PARENTS AND STAFF …we have something for you too! Anthony McLellan is delighted to offer an opportunity to involve parents in the work that is done with schools by The McLellan Practice.  In providing a parents evening – separate and in addition to the time already made available to the younger generation, parents and staff are invited to a presentation and to partake in open discussion, questions and answers.  Open a newspaper or switch on the radio or television, and it is not long before you will come across an article on alcohol, drugs, eating disorders, websites, addiction, self-esteem or relationships and the difficulties that can arise.  Tackling these issues in the young has become something of a national obsession.   Pupils have ideas, questions, fears, assumptions, but so too do their parents.  How do you bring up your most treasured possession and ensure them a functional happy and healthy future when there are no guarantees and there are so many pitfalls?  There are considerably more solutions to these difficulties than might at first seem obvious. At The McLellan Practice we have the benefit of experience and insight into these, which enables us to respond constructively and positively to many concerns that exist.  What are the warning signs and symptoms of an emotional, physical and psychological disorder?  How can you differentiate between tricky phases of adolescent development and behaviour that is indicative of a deeper problem?  When do you cross the line between choosing to drink and compulsion to drink, between dieting to be slim, and dying to be thin?  What needs to be treated, the symptom, the person, or both?  What is an appropriate response for parents to provide when alarm bells ring? How can you help within the home environment and when is it far better to bring in outside help? What help is available, how can it be accessed and what might it entail? What is the prognosis for recovery from these disorders?  There are so many questions, and so many lines of approach that offer answers.  We don’t claim to be superior to any of them, but we do have experience of what works best for most, and we can help to lay the facts on the table and put them in some sort of order.   As ever, we are offering you a professional service with a personal slant that brings the words alive.