Over the past 18 months the Health Education Authority has targeted parents to help them become more informed about drugs and to help tackle the generation gap identified in the article “Parents ignored in drugs fight” (TES, May 30).
The campaign, which is continually developing, has included advertising in women’s magazines and Sunday supplements, a number of detailed “guides for parents” in magazines, the distribution of more than two million copies of A Parents’ Guide to Drugs and Solvents and the promotion of the free 24-hour National Drugs Helpline, staffed by trained drugs counsellors. This can be used for advice and information as well as crisis.
The HEA is also teaming up with Boots, the chemists, for a national drug awareness week starting on September 8. Parents will be able to pick up a useful booklet called Drugs - Know the Facts in all Boots stores from that date. There is still room for a lot more work to be done, but the picture is not as bleak as the article suggested.
ANDY SEALE, Press and PR manager, Health Education Authority Drugs and Solvents Campaign, Hamilton House, Mabledon Place, London WC1
