Grundtvig conference

1. Grundtvigconference Parentingandpreventialmethods Trieste Workshop 17.-20.04.2012 1 Georg Seegers, DiCV Köln

2. Parentingandpreventionalmethods Addictionpreventionbypromotionofeducationandparentingcompetenceattheexampleofprojekts in addictionanddrugaidofthe DiCV Köln 2 Georg Seegers, DiCV Köln

3. Thesis 1 • The earlier parents start to support their children, the better social integration will work. There are many reasons that prevent disadvantaged families and their children from integrating or causing them to integrate only very hesitantly into the German educational system. 3 Georg Seegers, DiCV Köln

4. Two projects are to • demonstrate ways of overcoming of this obstacle: • I. Papilio • by beta Institut Augsburg • II.Resilience promotion by the network Gesundheit-Sport- Erlebnisofthe DiCV Cologne 4 Georg Seegers, DiCV Köln

5. Basic Knowlege I • ◘ Current addiction prevention considers that the time until a child starts school is a particularly important period of the child's life. • ◘ Development of the child is essentially influenced by handling of protective and risk factors and age-appropriate support. 5 Georg Seegers, DiCV Köln

6. The project Papilio*) … • focuses on the phase before children start school; it is targeted at the teachers and children in child day-care centres, as well as parents. It benefits all children but is particular effective in 3- to 7-year-old children with disadvantages at home who start displaying behavioural problems early on. Papilio is targeted at prevention of substance-related addictions. • *) Papilio is derived from "children need wings" 6 Georg Seegers, DiCV Köln

7. The early years are a great opportunity: • Abilities are developed that make life and learning easier later. • Children are highly motivated and committed on their own. • If they are rewarded for efforts, the process will reinforce itself. • Children playfully learn to indicate needs and conditions. • At the same time, they learn to stay on subject and to develop solutions for negative feelings and experiences. 7 Georg Seegers, DiCV Köln

8. There are three objectives of preventive action (acc. to beta-Institut): • A ) Risks must be avoided/reduced • B) Promoting protective factors and "resiliences" • C) Promoting age-appropriate development / supporting developmenttasks 8 Georg Seegers, DiCV Köln

9. Basic knowledge II ◘ Studies showed that aggressive, dissocial or delinquent conduct (= behavioural problems) often precede development of addictions (e.g. alcohol). ◘ 9 Georg Seegers, DiCV Köln

10. Beta-Institut develops a model to explain behavioural problems: • ▪ Factors in education (e.g. punishing education practices) • ▪ Factors in the child (hyperactivity, combination of shyness and aggressiveness) • ▪ Factors in the child's environment (growingup in a family environment with parents orchildren who abuse substances) • ▪ Factors in kindergarten or children of the same age (e.g. rejection and mobbing by other children) 10 Georg Seegers, DiCV Köln

11. Addiction and violence among teens results when additional risks are added to development: • ▪Bad company or rejection by others of thesame age • ▪ Domestic conflict, lack of supervision,punishing parenting style • ▪ Negative bond between parents and child • ▪ Family conflicts by unclear rules exhibited byparents in their parenting behaviour, lack of supervision • ▪ Lack of teacher-child-relationship, failure atschool, skipping school, neg. attitude • towards school or kindergarten 11 Georg Seegers, DiCV Köln

12. A) Risks must be avoided/reduced • Problems with consumption of substances like alcohol, tobacco, medication, opiates or cannabis arise in the teens if the child has already displayed behavioural problems in early childhood preceding addiction problems. • In negative examples, excessive consumption or abuse of substances in the teens often occurs concurrently with age-related situations of dealing with certain requirements. This includes development of own identity or detachment from the parents. 12 Georg Seegers, DiCV Köln

13. Slide 1 Papilio development model: • Development model of behavioural problems and substance abuse according to Webster-Stratton, C. & Taylor, T. (2001) 13 Georg Seegers, DiCV Köln

14. B) Promoting protective factors and "resiliences" • ▪ Positive friendships and relationships with children of the same age, positive kindergarten experience • ▪ Positive self-worth, positive self-effectiveness expectations or positive social behaviour • ▪ Resilience is the child's ability to manage even difficult living circumstances (self-effectiveness conviction) • "Resilient" means children who do not develop any massive impairment in spite of detrimental living situations. 14 Georg Seegers, DiCV Köln

15. Slide 2 Papilio – Measures in the context of protection factors 15 Georg Seegers, DiCV Köln

16. C) Promoting age-appropriate development / supporting development tasks • Development tasks in the pre-school age include • ▪ Recognising basic emotions and feelings in oneself and others • ▪ Feeling with others (empathy) • Regulating own feelings and behaviour • ▪ Being a group member, learning social rules • ▪ Being attentive to reference persons and following instructions 16 Georg Seegers, DiCV Köln

17. Slide 3 Papilio – An overview of measures • Socially competent children are characterised by: • ▪ Successful adjustment to the social environment • ▪ Positive relationships to children of thesame age (peers = best friends) • ▪ Respecting social behavioural standards • ▪ Positive relationships to kindergarten • teacher/teacher • ▪ Pro-social conduct (e.g. sharing, cooperation) 17 Georg Seegers, DiCV Köln

