AS FAR AS PARENTS are concerned, good communication with their children should help to prevent drug abuse.

So says Frank Door, director of the Social and Health Education Project, which is supported by the Southern Health Board.

He is in charge of a programme for parents in Munster, called Family Communication and SelfEsteem, which aims for "long term prevention of drug and alcohol abuse". It is the only State sponsored programme of its kind, and there are plans to introduce it in other areas.

"This programme for parents helps them to develop a climate in the home in which issues like drugs and alcohol can be talked about," Door explains. Its primary focus is on developing communication. But first of all, the parents' own self esteem needs to be looked at.

"When parents build their self esteem, it has a positive effect on their children. And children with high self esteem are less likely to be subject to peer pressure on issues like drugs and alcohol."

The solid base at home is what teenagers need. "The drugs climate is more dangerous since the project started four years ago. Certainly ecstasy and cannabis are far more available. But I think that all the talk about drugs may have a bad effect on young people in that they may think all teenagers are taking drugs."

The programme on drug prevention and family communication includes a course called Love and Limits. Door feels that it is important to bring love into the equation. "This isn't just about rules for the sake of them. There also has to be a loving relationship within the home, the parents are taught how to set reasonable loving limits.

"Of course the kids will want to rebel, which is all part of growing up. But you have to realise it is good for teenagers to have something to rebel against. When kids have nothing to rebel against, they feel there's nothing solid there. In that situation, they're at sea and they're lost.

"We would train parents how to identify the tell tale signs of drug abuse. But I think it's very important to say that the major drugs of abuse are not the high profile ones like heroin and esctasy. The major drug which is abused is in fact alcohol.

Almost every person using cannabis or ecstasy is also using alcohol. The likelihood is that the abuser started off on alcohol - the major drug which is a killer in our society."

Frank Door says that it is not difficult to identify the signs of alcohol abuse among young people. "However, there is a huge reluctance to recognise alcohol as a major drug of abuse. By focusing on illegal drugs, people think they have nothing to do with them. Parents may not realise that they themselves are drug abusers.

"One of the things we want to do on this programme is help parents explore their own drug abuse and realise the double message they may be giving their children when they are laying down rules about cannabis and then going out to the pub to have a few pints."

Frank Door keeps coming back to the concept of having good self esteem if a young person is to avoid the negative aspects of peer pressure. "We're developing a new programme at the moment for parents of infants and toddlers. And while that doesn't mention anything about drugs and alcohol, we would actually see it as a very effective prevention programme - our belief is that if communication is good at home, a solid base is created for them. They may still want to explore and experiment, but they're much less likely to if the home environment is solid."

ROSARIE COLEMAN is co ordinator of the 10 week family communication course. She explains the simple formula she uses: "I cover what I call the four Ls - love, listening, learning and limits." Taken together, they should help build self esteem and prevent substance misuse.

Why do young people take drugs? Seven reasons are set out in the Family Communications and Self Esteem manual:

. to increase self confidence on social occasions when shy or nervous;

. to help with difficulties of interpersonal relationships;

. as part of group activity;

. as a way of opting out of the adult world;

. to bolster themselves at a moment of uncertainty;

. as a means of escape when stress is overwhelming;

. as part of the curiosity and experimentation of youth.