Harm minimization in school drug education: final results of the School Health and Alcohol Harm Reduction Project (SHAHRP) (original) (raw)
Related papers
Drugs: Education, Prevention, and Policy, 2012
Aim: This pilot study investigated what alcohol prevention benefits could be achieved by a harm reduction focused school drug education intervention that addressed all drug use, both licit and illicit. Method: The study population comprised a cohort of 225 students in three intervention secondary schools and 93 students in a matched control school in Victoria, Australia. A classroom drug education programme, derived from evidence of effective practice and designed to reduce alcohol and other drug harm, was provided to the intervention students during years eight (13-14 year olds) and nine (14-15 year olds) by teachers trained in its delivery. The control students received the drug education programme normally provided by their school. Findings: The students, who received the intervention, were more knowledgeable about drug use issues, communicated more with their parents about alcohol, drank less, got drunk less, and experienced fewer alcohol related harms. They also remembered receiving more alcohol lessons. They were, however, no less likely to have tried alcohol. Conclusions: The findings are consistent with other studies that have demonstrated school alcohol education that focuses on harm reduction can be effective in reducing consumption, risk and harm. In this study, this was achieved even though the students were not persuaded against taking up drinking, and the intervention did not focus solely on alcohol. These findings have implications for both the goals and coverage of future school drug education programmes.
International Journal of Drug Policy, 2014
Background: In Australia, the burden of alcohol-attributable harm falls most heavily on young people. Prevention is important, and schools have long been seen as appropriate settings for pre-emptive interventions with this high risk group. This paper evaluates the effectiveness, in relation to alcohol harm prevention, of the Drug Education in Victorian Schools (DEVS) programme, nine months after implementation. This intervention dealt with both licit and illicit drugs, employed a harm minimisation approach that incorporated interactive, skill based, teaching methods and capitalised on parental influence through home activities. Methods: A cluster randomised, controlled trial of the first ten lessons of the DEVS drug education programme was conducted with year eight students, aged 13-14 years. Twenty-one secondary schools in Victoria, Australia were randomly allocated to receive the DEVS programme (14 schools, n = 1163) or the drug education usually provided by their schools (7 schools, n = 589). Self-reported changes were measured in relation to: knowledge and attitudes, communication with parents, drug education lessons remembered, proportion of drinkers, alcohol consumption (quantity multiplied by frequency), proportion of student drinkers engaging in risky consumption, and the number of harms experienced as a result of alcohol consumption. Results: In comparison to the controls, there was a significantly greater increase in the intervention students' knowledge about drugs, including alcohol (p ≤ 0.001); there was a significant change in their level of communication with parents about alcohol (p = 0.037); they recalled receiving significantly more alcohol education (p < 0.001); their alcohol consumption increased significantly less (p = 0.011); and they experienced a lesser increase in harms associated with their drinking (p ≤ 0.001). There were no significant differences between the two study groups in relation to changes in attitudes towards alcohol or in the proportion of drinkers or risky drinkers. There was, however, a notable trend of less consumption by risky drinkers in the intervention group. Conclusions: A comprehensive, harm minimisation focused school drug education programme is effective in increasing general drug knowledge, and reducing alcohol consumption and harm.
Drugs-education Prevention and Policy, 2017
Aims: The Drug Education in Victorian Schools (DEVS) programme taught about licit and illicit drugs over two years (2010-11), with follow up in the third year (2012). It focused on minimizing harm, and employed participatory, critical-thinking and skill-focused pedagogy. This study evaluated the programme's residual effectiveness at follow up in reducing alcoholrelated risk and harm. Methods: A cluster-randomized, controlled trial was conducted with a student cohort during years eight (13-14 years old), nine (14-15 years old) and ten (15-16 years old). Schools were randomly allocated to the DEVS programme (14 schools, n=1163), or their usual drug education (7 schools, n=589). Multi-level models were fitted to the data, which were analysed on an intent-to-treat basis. Statistically significant findings: Over the three years there was a greater increase in intervention students' knowledge about drugs, including alcohol. Their alcohol consumption did not increase as much as controls. Their alcohol-related harms decreased, while increasing for controls. There were fewer intervention group risky drinkers, and they reduced their consumption compared to controls. Similarly, harms decreased for intervention group risky drinkers, while increasing for controls. Conclusions: Skill-focused, harm minimization drug education can remain effective, subsequent to programme completion, in reducing students' alcohol consumption and harm, even with risky drinkers.
