Booklet can help addicts

THE rise of addiction among young people at primary, secondary and tertiary level, requires more than just drug awareness campaigns; our learners have to be taught about substance and alcohol abuse from a very early age, like we have been teaching them about HIV and teenage pregnancy.

We need to educate them about the dangers of substances; advice on how to resist peer pressure and where to go if they have a problem or feel pressured into taking substances.

In most cases, principals adopt the wrong approach to addiction, usually seeking help for the learner after he or she has been found to be in possession of drugs. Many principals adopt the dispassionate attitude of expelling their learners to show how tough they are.

Poor parents are then saddled with a child, who is now even more exposed to dealers because of a lack of adult supervision at home.

I have seen many children who were expelled from school and ended up joining gangs and landed in jail, with about two to three murders to their name.

In prison these children suffer from severe post-traumatic stress disorder because of their past crimes under the influence of drugs.

These children are often semiliterate, so there is no hope for them of finding jobs so, once released, they return to the streets and gangs.

I approached the Western Cape Education Department about four years back to introduce my simple four-step programme, which is a selfprogramme to help learners, parents and teachers to deal with addiction.

The man I spoke to liked the simplicity of the programme and felt it would be suitable for young pupils but his main objection was the use of spirituality in the programme.

I offered to change it in order to meet the criteria for a secular state but that did not help.

I presented my simple programme to the provincial Department of Health and the Department of Social Services about two months back.

It was clear to me that both these department representatives were neither familiar with the importance of support groups and how they worked nor were they interested in attending a meeting to see the great benefits of support groups in the management of addiction.

I have been using my programme extensively with the youth in an awaiting-trial youth prison and I have seen it having a tremendous impact on them. The only problem is that the learning is not done consistently for these youth to remember the lessons in the booklet.

I have approached a few schools with my concept. The principals seem to like the programme but none of them appeared to be serious about implementing it.

I was impressed to learn that principals in the southern suburbs had expressed an interest in educating their learners on addiction. My programme is designed and written in simple language so that it can be introduced at an early stage in primary schools.

It is also of great help to children and adults who are semi-literate.

Anyone interesting in obtaining a booklet can download it from my website, www.drrapiti.com and any principal or school keen to know about my programme is most welcome to contact me on robertrapiti@gmail.com.

Counselling substance users is not rocket science; my book can equip anyone with sufficient knowledge to counsel people on substances, and their families.