What Happens at Our Health Information Evenings — and Why Parents Keep Coming Back

The hall fills up quietly, the way it always does — coats on the back of chairs, a few people who clearly know each other from the school gate, a few who clearly don't. By the time the session starts, something has already shifted. There is a particular relief that settles in a room when everyone present is there for the same reason: they love a teenager, and they are finding it hard.

Vibrant Health Advocates – Amber runs free adolescent health information evenings in Arbroath on the first Wednesday of every month. The sessions are open to any parent or carer of a young person between the ages of eleven and nineteen. No referral is needed, no forms to fill in beforehand. You can simply turn up.

Each evening focuses on a specific theme — one month might cover sleep and mental wellbeing, the next might look at how social media affects developing brains, and another might address nutrition and energy in growing bodies. A trained facilitator leads the session, but the format is deliberately conversational. Parents are not lectured at. They are given clear, current information and then given space to ask the questions they have been sitting on, sometimes for months.

What makes the evenings distinctive is their local grounding. Arbroath is a working harbour town with strong community ties and its own particular pressures — shift patterns in local industries, seasonal employment, the way that small-town life means teenagers are often very visible and very scrutinised all at once. The sessions take those realities seriously. Generic advice about adolescent health rarely lands in the same way as a conversation that acknowledges the specific texture of life here.

Facilitators draw on up-to-date guidance from NHS Scotland and leading adolescent health researchers, but they translate it into practical, usable language. Parents leave with handouts they can refer back to, and with signposting to local services where relevant — including school nurse contacts, young person's mental health pathways, and community sport and youth groups active in Angus.

Over the past year, more than a hundred parents have attended at least one evening. Many come back for several sessions, and a small core group now attends regularly, describing the monthly gathering as something they actively look forward to. Several have said it is the only space they have found where they can speak honestly about the struggles of parenting a teenager without feeling judged.

If you are a parent or carer of a young person in the Arbroath area and you have ever wished you had better information — or simply a room full of people who understand — our doors are open. The next session is free, informal, and waiting for you.