Alcohol harm reduction education in schools: planning an efficacy study in Australia
Drug and Alcohol Review, 2000
The School Health and Alcohol Harm Reduction Project (SHAHRP) is a 4-year, quasiexperimental, evidence-based intervention research study designed to explore the effects of a student-focused, secondary school, alcohol education intervention in reducing alcohol-related harm experienced by school students. The SHAHRP study is unusual in that it has a primary aim of harm minimization rather than non-use or delayed use. The SHAHRP intervention aims to reduce harm by enhancing students˜ abilities to identify and deal with high-risk drinking situations particularly likely to be encountered by young people. The intervention involves eight lessons in the first year with five booster lessons in the subsequent year. The SHAHRP research will follow individual students exposed to both the alcohol and health promotion interventions over 3 successive years taking measures in: knowledge; attitudes; patterns of use; context of use; alcohol-related harm associated with the student˜ own use; alcohol-related harm associated with other people˜s use of alcohol. This paper describes the evidence-based conceptual components and design of the study by providing a review of the health and drug education literature particularly related to components that have the potential of influencing behaviour. [McBride NT, Midford R, Farringdon FH. Alcohol harm reduction in schools: planning an efficacy study in Australia. Drug Alcohol Rev 2000;1:83 93]
Addiction, 2000
Aims. The School Health and Alcohol Harm Reduction Project aims to reduce alcohol-related harm by enhancing students' abilities to identify and deal with high-risk drinking situations particularly likely to be encountered by young people. Design. The SHAHRP study has adopted a quasi-experimental research design, incorporating intervention and control groups and measuring change over a 3-year period. Setting. The study is set in metropolitan, government secondary schools (13-17-year-olds) in Perth, Western Australia. The 14 schools involved in the SHAHRP study represent approximately 23% of government secondary schools in the Perth metropolitan area. Participants. The sample was selected using cluster sampling, with strati cation by socio-economic area, and involves over 2300 intervention and control students from junior secondary schools. Seventy-three per cent (73.7%) of students completed surveys at both baseline and rst follow-up. Intervention. The intervention incorporated evidence-based approaches to enhance potential for behaviour change in the target population. The intervention is a curriculum-based programmeme with an explicit harm minimization goal and will be conducted in two phases over a 2-year period. Measures and ndings. The early results of the study demonstrate initial knowledge and attitude change, predicted by the students' involvement in the intervention. A surprising impact of the rst phase of SHAHRP was the signi cant difference in alcohol consumption and harms between control and intervention groups, with the SHAHRP group demonstrating a signi cantly lower increase in alcohol consumption than the control group. Students who were supervised drinkers at baseline and who received the SHAHRP intervention were overwhelmingly represented in the change results. Conclusions. Results from phase one of the SHAHRP study suggest that classroom-based alcohol education programmemes can reduce harm, particularly in students who are supervised drinkers prior to the intervention.
Journal of drug education, 2015
The Drug Education in Victorian Schools program provided integrated education about licit and illicit drugs, employed a harm minimization approach that incorporated participatory, critical thinking and skill-based teaching methods, and engaged parental influence through home activities. A cluster-randomized, controlled trial of the program was conducted with a student cohort during Year 8 (13 years) and Year 9 (14 years). Twenty-one secondary schools in Victoria, Australia, were randomly allocated to the Drug Education in Victorian Schools program (14 schools, n = 1,163) or their usual drug education program (7 schools, n = 589). This study reports program effects for alcohol. There was a greater increase in the intervention students' knowledge about drugs, including alcohol; there was a greater increase in communication with parents about alcohol; they recalled receiving more alcohol education; their alcohol consumption increased less; and they experienced a lesser increase in ...
