Children need alcohol warnings, says expert

Monday 20 January 2014

Jersey’s addiction rehab centre plans to go back to school to warn children about alcohol and so reduce the number of people who need its help in the future.

Silkworth Lodge’s Chief Executive, Jason Wyse, says education in secondary schools is the key to tackling Jersey’s alcohol problems: “In order to sort the alcohol problem out in the Island, we need to go back to basics, we need to go back to education.

“This problem will never be totally solved, however we can reduce the negative effects and this will happen through generational change by enhancing the Education Programme that already exists through the PHSE curriculum.

“We need to deliver a consistent message in our schools and this needs to be one that is effective and not just a box ticking exercise.”

The service is now working on developing an interactive lesson to take into the Island’s secondary schools.

Mr Wyse said: “Silkworth is somewhere you come at the end, when you hit rock bottom but it has always been Silkworth’s strategy to try to prevent the demand for the service.”

Silkworth Lodge is the only residential rehabilitation treatment centre in the Channel Islands treating men and women affected by drug and alcohol addiction,

It was opened in 2002 by The Families in Recovery Trust and is the only residential rehabilitation treatment centre in the Channel Islands. It treats men and women affected by drug and alcohol addiction.