Local Alcohol School of 1st module (10 meetings, once a week for 10 weeks)

First meeting

Introduce yourself: it is a polite way to begin working together (even if you hold a degree, even if they call you “doctor” at work, not everybody will know you).

Let everyone introduce himself/herself, or rather the whole family (if all members of the family are not present, the composition of the whole family should be illustrated anyway by those who are there, so you stress the importance of the family approach)

Introduce the School: it will give everybody the impression that you take it seriously, that the school is something serious.

Then start by writing the word “health” on the blackboard and asking everybody to describe it. Don’t be afraid to let families contribute to the discussion.

You can be absolutely sure that families attending an Alcohol School will know as much as you about alcohol, if not more. They will use different words, but will not say anything less important.

Then write “well being” and ask them to express fresh views, writing them down on the board.

At this stage, you could mention the definition given by World Health Organisation (WHO)

You can now involve the participants again by asking:

- what can protect their health?

- what can damage it?

This is what we mean when we say the Local School is interactive.

If you let the families take active part in this process, when you all together reach a conclusion, they will feel it is their own conclusion, they will share it and support it.

Try to be convincing without insistence. The success of the School depends on how much the participants are convinced that they are doing something useful, helpful and interesting.

Second meeting

At the beginning of the second meeting, after welcoming all the participants with a smile (even if you are dead tired, smile will not cost you a lot of energy and will begin the meeting well), you could ask them what they felt about the previous meeting.

Next you can ask them to describe alcohol, and the damages caused by alcohol, and then, during the next meeting, you can ask to describe what is a family, and how a family works.