Early unsupervised drinking-reducing the risks. The School Health and Alcohol Harm Reduction Project
Drug and Alcohol Review, 2003
The School Health and Alcohol Harm Reduction Project (SHAHRP) aimed to reduce alcohol-related harm by enhancing students' abilities to identify and deal with high-risk drinking situations and issues. The SHAHRP study involved a quasiexperimental research design, incorporating intervention and control groups and measuring change over a 32-month period. The study occurred in metropolitan, government secondary schools (13 -17-year-olds) in Perth, Western Australia. The 14 intervention and control schools involved in the SHAHRP study represent approximately 23% of government secondary schools in the Perth metropolitan area. The sample was selected using cluster sampling, with stratification by socio-economic area, and involved over 2300 intervention and control students from junior secondary schools. The retention rate of the study was 75.9% over 32 months. The intervention incorporated evidence-based approaches to enhance potential for behaviour change in the target population. The intervention was a classroom-based programme, with an explicit harm minimization goal, and was conducted in two phases over a 2-year period. The results were analysed by baseline context of alcohol use to assess the impact of the programme on students with varying experience with alcohol. Knowledge and attitudes were modified simultaneously after the first phase of the intervention in all baseline context of use groups. The programme had little behavioural impact on baseline supervised drinkers; however, baseline non-drinkers and unsupervised drinkers were less likely to consume alcohol in a risky manner, compared to their corresponding control groups. In line with programme goals, early unsupervised drinkers from the intervention group were also significantly less likely to experience harm associated with their own use of alcohol compared to the corresponding control group. Unsupervised drinkers experienced 18.4% less alcohol-related harm after participating in both phases of the programme and this difference was maintained (19.4% difference) 17 months after the completion of the programme. This study indicates that a school drug education programme needs to be offered in several phases, that programme components may need to be included to cater for the differing baseline context of use groups, and that early unsupervised drinkers experience less alcoholrelated harm after participating in a harm reduction programme. [McBride N, Farringdon F, Midford R, Meuleners L, Phillips M. Early unsupervised drinking-reducing the risks. The School Health and Alcohol Harm Reduction Project. Drug Alcohol Rev 2003;22:263 -276]
Participants' perceptions of a high school substance use prevention programme
2001
There are many theories as to why adolescents engage in substance abuse. These theories have formed the basis of various substance abuse prevention programmes aimed at reducing this problem. Evaluation of these interventions is needed in order to assess their effectiveness and to improve on future prevention strategies. The literature highlights tensions and differences between the primary preventative approaches to substance abuse and the harm reduction model. It also suggests that psychosocial or life skills programmes and interventions employing a harm reduction approach tend to be viewed as more suitable for adolescents than other approaches. This study focuses on a high school intervention programme running since 1996, which has not yet been evaluated. It aimed to identify the programme's strengths and weaknesses, as well as participants' perception of the intervention. A qualitative research method was used, employing focus groups as the tool for data gathering. The sa...
Drugs-education Prevention and Policy, 2017
As a group, adolescents exhibit a high rate of use of alcohol and illicit drugs, and a very broad range of preventative interventions have been employed to target this problem. A correspondingly large number of studies have been carried out to test the effects of such interventions. However, the impact studies rarely describe the actual content of the interventions in detail. Consequently, less is known about what was actually done in the prevention programmes than about their effects. This study is designed as a review focused on grouping the qualitatively different content components of the various approaches into a number of categories. This is achieved through a systematic review of literature from Western countries on the topic of school-based interventions and prevention initiatives targeting young people aged 12-20 and their consumption of alcohol and other drugs. We employ a modified version of the narrative synthesis approach described (Rodgers et al., 2009). The initial database used for the study consisted of 897 peer-reviewed academic articles published between January 2010 and December 2014 and retrieved from the databases Web of Science, PubMed, Sociological Abstracts and PsycINFO. This number was reduced to 33 studies through the elimination of irrelevant papers. Five categories of intervention were identified: 'Information-based or testing-based primary prevention approaches', 'Primary prevention approaches incorporating skill-training components', 'Universal or primary prevention approaches that include family components', 'Targeted approaches incorporating skilltraining components', and 'Approaches incorporating digital features'. Only four studies were identified that employed any form of targeting or profiling of the subjects prior to the delivery of
School-based programmes to prevent alcohol, tobacco and other drug use
International Review of Psychiatry, 2007
Substance use and abuse are important public health problems in the USA and throughout the world. In many developed countries, the initial stages of substance use typically include experimentation with alcohol, tobacco, or marijuana with one's peer group during adolescence. While there have been gradual decreases in the use of these substances in recent years among youth in the USA and other countries, increases have been observed in the use and misuse of other substances, such as the misuse of prescription drugs and over-the-counter cough medications in the USA. From a developmental perspective, data shows that rates of alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and other illicit drug use typically escalate during adolescence and peak during young adulthood, corresponding with the increased freedom and independence of this time of life. Substance use decreases for most young people as they take on adult responsibilities, although a proportion will continue or increase their use and develop substance use problems. Given what we know about the onset and progression of substance use, implementing preventive interventions during early adolescence is critical. Most drug prevention or education programmes take place in school settings. A variety of theory-based school-based drug prevention programmes have been developed and tested. The most effective programmes are delivered interactively and teach skills to help young people refuse drug offers, resist pro-drug influences, correct misperceptions that drug use is normative, and enhance social and personal competence skills. A key challenge is to identify mechanisms for the wide dissemination of evidence-based drug preventive interventions and ways to train providers to implement programmes effectively and thoroughly.