Location: Bridge Employment Hub, Dudley

Event: Educational Sessions

Awareness Topics: Alcohol, Drugs, Gambling and Tobacco Awareness

 

Vickki and Rachel were asked by Bridge Employment Hub to deliver alcohol, drug, gambling and tobacco awareness sessions to the individuals who use the service. It is available to people who have come out of employment for a variety of reasons including substance misuse issues.

 

All of the participants were adults, an age group we don’t typically work with, but we welcomed this new opportunity to deliver a different style of awareness session. Rachel and Vickki integrated several discussion elements throughout the four hour-long sessions, to encourage participants to share their own thoughts and experiences if they wished.

 

As with all of our educational sessions, we aim to make the experience as fun as possible, whilst still delivering an important message. Vickki and Rachel incorporated various different activities, as well as the use of our interactive resources to enhance the learning experience. The content of the sessions was designed so to include topics the participants may not have encountered previously, such as:

 

Alcohol awareness

alcoholic hepatitis, alcohol related brain damage, alcoholic dementia, alcohol in the workplace, and alcohol and sports sponsorship.

 

Drug awareness

caffeine awareness, drug driving, cannabis farms, heroin as a public health issue, and discussions about injecting rooms and drug testing in nightclubs.

 

Gambling awareness

what is gambling, risk analysis of gambling activities, the law, how gambling effects the individual, and identifying problem gambling.

 

Tobacco awareness

what is tobacco, the law, the impact on the body, e-cigarettes, and discussions about smoking in cars with children.

 

We received excellent feedback from the participants, and we really enjoyed working with the group at Bridge Employment Hub. We look forward to more opportunities to work with them in the future.