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Evans. ‘It’s harder to tell who’s “responsible” for reducing demand, since so many
cultural factors are involved – whose fault is it if demand goes up, and who do we
credit if it goes down?’
While demand reduction is not the ‘sole preserve’ of drug education in school,
it does present an opportunity for ‘consistent, available and evidence-based
interventions with most young people’, states
Demand reduction, drug prevention
and families
. Ensuring that education is delivered effectively across the country is
‘a major, achievable and testable goal, so it’s understandable that people focus on
it sometimes’, says Evans. ‘It’s interesting that the new bill was introduced by an
opposition MP, but we are calling on government to support it and renew the focus
that’s been lacking during the ongoing delay with the PSHE review. Reducing
demand for drugs should not be a partisan issue.’
The briefing is also clear that demand reduction initiatives need to look at root
causes of behaviour, rather than simply focusing on a particular substance. ‘The
roundtable felt that it was not enough to show a school group “this is what
cannabis looks like” or bring in someone in recovery to say “don’t make the
mistakes I made”,’ Evans explains. ‘Robust demand reduction interventions need
to ask what are the reasons young people use drugs? Yes, some will be
experimenting like many young people do, but others might be impacted by other
risk factors, including their parents’ own use of drugs or alcohol.’
While there aren’t the same discussions around ‘recovery’ for young people as
there are for adults, it’s still important to maintain a wider perspective, she says. ‘We’re
less likely to be dealing with chemical addiction, so we need to examine the factors
which support them to make positive choices around drug and alcohol use, and which
might stop it becoming problematic or dependent’ – such as confidence, self-esteem
and healthy relationships with partners and friends as well as parents.
The aim of the Relationship, Drug and Alcohol
Education (Curriculum) Bill 2012-13, which has its
second reading in the House of Commons later this
month, is to make drug and alcohol education a
compulsory part of the national curriculum.
Although many believe that effective education on substance issues should
be a fundamental part of children’s schooling, an internal review by ministers
into Personal, Social, Health and Economic education (PSHE) that began two
years ago has yet to report. ‘Those working in the education sector tell us that
schools infer from this that government sees PSHE delivery as irrelevant to
education,’ comments drug education charity Mentor, with 60 per cent of
schools delivering drug and alcohol education once a year or less. Even then it
is often ‘poor, incomplete or totally irrelevant’, the charity says, with 16-year-old
pupils reporting that they get the same lessons as 11-year-olds.
Among the organisations urging the government to support the private
members’ bill – which is sponsored by Labour MP for Hull North, Diana Johnson –
is Adfam. The call comes in a new briefing paper based on a roundtable discussion
with service providers, drug charities and representatives from the children’s
sector, civil servants and the police, on the theme of ‘where next for demand
reduction?’ in today’s financial and political climate. The group looked particularly
at how parenting and family relationships can influence young people’s decisions.
‘Reducing demand represents a major strand of the government’s drug
strategy, but progress has been slow compared to reform of the treatment
system and the concentration on recovery,’ says Adfam chief executive Vivienne
10 |
drinkanddrugsnews
| November 2012
Families |
Education
www.drinkanddrugsnews.com
With a bill aiming to ensure compulsory drug and alcohol education in
schools making its way through Parliament, a new Adfam briefing looks
at the role that education can play in prevention.
DDN
reports
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