An Australian drug prevention scheme with a focus on young people’s broader mental health and attitudes is to be piloted in 20 UK schools. The Illicit Project, which is led by Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) and funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), will pilot in 20 schools across Merseyside, Falkirk and Stirlingshire.
The low-cost programme is one of four to share £1.8m from NIHR’s Innovation Fund to Reduce Demand for Illicit Substances. Focusing on the relationship between drug use and mental health, it ‘seeks to promote mental wellbeing, self-efficacy for help-seeking, drug reduction skills, and the development of drug/health literacy’, LJMU states.
Originally designed by neuroscientists and mental health professionals at the University of Sydney, the programme consists of interactive workshops delivered by trained facilitators over the course of a month, and ‘significantly reduced’ use of ecstasy, cocaine, alcohol and nicotine among 15-19-year-olds when implemented in Sydney schools, says LJMU.
The three other research projects sharing the funding are evaluations of a theatre in education programme for 12-14-year-olds being used by East Sussex County Council, a drug education programme created by the Daniel Spargo-Mabbs Foundation aimed at 13-15-year-olds, and educational materials, therapy and a public health campaign aimed at 11-16-year-olds.
According to the latest figures from NHS Digital, 13 per cent of 11-15-year-olds in England have taken a drug, down from 18 per cent two years ago, while 37 per cent reported having drunk alcohol.
Focusing on mental health and safety was far more likely to have a positive impact than ‘out of date and ineffective approaches that only focus on stressing the dangers of substance use’, said Professor Harry Sumnall of LJMU’s School of Psychology, who will lead the pilot project.
‘Although alcohol and other drug education is part of the curriculum, teachers often struggle to find the right resources and we don’t know what is delivered in schools actually leads to reductions in substance use,’ he said. ‘The Illicit Project holds great promise. It is one of the few substance use prevention programmes that is backed up by high quality evidence. We are going to work with young people to update the programme contents to make sure it is relevant to them, and with school staff and other professionals to ensure that it can be easily delivered in classrooms.’