draw a breath. And then we realised that at our parent webinars, we were often being asked very similar questions. These weren’t as neatly ringfenced as a specific substance or an issue such as festivals or peer pressure (as had been the case for our Facebook Lives), instead they were discussion points that the drugs educators would respond to live on screen, each building on a point that the other had made to form a well-rounded and useful answer.
And so Foundation Conversations came into being. These are short discussions between (so far) Fiona and Asha, using a question asked at a workshop for parents and carers as a jumping off point. The two of them bounce off one another in terms of their responses, each drawing on their own knowledge and expertise. The result forms the basis on which a caregiver could talk to their teenage (or younger) child; the foundation for a conversation, if you like (can you see what we did there?
Find our Foundation Conversations under the Videos tab of the DSM Foundation page, and let us know what you think. Better still, given that this is a resource built solely on what parents and carers want to know how to tackle, what would you like us to talk about? Contact admin@dsmfoundation.org.uk and we will schedule it in!
