Substance Use Prevention

ERASE = Expect Respect and a Safe Education

ERASE includes information pertaining to Diversity & Inclusion, Mental Health & Substance Use, and School & Online Safety, students and parents.

The Ministry of Education and Child Care, in partnership with adolescent clinical psychologist Dr. Hayley Watson from Open Parachute, will host three, free virtual sessions for parents, guardians and caregivers that will focus on practical skills you can teach your child and youth (ages 0-19) to prevent substance use and mental health needs. These sessions will build on a previous presentation, which focused on practical conversation tools for speaking about substance use prevention with your children/youth. The previous session is not a pre-requisite for this session.

Key takeaways for participants during this session:

• Learn the factors that lead to substance use and mental health needs from a trauma-informed lens

• Focus on prevention rather than intervention/response

• Applies to parents, guardians and caregivers of all age groups (youth aged 0-5, 6-10, and 11-18)

• Learn ways that these skills can be applied to yourself and the rest of your family to support the mental health of parents, guardians and caregivers

Participants must register in advance. Session dates are:

• February 20, 6:00-7:30 pm PST

• February 25, 6:00-7:30 pm PST

• February 26, 6:00-7:30 pm PST

Please share this information within your school community to reach parents, guardians, and caregivers of all ages. If you have any questions, please email the Mental Health and Substance Use team at educ.mentalhealth@gov.bc.ca.

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