Substance Use and Abuse
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Substance Use and Abuse
Background:
Initially, substances of abuse starts with consuming tobacco, alcohol and inhalants which are easily available to youth in India & is called as gateway substances. Moreover, they are not illegal and there is some form of social acceptance of their use. Use of these gateway substances increases subsequent risk of transitioning to harder illicit substances, ruining their lives.
Rational: the need and the context:
It is imperative that youth get exposed to preventive education before they become victims of unhealthy habits like using tobacco, alcohol and drugs.
Education is the key to empowerment and human development. Successful penetration in young minds is the mile stone for a healthy life. Substance use abuse is a multi - factorial disorder with several individual, families and social variables acting as a risk factor. The most common reason for starting substance use during childhood and adolescents is curiosity, peer pressure and as a way to deal with low moods with the stress of growing up including failures.
The impact of school base interventions is limited due to convictional information driven approaches, which are of no/little interest to youth and failure in our education system due to poor quality of educator/ teachers and their delivery capabilities.
In the light of the above, there is a need for a transformative training programme which will reach out to the school youth on a participatory and sustainable basis to ensure long term effects of early interventions. The aim of the project is to empower students to develop the “mental arsenal” to encounter and overcome the peer pressure so that they are groomed into youth health champions/ leaders, and not victims of slaves of unhealthy habits.
Gaol:
To establish a health movement amongst youth to prevent substance Use/Abuse of Tobacco, Alcohol and Drugs.
Mission:
To promote health and reduce vulnerability of substance use and abuse among 5000 adolescents.
Programme Objective:
- To promote healthy habits and to reduce the vulnerability of substance use and abuse and increase the awareness on HIV/AIDS, SRH, Mental Health, Communicable and Non-Communicable disease among the youth.
- To facilitate to remove the prejudice-based thinking, that prevent judicious reasoning and decision-making.
- To guide youth to become responsible, self-sufficient and participatory citizens through projects.
- Educate youth - the life skills and Values, Rights on Child and Youth, Gender Equality, Injury and Violence, to deal with peer pressure and practice to say “NO”.
Programme Concept:
The programme provides mental vaccination to effectively combat/deal with life threatening situations and their causes throughout their lives. “Mental vaccination” enables individuals to build mental antibodies just as physical vaccination enables them to develop disease fighting antibodies.
Process Flow:
- Expected Result
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- Learn to say NO to peer pressure.
- Use life skill in routine.
- Say no to Substances.
- Pursue Healthy habits in his/her own life and Influence & lead to pursue others in their life against use of drugs.
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- Monitoring & Evaluation
- Workshop Evaluation
- Monthly Indicator Reports
- Pre and Post-test questionnaires
- Case Studies
- Evaluation Per School (Feedback form from schools)
- Sustainability
- Conduct programme for new students through teachers.
- Promote 1 students per class as a “Health Volunteer” (HV).
- Students will sensitize family members and friends.
- Enhance vulnerable youth for positive living and motivate them to become health volunteers through counselling.
- Communities Health Volunteers will be trained to influence the community at large and the youth to lead a healthy life.
- Programme Outcome
- Train 50 teachers from various schools.
- Reach out 2400 students from 6th to 10th Std.
- Find and train 100 “Health Volunteers” amongst school children.