Bangalore Rural Educational and Development Society (BREADS) organised a three-day staff training for the programme staff of its Drug Rehabilitation Education And Mentoring (DREAM) programme on 15,16 and 17 January 2022 at Don Bosco Vaduthala.
Specially designed for 30 project staff from ten districts of Kerala, the training focused on equipping and boosting their knowledge on addiction, counselling skills and module development. Programme activities for the months of November and December 2021 were reviewed.
On the first day, sessions focused on counselling skills, adolescent addictions, screening assessment and module development. The sessions were led by Mr. Francis Moothedan (Global DDR Trainer) and Fr. PD Thomas sdb (District Director, Ernakulam). The sessions helped the staff to understand theoretical concepts, and screening and assessment methods like AUDIT, ASI and CAGE.
On the second day, the sessions by Dr. Binu Scaria sdb (State Director, DREAM), Fr. Sunny Uppan (DREAM District Director, Kasaragod) and Mr. Francis Moothedan (Global DDR Trainer) focused on the 12 essential skills required for counselling and on the science of addictions and motivational interviewing. These sessions helped the staff to understand the project activities and their implementation. The final session handled by Fr. Rubin Mathew (Executive Director, BREADS), was about project implementation and strategies to be adopted in advocating with various stakeholders.
The last day of the training programme focused on Addiction therapies, Addiction counselling, and De-addiction procedures. The sessions were handled by Mr. Sigi Antony (Vice-Principal, TRADA Institute of Social Sciences, Manganam). The sessions helped the participants understand therapeutic concepts, rehabilitation facilities and the ways to conduct therapy in groups and individually.
The staff training programme was an excellent opportunity to share field-level experiences, to work on module development and to gain knowledge on relevant topics related to the project.
