2. What do we mean by Prevention and
Early Intervention?
“The primary objective of drug prevention is to
help people, particularly but not exclusively
young people, to avoid or delay the initiation of
the use of drugs, or, if they have started
already, to avoid that they develop disorders
(e.g. dependence).”
UNODC – International Standards on Drug Use Prevention
(2013)
3. How are we doing?
Fuller, E. (2012) Smoking, drinking and drug use among young
people in England
4. How are we doing?
Over a quarter of the 15 year olds in our
classrooms took an illegal drug in the last
year, 15% in the last month. 5% took a Class A
drug.
About 55,000 15 years olds drank over 15
units in the last week.
One in ten (11%) of 15-16 year olds said they had
had unprotected sex after drinking.
Fuller, E. (2012) Smoking, drinking and drug use among young people in England
WHO (2012) Health behaviours in school-aged children
DfE (2012) Permanent and fixed-period exclusions from schools in England: academic year 2010 to 2011
5. How are we doing?
• Early drunkenness (38
countries):
– Scotland 6th highest
– Wales 8th and
– England 9th
• Positive correlation
between early
drunkenness and 5 other
risky behaviours –
smoking, cannabis
use, injuries, fights, and
low academic
performance.
WHO - Health Behaviour in School Aged Children (2012)
6. Single Spies or Battalions?
Fuller, E. (2012) Smoking, drinking and drug use among young
people in England
7. What protects young people?
Environment
Parents Peers
School Positive Activities Media
8. What creates a protective
environment in school?
School
Specialist
Rules Development Ethos
Support
9. Things that work, things that don’t
Work Don’t work
Clear (and well understood) Messages that focus on the
boundaries worst outcomes
Some life skills curricula Harsh and inconsistent
Positive ethos discipline
Parents that hold restrictive Knowledge on its own
views about early drinking Didactic teaching
Brief Interventions
Caution
Treatment for those Don’t know
needing it Ex-users
10. Mentor’s toolkit for creating and
reviewing a school’s drug policy
Introduction Consultation framework
Consultation Checklist for reviewing
Working group activities drug education
Consulting teachers Suggested survey
Consulting parents questions and activities
Consulting pupils Drug incident scenarios
Further resources
online...
http://www.mentoruk.org.uk/resources/schools/toolkit
11. Other Resources
EMCDDA - http://www.emcdda.europa.eu
European drug prevention quality standards
Guidelines for the evaluation of drug prevention: a manual for programme planners and
evaluators (second edition)
EUDAP - http://www.eudap.net/
Unplugged – an evidence based life skills curriculum for secondary schools
Centre for Analysis on Youth Transitions - http://www.ifs.org.uk/centres/cayt
Repository of evidence based programmes
Mentor - http://www.mentoruk.org.uk
thinkingPrevention papers – how risky behaviours interlink, and how evidence based
prevention can reduce the risks to young people.
School governors: Taking a lead on drug and alcohol prevention for safer schools and
confident pupils
The Drug Education Forum set of six good practice briefing papers, including: principles
of good practice, legal highs, and engaging parents
The general aim of drug prevention, however, is much broader than this: it is the healthy and safe development of children and youth to realize their talents and potential becoming contributing members of their community and society.
On average a secondary school issues fixed term exclusions for drug or alcohol issues 2.3 times a year. Permanent exclusions for drugs and alcohol make up 6.5% of the total.