The Role of Education & Prevention in Reducing Prevalence of NPS [January 2016]
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Presentation from January 20, 2016. Inside Government forum 'Tackling Drug Abuse: Addressing the Prevalence of Legal Highs' More information: http://www.insidegovernment.co.uk/event-details/tackling-drug-abuse/601
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The Role of Education & Prevention in Reducing Prevalence of NPS [January 2016]
- 1. The Role of Education & Prevention in Reducing the Prevalence of NPS Michael O’Toole CEO, Mentor
- 2. Agenda • About Mentor • How to build young people’s resilience to the risks of NPS drugs • Life-skills based, holistic prevention education • The role of schools in supporting young people • Messages for young people about Psychoactive Substances legislation
- 3. Our mission To promote the health and well being of children and young people and prevent alcohol and drug misuse.
- 4. Our approach A holistic, life-course, systemic approach to prevention: Developing life skills that build resilience to risk. Throughout a young person’s lifetime CMOannualreport:2011‘Onthestateofthepublic’shealth’
- 5. Our approach A holistic, life-course approach to prevention building resilience, life skills and self-efficacy. implemented in a variety of settings throughout a young person’s lifetime
- 6. What we do
- 7. Building resilience • Education & prevention • Develop life skills that build resilience to risk in children & young people • Age appropriate & early • Holistic, life-course approach • Evidence-based
- 8. Life Skills Prevention Critical thinking Decision-making Creative thinking Effective communication Relationship skills Self-awareness Empathy Coping with emotions Normative beliefs
- 9. What doesn’t work × Emphasising harms will disincentivise use × Young people given enough information make rational decisions about their health × One off interventions are enough × School drug and alcohol education/posters/TV adverts
- 10. Role of schools • School interventions reduce substance use and improve academic outcomes • Strong attachment to schools is in itself a preventative factor • Opportunity for learning with peers – normative beliefs • Multi-sessions and regular follow-up to reinforce learning
- 11. Role of schools • But... • ‘Tell them the awful facts’ approach • Ofsted 2010 – 25% schools required improvement in PSHE with drug education in particular • Status of PSHE
- 12. Key constraints • A lack of curriculum time • Varying level of importance placed on PSHE • Fragmented, topic-style teaching, rather than holistic, continuous learning • Lack of financial capacity • Non-specialist teaching • Teacher training & resources
- 13. Young people’s experience • 38% believed drug education received was not enough • 22% said they never received alcohol & drug education at secondary school • 48% received drug education once a year or less • 63% of those who received drug education less than once a year said it was insufficient
- 14. Resources •ADEPIS - evidence-based resources for alcohol and drug education and prevention for schools www.mentor-adepis.org •FRANK •Rise Above
- 15. Psychoactive Substances Bill • Offence to produce, supply, offer to supply, possess with intent to supply, import or export psychoactive substances intended for human consumption that is capable of producing a psychoactive effect • Powers to stop and search, enter and search premises with a warrant, and to seize and destroy psychoactive substances
- 16. Psychoactive Substances Bill • Legal or illegal - risks remain very high • Dispel myth that NPS are not harmful • Opportunity for teachers to ensure the misnomer ‘Legal Highs’ is finally dispelled • Teachers should not deliver individual sessions on NPS • Focus on life skills education, rather than substance-specific effects
- 17. mentoruk.org.uk @Mentortweets Mentor UK Contact Details: Michael.otoole@mentoruk.org @otoole_michael Tel: 020 7553 9920
Editor's Notes
- Our mission is two-fold: to promote young people’s health and well being, and to prevent drug and alcohol misuse. This presentation will provide a little more detail as to what our work involves, how we do it, and the evidence behind what we do.
