Prevention Programs

views updated

Prevention Programs

Prior to the 1980s most schools around the country had courses in health education, tobacco education, alcohol education, or drug education. In these courses, students typically were taught that using tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, or other drugs was bad for their health. Students learned how these substances affected the body, how long the effects lasted, and even how people used them. Many of these education programs tried to scare students by pointing out how many people die each year from drug abuse. The people who designed these programs believed that if students really knew how harmful smoking, drinking, or using drugs is, they would not do it. However, teaching facts or using scare tactics did not work as people expected, and prevention programs had to change. New research showed that, to be effective, prevention programs must deal with the causes of drug abuse.

Most people who use drugs start using them during their early teenage years or slightly before. This is the time when young people are experimenting with many different behaviors, becoming more independent, and discovering their own identity. Contrary to what some adults might think, more than half of all adolescents try at least one substance. Most individuals who try drugs do not use them more than a few times, but those who do run the very real risk of becoming physically dependent on them.

Many prevention programs have been developed by organizations established by parents who were concerned about rising rates of drug abuse among young people. These organizations include Partnership for a Drug-Free America, National Families in Action, the National Federation of Parents for Drug-Free Youth, the American Council on Drug Education, and Committees of Correspondence, as well as state groups, such as Texans' War on Drugs, Tennessee Families in Action, and Alaskans for Drug-Free Youth, to name a few, and thousands of local groups in cities, towns, and counties across the country.

See Organizations of Interest at the back of Volume 3 for address, telephone, and URL.

Many schools and communities throughout the United States have adopted programs aimed at preventing young people from experimenting with alcohol and drugs. Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE), an elementary and junior high school program, is the most widely used prevention program in the nation. Other prevention programs include Here's Looking at You, Project STAR, Life Skills Training, and PRIDE.

Dare and Dare Plus

DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) America is a violence and drug prevention education program designed to equip youths with the skills needed to make healthy decisions about peer pressure, violence prevention, and drug abuse. As the nation's predominant school-based drug abuse and violence prevention program, it is being implemented by more than 8,600 law-enforcement agencies in almost three-fourths of the school systems across the country. DARE is an elementary school program that attempts to teach students that being grown up really means resisting peer pressure. It also means making your own decisions and learning to cope with life's problems in positive ways. The curriculum was developed by educators and is taught by specially trained police officers. It is based on research that indicates that effective prevention strategies offer accurate information, coping and decision-making skills, and positive alternatives to drug abuse.

See Organizations of Interest at the back of Volume 3 for address, telephone, and URL.

DARE PLUS (Drug Abuse Resistance Education Play and Learn Under Supervision) is a modified version of the original DARE program. It is an after-school alternative program that seeks to deter and protect youths from drugs, gang activity, and violence by offering a wealth of on-campus activities covering a broad range of interests. Participants are encouraged to improve their academic, vocational, and personal skills, and to get involved in recreational and athletic activities. The program is designed to attract at-risk middle-school youth and offer encouragement and guidance in an effort to keep them in school and out of trouble.

Here's Looking at You

The Here's Looking at You (HLAY) program offers a full alcohol- education curriculum for kindergarten through 12th grade. Students hear fifteen to twenty class presentations each year. HLAY aims to provide information on alcohol and alcoholism, to shape students' attitudes toward drinking, and to help students develop self-esteem and good decision-making skills. Just as doctors give children vaccines to inoculate them against illnesses, the HLAY program tries to inoculate children against alcohol abuse.

HLAY is based on the idea that children will be far less likely to use alcohol or other drugs if they are (1) given full and reliable information about the properties of chemical substances and the consequences of using them; (2) trained in self-control, decision making, and other social skills (including refusal); and (3) assisted in feeling positive about themselves and in bonding with friends, families, schools, and communities.

Project STAR

Project STAR is a program that covers several areas: school, mass media, parents, community, and health policy. For middle schools, the program uses a curriculum that teaches about social influences and is incorporated in classroom instruction by trained teachers over a two-year timetable. Mass media, such as radio, television, and newspapers, are used to promote, reinforce, and help maintain the project. In the parent program, parents work with their children on Project STAR homework, learn family communication skills, and get involved in community action. The community organization component is the essential formal body that organizes and oversees all project-related activities.

The health policy component is a task of the community organization; the aim is to develop and put into place policies that affect alcohol, tobacco, and other drug laws and other local policies, such as establishing and monitoring drug-free sites in the community.

Life Skills Training

Some prevention programs from earlier decades instructed students in facts about drugs and the dangers of drug use. In contrast, the program called Life Skills Training (LST) teaches general skills for living happier and healthier lives. These life skills can help adolescents avoid becoming involved with drugs.

The main goals of the LST program are: (1) to provide students with the information and skills they need to resist peer pressures to use drugs; (2) to help students develop independence, self-esteem, and self-confidence; (3) to help students cope with feelings of anxiety produced by social situations; (4) to increase students' knowledge of the negative consequences of drug use and of the rates of tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use; and (5) to promote a lifestyle that excludes drug use.

The LST curriculum is a three-year program. It consists of fifteen class periods during the first year, ten booster sessions in the second year, and five booster sessions in the third year. The booster sessions teach students how to put the life skills they learned in the first year into practice. Researchers found that students who had been through the LST program had approximately 50 percent lower incidence of drug abuse than students who had not been through any program.

PRIDE (Parents Resource Institute for Drug Education)

The purpose of PRIDE is to help parents form groups to protect their children from using marijuana and other drugs. The organization is based on the following principles: (1) drug abuse is a health issue; (2) the family is the greatest protection against adolescent drug use; (3) families need help from the rest of the community to steer young people safely through the many temptations and dangers that confront them every day.

See Organizations of Interest at the back of Volume 3 for address, telephone, and URL.

When it was started in the 1970s, the PRIDE program set up parent peer groups. Parents encouraged each other to get to know and link up with the parents of their children's friends. The peer groups established guidelines for their children's behavior and tried to create positive alternatives to unhealthy and destructive behaviors often begun during adolescence. PRIDE programs later expanded to include larger groups of parents who wanted to work for change throughout their communities to prevent drug abuse among young people. The organization offers training to parents across the nation. PRIDE also added a separate program for youth that trains middle- school and high-school students in how to take a stand against drug use. In both cases, the essence of the PRIDE approach is to help parents and young people resist adolescent peer pressure that encourages negative behavior.

In addition, the PRIDE Drug Use Survey has helped thousands of local school systems determine the extent of alcohol, marijuana, and other drug use among students in elementary, middle, and high school. PRIDE data have also shown that the more involved a student is with drugs, the more likely he or she is to possess a weapon. Efforts to prevent drug use among students may then also help to prevent violence and criminal activity among young people.

Conclusion

Youth drug prevention programs are an essential way to reduce sub- stance abuse in society. Researchers continue to develop new programs and to improve already existing programs to provide the greatest benefit to students, their families, and their communities. However, the prevention of substance abuse requires more than classroom education. The home, peers, and community can also play an enormous role in encouraging kids not to try drugs.

PREVENTION: THE BEST SOLUTION

Prevention is the best solution to drug use by young people, but it takes time, effort, and resources. Government can only do so much. Prevention has to begin in each community, in whatever ways make sense in that community. We want to support that.

Elaine M. Johnson, Director, Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Administration, U.S. Public Health Service, 1991.