Prevention%20activities

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• Prevention activities
• Session 14
• Global Youth Network Workshop Needs Assessment
  Programme Planning

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Why prevention?

• Good idea to avoid problems altogether, eg from
  experimenting to moving into more dependent
  patterns of substance abuse
• The earlier you start using substances the more
  problems you have later, ?even delaying the start
  of experimentation is a good result

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Remember the risk and protective factors?

• Individual (being a boy, being young, having poor
  personal social skills, having mental health
  problems)
• Environmental (poor care/ abuse in the family/
  community (incl. health social services),
  substance use in the family/ community (incl.
  peers), lack of opportunities in education/
  working/ free time, culture that encourages
  substance use, availability, lack of information)

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Prevention activities...

• are aimed at strengthening protective factors
  and/ or weakening risk factors.
• Most protective factors are the mirror image of
  risk factors.

• The same activity that strengthens a protective
  factor will therefore weaken the corresponding
  risk factor
• So, you can organise all your possible prevention
  activities according to one of the lists (we will
  do risk factors)

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You cannot address only one factor

• The listing of activities is for us keep our mind
  in order a bit ...
• as there is not only one factor that explains
  substance abuse, there cannot be only one kind of
  activity.

• This has been demonstrated in the case of
  provision of information on its own, it does not
  work, its not enough, e.g. HIV/AIDS in Thailand

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Addressing lack of information

• The older the target group, the better to go
  through peers
• Interactive methods are more effective, even if
  they reach less people
• Info should be scientifically based and accurate
  do NOT exaggerate!
• Materials should be developed by (or at least
  tested with) the target group
• Materials should NOT promote discrimination of
  drug users

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Addressing individual risk factors

• Not much you can do about people being young and
  being boys

• A lot needs to be done to provide appropriate
  care to young people with mental health problems
  and eliminate stigma

8
Addressing poor personal social skills

• Use either teachers or peers (parents appear to
  be very difficult to involve)
• Interactive methods and sound training of
  educators essential

• Activities should be appropriate to the level of
  development (age)
• Join forces with provision of skills against
  other risky behaviours, the skills are largely
  the same!

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Working with families

• Provide shelter/ foster care
• Provide information (same rules as for young
  people!)
• Improve parenting skills (not that easy to
  involve parents/ guardians, but worthwhile)
• Provide counselling
• Facilitate self-help groups

10
Addressing the lack of opportunities

• Vocational training
• Opportunities to engage free time in a way that
  is constructive imaginative and challenging in
  sport, theatre, work, social work, fun
• Provide training and resources to health and
  social services to become youth friendly

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Culture

• It is very difficult to address a situation where
  young people identify with a culture that
  encourages the use of substances

• Restricting advertising of licit substances
• Using famous people that are role models for
  young people

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Addressing the availability of substances

• It is not going to be the answer on its own you
  need to be careful not to treat substance abusers
  as criminals
• Have a clear policy developed in advance with the
  collaboration of everyone w.r.to the use of all
  substances
• Assist in enforcing regulations (eg smoking
  areas, selling alcohol)
• Involve law enforcement officials, if possible,
  to ensure their collaboration

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When do you use what?

• The most difficult decision!
• It will depend on the unique mixture of risk and
  protective factors in your community and in your
  target group (communities are NOT homogeneous),
  that is why you need to assess the situation well!