Toolkit for school nurses
Other opportunities within the school environment for addressing this problem
Addressing alcohol in health education
School nurses are often asked to play a role in delivering health education/promotion under the PHSE curriculum. Some of these sessions may include material about alcohol (along with drugs), be part of sex education (avoiding dangerous situations etc) or focus on healthy eating. At present drinking itself is not specifically covered, nor is parental drinking or domestic violence. These matters can however be referred to in the wider context.
The session may prompt a child to say something in general discussions. For example in junior school there might be a talk about things that are good and bad for you. Children have been known to say things like ‘my dad falls over when he drinks’ or ‘when we had a car accident mummy was told off by the police for drinking’. Such comments should not go unnoticed.
Apart from simply picking things up from children as they arise, the content of the sessions may be used to communicate key messages about this topic that could help children who are concerned, but keeping quiet about it.
Specific groups also might be set up in consultation with the head teacher to address particular problems. One example might be a health promotion session for young carers, where information about parental alcohol misuse may prove useful.
Supporting and training teachers
In some schools the school nurse might provide training sessions for teachers on topics such as asthma or anaphylaxis. It might be possible to include parental alcohol misuse in such sessions, with the assistance of appropriate materials.
Teachers might also seek the support of the school nurse if they are concerned about a child and, given the right tools, a school nurse could be another source of help in spreading awareness, understanding and good practice on this issue.
Nurses may also be able to assist teachers with planning lesson content where alcohol is to be a topic (eg in Citizenship), see the Teachers’ toolkit - lesson plans
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