drug education and mental health
DESCRIPTION
Presentation to school based audience about the links between school drug prevention and mental health.TRANSCRIPT
Drugs and Mental Health: Practical strategies for early intervention
“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
...fewer young people are drinking, smoking or taking other drugs than 10 or 20 years ago.
Did you know...
But the health and social impacts of legal and illegal drugs leave no room for complacency.
Is drug education in schools up to the challenge?
“I am 16 years of age; colouring pictures of smiley face Ecstasy tablets will not make me less inclined to take it.”
“The year 11s are getting the same boring drugs PowerPoint as the year 7s...”
Simply giving the facts about alcohol, tobacco and other drugs...
has little impact on young people’s decisions
Dire health warnings
also seem to be ineffective
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.
‘Life skills’ include...
• Making and keeping positive friendships• Assertiveness and negotiation• Thinking carefully about decisions • Coping with emotions such as anxiety
“Everybody’s doing it”
Or are they?
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.
Research suggests that how drug education is taught is as important as what is taught.
Lecturing students is much less effective than interactive drug education.
Interactive learning is key: “You can’t learn life skills from a book”
• 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.
Inte
ract
ive le
arni
ngSocial norm
s
Taking
time
Life
skil
ls
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 improvepriority public health conditions and reduce health inequalities, Institute of Health Equity (2012)
The effect of bullying at age 14/15
So
urc
e:
Un
de
rsta
nd
ing
vu
lne
rab
le y
ou
ng
pe
op
le: A
na
lysi
s fr
om
th
e L
on
gitu
din
al S
tud
y o
f Yo
un
g P
eo
ple
in E
ng
lan
d,
DfE
(2
011
)
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 13-24year 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)
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.
Oxfordshire Trial
Source: Improving Child Behaviour Management: An Evaluation of the Good Behaviour Game in UK Primary Schools, Oxford Brookes (2012)
