Improving Schools-Based Drug and Alcohol Education
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This presentation was given at the Primary Care and Public Health 2016 Conference. It explores effective ways to improve school-based alcohol and drug education, ensuring the use and promotion of evidence based practice.
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Improving Schools-Based Drug and Alcohol Education
- 1. Primary Care & Public Health 19th May 2016 Jamila Boughelaf Improving Schools-Based Drug and Alcohol Education â Best Practice
- 2. Who we are Mentor is the UKâs authoritative voice in protecting young people from the harms of drug and alcohol misuse. Research Programmes Policy
- 3. Our approach A holistic, life-course, systemic approach to prevention: Developing life skills that build resilience to risk. Throughout a young personâs lifetime CMOannualreport:2011âOnthestateofthepublicâshealthâ
- 4. A connected ecosystem COMMUNITY YOUNG PERSON FAMILY SCHOOL Carers Parents Teacher & staff training Healthy Schools Extracurricular activities Leadership Resilience education Life-skills education PSHE Faith-based organisations School policyHealthcare services (incl. mental health) Emergency services External service providers Research and resource centres Local Education Authorities Media and advertising Youth / community groups Child protection services Rehabilitation services Prisons Charities Government National policy Data collection Legal services Carersâ support services International policy NGOs Businesses Work experience PRUs Peers
- 5. Effective prevention ⢠Develop life skills that build resilience to risk in children & young people ⢠Age appropriate & early ⢠Holistic, life-course approach ⢠Evidence-based
- 6. Why is school-based education important? ⢠School interventions reduce substance use and improve academic outcomes ⢠Strong attachment to schools is in itself a protective factor ⢠Opportunity for learning with peers â normative beliefs ⢠Multi-sessions and regular follow-up to reinforce learning
- 7. How do we improve school- based alcohol and drug education? Evidence â˘Accountability ⢠Confidence ⢠Feedback for improvement ⢠Evaluation of impact
- 8. What is evidence? ⢠Rigorous evaluation assessing impact and outcomes ⢠Replicability across multiple settings ⢠Sustained effects over time âEvidence is information in support of an assertion. That information can be strong or weak. We want that information to be as strong as possible.â â Centre for Youth Impact
- 9. Mapping evidence Source: UNODC International Standards on Drug Use Prevention, 2015
- 10. How does evidence inform practice? Standards for curriculum based education Evidence-based resourced programmes
- 11. A model of good drug education ⢠Needs-led and age-appropriate; ⢠Interactive learning; ⢠Develop positive health values; ⢠Developing personal and social skills; ⢠Challenging misperceptions about the prevalence and acceptability of drug use among peers.
- 12. What does work? ďź Approaches based on âsocial influencesâ are the most effective at changing young peopleâs behaviour. ďź Programmes based on life-skills approaches were found to reduce alcohol, tobacco and cannabis use.
- 13. Life-skills education ⢠Critical thinking ⢠Decision-making ⢠Creative thinking ⢠Effective communication ⢠Navigating risks ⢠Relationship skills ⢠Self-awareness ⢠Empathy ⢠Coping with emotions ⢠Normative beliefs
- 14. What doesnât work Ă Emphasising harms (scare techniques) Ă Knowledge-based education (relying on information alone) Ă One-off sessions Ă Passive approaches (posters, leaflets, TV adverts) Ă Use of ex drug users and/or police officers
- 15. How to use information effectively? Social norms: A social norms approach seeks to use actual behaviours and up-to-date, reliable data to challenge the influence of misperceived behaviours. e.g ⢠Data on ânumber of 15 years old who have tried cannabisâ can be flipped to show ânumber of 15 years old who never tried cannabisâ
- 16. Sharing best practice Mentor-ADEPIS is publicly acknowledged as the leading source of evidence-based resources for alcohol and drug education and prevention for schools.
- 17. Supporting best practice For schools: - Quality Standards - Quality Assessment Framework (Quality Mark) For providers: - Quality Mark for Providers Local Authorities and Public Health Authorities: - Systemic support and structural review of services provided by the Local Authority
- 19. mentoruk.org.uk @Mentortweets mentor-adepis.org @MentorADEPIS Email: adepis@mentoruk.org Phone: 020 7552 9920 Stay connected
Editor's Notes
- Who we are For 17 years, Mentor has developed specialist knowledge and experience in programme delivery to prevent and reduce risks, particularly from alcohol and drugs. This helps build our evidence base of âwhat worksâ for prevention â 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.
- Our approach In todayâs 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 donât work  ¡ Only reaching YP via school doesnât work  ¡ D&A focus alone fails to recognise broader risks  ¡ Focus on enforcement legislation (e.g. NPS) alone doesnât work
- To implement a life-course approach to prevention it is also important to link existing services within the community, and see the community as an connected ecosystem of prevention. There are many ways the individual organisations can connect. Here you can see just some of the key players in this ecosystem and the ways they might influence one another. This is by no means an exhaustive illustration â weâd run out of space on the slide if we tried to do that! By bringing members of this community together, we can make more connections and focus our expertise and resources on the all-important centre of this ecosystem: young people and children.
