Priests, Pastoral Coordinators & Lay Ministers

What Can We Do In Our Parish?
On a day to day basis, we have numerous opportunities to include messages about drug/alcohol use in our parish activities. As the leader of a parish (Priests & Pastoral Coordinators), one thing you can do is set up a parish representative to work with the Bishop's Council on Alcohol & Other Drugs.  This can effectively help with prevention & education efforts and reduce and/or eliminate alcohol and other drug abuse in our community.



As a religious leader, think of how you can best utilize your resources, by asking yourself these questions:
Do you have a policy that identifies the role of your religious community for responding to alcohol and other drug abuse issues and problems?
                               
Do you integrate into pre-marriage meetings or counseling sessions information on issues such as fetal alcohol and cocaine syndromes, the detrimental role of drugs and alcohol in a marriage, the role of parents as drug educators, and
guidelines or norms for drug and alcohol use within families? 
                               
Are you aware of the public and private, local, regional and state treatment resources available to your parish community? Do you refer parishioners to  these resources? 

Have you established a group support system for members returning to the community after completing therapy or treatment for a substance abuse problem? 

How involved is your parish in drug education or drug prevention
activities? 

Does your youth ministry, adult education and family enrichment programs, include information about alcohol and other drug abuse?

The Bishop's Counil can alleviate much of your caseload regarding family drug problems by having a core group of trained volunteers in the parish capable of making appropriate referrals to community treatment resources.

Confidentiality 
It is of the utmost importance that the parish representative of any given parish protect information shared with the Bishop's Council on Alcohol & Other Drugs.  Information related to the B.C.O.A.O.D. with regard  to individual or family alcohol and/or other drug abuse problems should be treated as confidential, as there are ethical, professional, legal and spiritual consequences to divulging this protected information. For example, representatives are expected to never talk publicly about confidential information or allude openly to a person's abuse of alcohol and/or other drugs.

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Virtues & 12 Step Spirituality