Presentation to school based audience about the links between school drug prevention and mental health.

1. Drugs and Mental Health: Practical
strategies for early intervention

2. “Several decades of research have shown
that the promise and potential lifetime
benefits of preventing mental, emotional,
and behavioral (MEB) disorders are greatest
by focusing on young people and that early
interventions can be effective in delaying or
preventing the onset of such disorders.”
National Academy of Sciences (2009)
Preventing Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Disorders Among Young People:
Progress and Possibilities

3. Did you know...
...fewer young people are drinking,
smoking or taking other drugs than
10 or 20 years ago.

4. But the health and
social impacts of
legal and illegal
drugs leave no
room for
complacency.

5. Is drug education in schools up
to the challenge?
“The year 11s are getting the same boring
drugs PowerPoint as the year 7s...”
“I am 16 years of age;
colouring pictures of
smiley face Ecstasy
tablets will not make
me less inclined to take
it.”

6. Simply giving the facts about
alcohol, tobacco and other
drugs...
has little impact on
young people‟s decisions

7. Dire health warnings
also seem to be ineffective

8. So what does work?
• Approaches based on „life skills‟ or „social
influences‟ are the most effective at changing
young people‟s behaviour and wellbeing.
• Programmes such as „Life Skills Training‟ and
„Unplugged‟ have been tested in other countries
and found to reduce alcohol, tobacco and
cannabis use.
• Their approach has a lot in common with „good‟
PSHE teaching.

9. „Life skills‟ include...
• Making and keeping positive friendships
• Assertiveness and negotiation
• Thinking carefully about decisions
• Coping with emotions such as anxiety

10. “Everybody‟s doing it”

11. Or are they?

12. One element of life skills
approaches is to challenge
young people‟s ideas about
what is normal and
accepted.
For example, young
smokers think smoking is
much more common than it
actually is.

13. Research suggests
that how drug
education is taught is
as important as what
is taught.

14. Lecturing students
is much less
effective than
interactive drug
education.

15. Interactive learning is key:
“You can‟t learn life skills from a book”

16. • Successful drug
prevention programmes
demand time for
reflection, review and
building on knowledge
• In contrast, schools often
teach drug education in
one-off drop-down days.

18. Social Determinants of Health
“While downstream interventions do
have a mitigating impact and can
reduce the extent of health problems,
they usually fail to address the root of
the problems. This will be best
addressed by tackling the causes of
the causes further upstream and
using a whole system approach to
delivering interventions effectively
and according to an area’s needs.”
Intervening in the social determinants of health to improve
priority public health conditions and reduce health inequalities, Institute of Health Equity (2012)

19. The effect of bullying at age 14/15
Source: Understanding vulnerable young people: Analysis from the
Longitudinal Study of Young People in England, DfE (2011)

20. In the last year...
• one in three (29%) 10-15
year olds had been bullied.
• at least 7.6% of 10-15 year
olds suffered a violent
crime. That equates to over
half a million young victims
of violence.
• there were 13,000
emergency hospital
admissions for assault
among 13-24
year olds. One in seven
involved a knife or sharp
object.
Source: Protecting people, Promoting health; A public health approach to violence prevention for England,
Department of Health (2012)

21. Starting even earlier
• Young people disengaged
from school are at greater
risk of harmful substance
use and mental health
problems
• One programme, the
„Good Behaviour Game‟
helps disruptive young
children to settle down
and work quietly.
• Later in life these children
were less likely drop out
of education, develop
mental health problems or
develop drug problems.

23. Oxfordshire Trial
Source: Improving Child Behaviour Management: An Evaluation of the Good Behaviour Game in
UK Primary Schools, Oxford Brookes (2012)

24. Find Out More
www.mentoruk.org.uk
@andrewbrown365
andrew.brown@mentoruk.org