- In today’s complex world, young people need life skills that help them negotiate challenging situations and build their resilience to a range of negative risks. We believe the best strategy for supporting the immediate and long-term well-being of children and young people is through a holistic life-course approach to intervention and prevention. This means targeting a variety of settings, including schools, communities and families, as well as ensuring interventions take place early and often, rather than acting in the later years when problematic behaviours are more difficult to address and change. dispelling some more linear approaches, e.g.: · Focus on providing drugs harm information alone does not work · Awareness campaigns don’t work · Only reaching YP via school doesn’t work · D&A focus alone fails to recognise broader risks · Focus on enforcement legislation (e.g. NPS) alone doesn’t work
- In today’s complex world, young people need life skills that help them negotiate challenging situations and build their resilience to a range of negative risks. We believe the best strategy for supporting the immediate and long-term well-being of children and young people is through a holistic life-course approach to intervention and prevention. This means targeting a variety of settings, including schools, communities and families, as well as ensuring interventions take place early and often, rather than acting in the later years when problematic behaviours are more difficult to address and change.
- Here is a timeline of childhood and adolescence. Above the line, you can see positive influences and their impact on a child as they grow up, as well as an overview of programmes Mentor is currently running. We use a holistic life-course approach to intervention and prevention, meaning we target different settings as children grow up. The programmes in green indicate programmes targeting family environments, ensuring strong relationships and access to support and resources for carers, including kinship carers. Programmes in blue are those implemented in school settings. There is strong evidence that young people with greater attachment to school are less likely to engage in negative risky behaviours regarding drugs and alcohol. To this end, we deliver programmes aimed at primary, junior and secondary schools to foster long-term positive attachments and help young people develop the necessary life skills for personal, academic and social success. Programmes in orange indicate other environments, including community or custodial environments. These programmes give young people important life skills and specialised training to then support and educate their peers, becoming mentors within their communities.
- For 17 years, Mentor has developed specialist knowledge and experience in programme delivery that prevent and reduce risks, particularly from alcohol and drugs. This helps build our evidence base of ‘what works’ for prevention – we draw on the best international scientific research available to inform our work and to help influence public policy related to the prevention of drug and alcohol misuse in the UK. Evidence shows that information alone is not an effective prevention method. The outcomes of informational drug education are more limited than those of more comprehensive prevention programmes, but it does not necessarily follow that drug education cannot contribute to preventive outcomes. The success of drug education is determined by a variety of factors, including accurate and age-appropriate information, normative education, social resistance skills, wider health-related education, the number of sessions, and regular follow-up to reinforce learning
- Respondents: 185 schools from 27 London boroughs 337 male 253 female Year 7 – year 12 (age 11-17)
- The Alcohol and Drug Education and Prevention Information Service is a platform for sharing information and resources aimed at schools and practitioners working in drug and alcohol prevention. The resources we have already produced draw on eight years of work with the Drug Education Forum, which supported local authorities and schools to implement best practice in drug education. In April 2015, Mentor was granted additional joint government funding to manage the Centre for Analysis of Youth Transitions (CAYT) and integrate its repository of evidence-based impact studies into Mentor-ADEPIS.
- Whether NPS are legal or illegal, the risks and harms posed by these drugs remain very high and should be treated exactly like other psychoactive substances. In terms of education and prevention, the bill will surely make the life easier to teachers and educators in general, by dispelling the myth that Novel Psychoactive Substances are not harmful but also clarifying the ambiguity and confusion about the terminology faced by young people when referring to these substances. The bill will in fact create an opportunity for teachers to ensure the name ‘Legal Highs’ is finally dispelled and becomes out of date. In this sense, focusing on life skills education, rather than substance-specific effects, is crucial to ensure effective preventative outcomes. Teachers should be mindful not to deliver individual sessions on NPS, but focus on those essential developmental skills that have proven to be effective in building young people’s resilience in relation to risky behaviours and substance misuse.
- Whether NPS are legal or illegal, the risks and harms posed by these drugs remain very high and should be treated exactly like other psychoactive substances. In terms of education and prevention, the bill will surely make the life easier to teachers and educators in general, by dispelling the myth that Novel Psychoactive Substances are not harmful but also clarifying the ambiguity and confusion about the terminology faced by young people when referring to these substances. The bill will in fact create an opportunity for teachers to ensure the name ‘Legal Highs’ is finally dispelled and becomes out of date. In this sense, focusing on life skills education, rather than substance-specific effects, is crucial to ensure effective preventative outcomes. Teachers should be mindful not to deliver individual sessions on NPS, but focus on those essential developmental skills that have proven to be effective in building young people’s resilience in relation to risky behaviours and substance misuse.