Currently showing all entries from "May 2010".
28 May 2010
Children, Young People and Alcohol Pan-London Guidance
New guidance from the GLA alcohol and young people includes a chapter on education and prevention. They say:
London boroughs are encouraged to develop education and awareness campaigns based on local issues and needs. However it is important that the key messages from the Chief Medical Officer Guidance are promoted and National information and campaigns complimented and signposted as part of local initiatives.
Download the guidance here.
28 May 2010
EMCDDA - Children's Voices
The EMCDDA have a new paper out Children's Voices; Experiences and perceptions of European children on drug and alcohol issues.
They explain:
The purpose of this paper is to give meaning and insight into some of the key drug and alcohol issues that affect children from the perspectives of the children themselves. It is not to estimate the relative magnitude of a specific drug or alcohol problem or the numbers of children affected by it. Each section of this paper will be preceded by one or two key statistics and whilst the quotations that follow may highlight a need to develop more robust and detailed statistics on a key issue, the overriding objective is to give the children a voice.
Talking about interventions the paper concludes:
Quality care and other drug and alcohol interventions are needed to grant children in...
28 May 2010
Call for examples of early interventions
Thanks to Adrian for bringing this to my attention:
EMIE at NFER are collecting policy and planning documents relating to early intervention to make available to all authorities and help inform a project for the LGA.
Has your authority adopted an early intervention policy in some aspect of its work with children, young people and their families?
Do you have policy documents, plans, web pages, leaflets or any other material that could be shared with colleagues across the country?
Could other authorities benefit from learning what you are doing or intending to do and the approach and the rationale you have adopted?
Have you set out a business case, value for money (or cost benefit) argument or an approach to evaluating your programmes?
Please contribute your work for the benefit of colleagues in all authorities....
24 May 2010
Is drug prevention old hat?
Having just looked at the US drug strategy and the prominence that prevention gets it may feel like a strange question to be asking, but my thanks to Jeff for provoking the thought by sending this link.
The argument is that effective prevention targets risk and protective factors that are similar for a range of risks and therefore designing prevention programmes for single problems is ineffective. Indeed the article says:
The report, Prevention of Mental, Emotional and Behavioral Disorders Among Young People, concluded that prevention of addiction and mental illness has been proven to be scientifically feasible, but said that only public-health approaches are demonstrably effective.
"Currently, treatment interventions tend to isolate single problems, but there is growing evidence that well-designed prevention interventions...
24 May 2010
MINDSPACE - Influencing behaviour through public policy
My thanks to Harriet for sending me the link to this paper about changing behaviour.
The authors argue:
Tools such as incentives and information are intended to change behaviour by “changing minds”. If we provide the carrots and sticks, alongside accurate information, people will weigh up the revised costs and benefits of their actions and respond accordingly. Unfortunately, evidence suggests that people do not always respond in this "perfectly rational" way.
Instead of expecting a rational response to information they suggest that there are other ways of framing the message which may be more persuasive. They say:
MINDSPACE is a checklist of influences on our behaviour for use when making policy.
MINDSPACE is a mnemonic as set out in the following table.
...
24 May 2010
Obama’s Drug Control Strategy & Prevention
I thought that it would be helpful to take a look at what the recently published US drug strategy has to say about prevention and to see whether the early promise of Tom McLellan's lecture - sun-block not band-aid - earlier in the year made it into the final document.
I think largely it does, but what is interesting is the intellectual confidence in prevention approaches and the commitment to back these up with budget.
You can download my précis of the prevention chapter here.
I would note:
The UK may be ahead of the game in some areas – NICE have given policy makers some robust advice about vulnerable young people and drug use – but do we have the same levers to get action? It is possible that the Total Place agenda could provide this, but it has a much wider agenda of public service delivery and...
24 May 2010
Research in Brief
Cannabis Use and Educational Achievement: Findings from Three Australasian Cohort Studies
A paper looking at whether educational outcomes are affected by cannabis use finds that:
Pooled study estimates suggested that the early use of cannabis may contribute up to 17% of the rate of failure to obtain the educational milestones of high school completion, university enrolment and degree attainment.
They go on to argue:
The PAR estimates suggested that had all young people not used cannabis before 18: rates of high school non completion would have reduced by up to 17%; rates of university non attendance would have decreased by up to 5% and rates of non attainment of a university degree by up to 3%. These findings imply that the potential effects of early cannabis use on later educational achievement should not be dismissed as being...
21 May 2010
Who Is In Control?
The Guardian have an interesting article about a new public health campaign commissioned by the NHS in Birmingham. The paper says that the messages are for the 16-30 year old range and come from research that found:
that while most people claim to understand the dangers of binge drinking, they resent being told that it is not acceptable behaviour. To avoid alienating the target group the campaign does not specifically focus on pushing a "drink less" message but instead looks at consequences.
As you'll see if you visit the website that backs the campaign there's a video which attempts to put that message across.
To me it doesn't look that different to some of the messages that have been tried under the Know Your Limits banner. The Guardian say that the video is to be marketed virally; but as far as my quick...
20 May 2010
Research in Brief
Changes in alcohol consumption and beverage preference among adolescents after the introduction of the alcopops tax in Germany
As the government commits to a review of "alcohol taxation and pricing to ensure it tackles binge drinking" policy makers may want to take a look at this paper which points to what happened in Germany when they introduced an alcopops tax.
The authors found that:
While alcopop consumption declined after the alcopops tax was implemented, consumption of spirits increased. Changes in beverage preference revealed a decrease in alcopop preference and an increase in the preference for beer and spirits.
It is therefore hardly surprising that they go on to conclude that pricing should look to reduce the consumption of all alcohol rather than trying to deal with particular beverages.
Interventions...
20 May 2010
Project Management for “Young People’s Health Day”
Via email:
The Yorkshire and Humber Regional Public Health Group are inviting organisations who have experience of working with teenagers to bid for a piece of work which is seeking to showcase positive activities in which young people in the region have been involved.
If you are interested in submitting a bid for this work, I would be grateful if you could, in the first instance, register on the Department of Health Business Management System. If you have any difficulty in doing this, please call the helpline on 0113 2545777 (between 10 am and 4pm). We are asking potential bidders to do this by 28 May.
Download the documentation (here).
20 May 2010
Festival Survival Guide
The NHS Choices website has a guide for those going to festivals.
Talking about drugs they suggest:
Taking drugs in a new place with large crowds is risky as you could end up feeling stressed and lost. "Try not to mix drugs and drink as it will make you sick," says Dr Howes. "If you're a regular drug user, don't take more than you're used to."
You can also get sick and have bad reactions to 'legal high' drugs. “People think these herbal pills are like taking a vitamin pill but they're not,” says Deborah Rees, founder of the Safeconcerts website. “With herbal highs people can get paranoid or have other nasty side effects.”
On alcohol they suggest:
If you drink, drink sensibly and stick within the recommended limits. Men shouldn’t regularly drink more than three to four units a...
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About this blog
This blog tries to pick up relevant media and research stories about drug education. It mainly focuses on information in England as this is the geographical remit for the Drug Education Forum. We welcome comments that are on topic.Categories
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