- 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
- School-based drug education can contribute significantly to achieving preventative outcomes, especially when part of a holistic approach to prevention. School is one of the best environments to reach out to Young People. The role of schools in promoting evidence-based prevention is crucial, specifically when thinking of universal prevention. Prevention is first of all about strengthening the protective factors that could influence young peopleâs life, provide them with the necessary tools to build their resilience to risks. The following are identified as protective factors for young people: Strong family bonds Experiences of strong parental monitoring with clear family rules Family involvement in the lives of the children Successful school experiences Strong bonds with local community activities A caring relationship with at least one adult
- To improve school-based alcohol and drug education, it is crucial that all activities undertaken are based on, and informed by evidence. Evidence is important because it brings accountability, confidence, feedback for improvement and evaluation of impact. It is important that all types of interventions, even class- based sessions delivered as part of PSHE education, are based on evidence, needs, and assessed and evaluated for impact. Needs assessment + evidence = effective programmes
- Generally, evidence is intended as any argument or âproofâ in support of a conclusion or assertion. It can be seen as information that helps us prove or demonstrate truth â or disprove something that is false. Prevention science has been expanding in recent years and it is now used to address practitioners and policymakers when selecting and designing interventions. Drawing on the previous criteria, prevention scientists produced International standards to assess prevention programmes. Many prevention programs are in place but how to select the most effective/with proven evidence behind it? Define and recognise evidence-based. Main features: programme effectiveness has been recognized through evaluations and rigorous studies assessing impact and outcomes Replicability of the programme âoutcomes and impacts reproduced across multiple settings- Sustained effects over time
- What is evidence? Guidance on the types of evidence based approaches and their characteristics The above table summarizes interventions and policies that have been found to meet quality standards for good evidence and yield positive results in preventing substance abuse by age of the target group and setting, as well as by level of risk and an indication of efficacy.
- Two main ways in which evidence can inform practice: 1- Inform classroom based alcohol and drug education through the application of quality standards, use of evidence-based resources, and additional support and training to be provided at a school level to develop a whole school approach to prevention. 2 â Evidence-based resourced programmes â standardised and accessible in the UK. Mentor currently delivering GBG - the Largest RCT of its kind currently running, and Unplugged â the first pilot in the UK
- When we think of delivering alcohol and drug education in the classroom there are some key principles we should consider to make sure it is effective
- Comprehensive social influence- This approach ensures that the life-skills connected to positive social influences are strengthened and further developed ď Development of positive peer pressure and positive peer influence. Â Life-skills approaches: equip young people with specific skills and resources that they need to resist ânegativeâ social influences and to increase knowledge about drugs and their adverse health consequences. Their elements and overall approach have a lot in common with good PSHE teaching. It is really important to reflect on the role of PSHE education and the ability to adapt effective approaches in the classroom.
- There is no evidence that police-led programmes are particularly effective in drug prevention. The most effective police contribution is probably to teach about drugs and the law within an existent school-led programme. Those who have overcome addiction often capture young peopleâs imagination when they speak in schools. As yet there is little evidence that their talks help young people avoid drug and alcohol harms â could they even be counterproductive? Rather than being seen as a quick fix, any contributions need to be carefully thought through as part of a broader programme.
- In the previous slide we did mention that information alone is not effective. This however does not mean that teachers should not use information to deliver effective alcohol and drug education. âonce the type of information is relevant and up-to-date, it is not much the information that is given, but how the information is givenâ. It is therefore important to be able to use the information available to send positive and educational messages, rather than scare tactics. Use information to develop positive social norms.
- Sharing best practice Evidence is crucial to our work, as it helps ensure programmes are effective at protecting children and young people from the harms of drugs and alcohol. 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.
- QM for schools To support schoolsâ reflection and provide useful evidence towards: The requirements of âPersonal Development, Behaviour & Welfareâ in the new Ofsted framework; Supporting schools in their statutory duties to provide a broad and balanced curriculum and promote wellbeing, Providing public health teams with essential local data which could help monitor trends and focus service delivery. QM for providers: Based on the European Drug Prevention Quality Standards (EDPQS) Assesses various aspects of delivery: project development, needs assessment, consideration of field research, and evaluation methodologies. Proves that the organisation or individual is meeting standards for effective alcohol and drug education and. prevention LA: To enable the Local Authority or regional Public Health services to ensure the development of even more effective local preventative systems, developed with, and grounded in, the community. It includes: Review of resources and services Production of a report Capacity building and training opportunities
- To support best practice at national level we offer free resources and guidance documents for schools and practitioners. This month we have launched a free online Professional Development course to improve the delivery of high quality alcohol and drug education.
- Thanks and questions