18. Diskussion: What makes “good unpringing” possible? • Good upbringing needs more than the basic material care. The main additional factor is spending time with the child. • "Upbringing means more than giving children money" .- James Heckmann in "Eltern müssen in die Schule" – FAZ Sonntagszeitung, 18 March 2012 • The 67-year-old education economist is teaching in Chicago. He received the Nobel Prize for economy in the year of 2000. 18 Georg Seegers, DiCV Köln

19. Heckmann´stheses make the benefit of education plausible: • Children mainly need "good upbringing". • Good upbringing needs time, basic material care and luck. • On the time aspect: This is about attention for the child. • This may mean relating to the child's living situation, understanding his/her problems and taking a position, setting borders if required. 19 Georg Seegers, DiCV Köln

20. If parents cannot tell their lives as a coherent story, they will also have problems with their children. • Parents who are able to given reasons for their decisions in life know why they are where they are now. • Taboos occur where parents are ashamed for their past and are dishonest. They may say: I had no success in my job because I had to care for my alcoholic mother. • The person in question takes on the typical victim's role. 20 Georg Seegers, DiCV Köln

21. Result and facts for dedication to children from families in which addiction occurs: • ◘ If you understand your own life, you are a better example for your children • ◘ Children of addicted parents are the largest known risk group for development of addictions, in particular alcohol and drug addiction ◘ In figures: about 33 to 40% of all children of alcoholic parents will also develop a substance-related addiction (Klein, 2005; Zopel, 2006) • One third of them shows psychological problems (e.g. anxiety, depression, personality disorders). 21 Georg Seegers, DiCV Köln

22. II. Promotion of resilience by the network "Gesundheit-Sport-Erlebnis" of the DiCV Cologne • The network programme is designed as a resilience-oriented concept. It works with the future perspective of "step-by-step into life!" 22 Georg Seegers, DiCV Köln

23. Step 1: Accepting reality instead of suppression and numbing • The resilient person does not run from his/her problems. S/he will face such problems. • S/he will look at the present problems as challenges for his/her further personal development. 23 Georg Seegers, DiCV Köln

24. Step 2: Caring for oneself instead of neglecting oneself • The resilient person observes his/her personal needs and limits. • S/he can differentiate him-/herself (say no) and protect him-/herself from harmful environmental influences. 24 Georg Seegers, DiCV Köln

25. Step 3: Development of realistic objectives instead of aimlessness and dreams • The resilient person will not lose him-/herself in excessive ideals and objectives. • S/he will look for concrete and realisable objectives and think about how • to put them into practice. 25 Georg Seegers, DiCV Köln

26. Step 4: Accepting help instead of trying to do everything on one's own • The resilient person tries to explain what s/he is responsible for by him-/herself, and what s/he can do on his/her own. • S/he is willing to accept help. 26 Georg Seegers, DiCV Köln

27. Step 5: Being able to wait instead of needing immediate satisfaction • The resilient person will not give up at once if there are any unexpected difficulties and obstacles. • S/he is patient, shows the ability to persevere, uses waiting times to recover and tries to find the right time for the next step. 27 Georg Seegers, DiCV Köln

28. Step 6: Trusting in a higher power instead of being fixated on the ego • The resilient person will decide anew from time to time what values in life have the highest priority for him/her. • S/he trusts in the existence of a higher consciousness. • (Source: resilience research / long-term study of Emmy Werner from the lecture of Dr. Josef Heine "Anwendung des Resilienzkonzeptes", FachklinikSchönau, 2010). 28 Georg Seegers, DiCV Köln

29. Effects of the network programme • Sports offers of addicts offer the above objectives and other promoting effects: • ▪ Perceiving the body • ▪ Dealing with tension • ▪ Training perseverance • ▪ Handling success/lack of success (tolerating frustration) • ▪ Dealing with perception by oneself and by others • ▪ Constructive handling of mood swings 29 Georg Seegers, DiCV Köln

30. The network programme "Gesundheit-Sport-Erlebnis" has been contributing to integration of persons with addictions for more than 12 years: • "Life in balance" means "Life with abstinence" for addicts. • Promotion of health has been the focus of activities for addiction self-help for years. We are convinced that recovery of health is only promoted and stabilised by contented abstinence. 30 Georg Seegers, DiCV Köln

31. It is our objective to create a health-promoting climate within associations or free groups. With our many leisure activities, we want to help people recover their balance in life or to strengthen them in the sense of resilience research. • The annual programme is based on the idea that people are able to implement objectives for themselves in groups and communities that they would never manage on their own. Who participates in the programme? 31 Georg Seegers, DiCV Köln

32. There are mainly all the different types of "persons affected" and their family members. They want to experience community in sports and are looking for group experience in an abstinent and experience-activating framework. Another trend is apparent and confirms what we have always known but too rarely take seriously: addiction self-help heals by the shared experience of its members alone. 32 Georg Seegers, DiCV Köln

33. The competence of persons affected and former addicts is invaluable for our work. More and more often, group offers are managed by former participants. • The annual programme will be published in 2000 print copies and on the website www.gesundheit-sport-erlebnis.de this January. 33 Georg Seegers, DiCV Köln

34. The self-help portal at www.suchtselbsthilfe-netzwerk.de is also interesting. Interested persons will receive additional information on the self-help activities or the individual programme items, and can discuss with like-minded on a forum. (Excerpt of the preface of the annual programme of 2010) 34 Georg Seegers, DiCV Köln

35. The philosophieofournetwork • "Life is not an obligation but an opportunity" (from the Tao) 35 Georg Seegers, DiCV Köln

36. 36 Georg Seegers, DiCV Köln