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1 – 10 of over 10000Services still have a long way to go in attracting and meeting the needs of black and ethnic minority drug users, while messages of health and prevention often go unheard or…
Abstract
Services still have a long way to go in attracting and meeting the needs of black and ethnic minority drug users, while messages of health and prevention often go unheard or unheeded. In this new research Nirmal Kumari talks to young and old generic Indians1 to uncover very different perceptions of drug use. Understanding differences is vital to drug prevention and treatment. In this pioneering study, Kumari demonstrates how services can become culturally competent through research and training and by embracing new approaches to health and well‐being. Discover the practicalities of yoga and Ayurdeva in this unique blend of research, practice, mind, body and spirit.
– The purpose of this paper is to examine the links between school inspection requirements as represented by Ofsted and the provision of drug education programmes in schools.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the links between school inspection requirements as represented by Ofsted and the provision of drug education programmes in schools.
Design/methodology/approach
An examination of relevant guidance from the Department of Education and the school inspection agency Ofsted; and reference to the research literature and evidence base around drug education.
Findings
The provision of drug education programmes in schools is influenced by the requirements of the national curriculum; and the frameworks used by Ofsted in its inspections. Recent reduction in emphasis on drug education in both sources has reduced the extent and quality of drug education in schools.
Research limitations/implications
The paper looks at national documentation and conclusions. It is not a quantitative study of school provision – some indication of this is provided by Ofsted reports.
Practical implications
The paper indicates that reports and conclusions from Ofsted and other bodies, e.g. House of Commons select committees and the ACMD, have in the recent past reported on rather than informed governmental action.
Social implications
The paper concludes that central government support and professional training and development are essential ingredients in the provision of universal drug education in schools.
Originality/value
The paper illustrates some of the factors involved in the provision of drug education; the contribution this can make to drug prevention, including harm reduction; and the seeming lack of understanding of education and prevention in the wider professional and political discussions about drugs and their use.
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Russian interest in drug education and prevention programmes for schools is a response to growing official awareness of substance misuse. Official voices tend to make a…
Abstract
Russian interest in drug education and prevention programmes for schools is a response to growing official awareness of substance misuse. Official voices tend to make a distinction between alcohol and other substances, although recent moves have been made to increase the price of alcohol. Moralising and authoritarian attitudes persist, with a reliance on the ‘medical model’ of health education. Practitioners are increasingly aware of and interested in evidence‐based approaches, including interactive methodologies in the classroom. The implications for professional training are responded to by the inclusion of teacher training materials in many school programmes in Russia. At the primary prevention level, there are many parallels with UK practice. In my experience, additional similarities are in the differences of awareness and understanding between practitioners and decision‐makers, with the latter not always fully aware of the needs and situations of young people in both countries. The major difference is in official Russian attitude and practice towards illegal drug users. Whereas UK practice is pragmatic and concentrates on getting individuals into treatment, in Russia there is demonisation and marginalisation of illegal drug users; a national ban on substitute prescription; and a widespread local ban on needle exchanges. The primary prevention interest in evidence‐based practice does not extend to treatment.
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William B. Hansen and Linda Dusenbury
All Stars Core is a school‐based drug abuse prevention program for 11 to 14 year olds from the United States. It focuses on five qualities that protect children from drug use…
Abstract
All Stars Core is a school‐based drug abuse prevention program for 11 to 14 year olds from the United States. It focuses on five qualities that protect children from drug use: viewing drug use as uncommon and unacceptable to the peer group (norms); viewing drug use as interfering with future goals; commitment to avoid drug use; positive attention from parents; and feeling accepted at school. All Star Plus was recently developed with the goal of expanding the Core program to include the development of three competencies: goal setting, decision making, and skills to resist peer pressure resistance. Students either received All Stars Core, All Stars Plus, or were assigned to the non‐treated control group. Both programs outperformed the control group; however, All Stars Plus was more effective in preventing drug use than All Stars Core. All Stars Plus was found to reduce alcohol use, drunkenness, cigarette smoking, marijuana use, and inhalant use. The Plus program appeared to have achieved these outcomes by improving norms, increasing persistence in pursuing goals, and by increasing attention from parents.
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Dominic Peltier-Rivest and Carl Pacini
This paper aims to analyze drug counterfeiting, explains its risk factors and operating and legal environments reviews recent legal cases and develops a multi-stakeholder…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to analyze drug counterfeiting, explains its risk factors and operating and legal environments reviews recent legal cases and develops a multi-stakeholder prevention strategy that includes forensic accounting methods.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a theoretical study based on legal case studies and the best forensic accounting strategies.
Findings
Pharmaceutical drug counterfeiting is a fast-growing fraud that so far has attracted little attention from forensic accountants. A recent estimate projects that criminals collect around $75bn annually in illicit sales from counterfeit drugs (Bairu, 2015). Pharmaceutical counterfeiting also leads to the loss of lives when criminals use lethal chemicals in the manufacturing of fake medicines (Liang, 2006a; Brown, 2005). Because the detection of drug counterfeiting is extremely difficult after fake medicines have been ingested by patients, the strategy developed in this paper is based on early discovery by using reliable tracking technologies and inventory management controls in the supply chain, conducting effective regulatory and legitimate customs inspections, and increasing consumer awareness of basic forensic accounting tools.
Research limitations/implications
This paper extends previous research by integrating various factors into a single multi-stakeholder prevention framework.
Practical implications
The paper presents a synthesized, comprehensive view of the drug fraud epidemic and analyzes concrete steps that can be taken to protect the pharmaceutical supply chain to reduce the loss of lives and monetary injuries.
Originality/value
No previous research has analyzed this issue from a multi-stakeholder point of view and used forensic accounting tools to complement a prevention strategy. The drug counterfeiting prevention strategy developed in this paper addresses the supply side, the regulatory enforcement side and the demand side.
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Reports on evaluation of a school‐based drug education programme delivered throughout a mixed rural and urban county in the North of England. Measurement approaches and methods to…
Abstract
Reports on evaluation of a school‐based drug education programme delivered throughout a mixed rural and urban county in the North of England. Measurement approaches and methods to encourage parents to participate are described. Building on recent research, and in keeping with current UK drug prevention policy, the programme aimed to provide pupils with information about drugs and training in life and resistance skills. The needs of teachers, pupils and parents were assessed, and training and support provided based on those needs. This phase of the project was conducted in ten schools and involved 633 children aged nine to ten years, 33 teachers and 320 parents. Needs assessment showed that parents and teachers lacked confidence, knowledge and skills in talking about drugs with young people. Following the intervention, teachers reported improvement in all these areas. Pupils showed more realism in their statements about coping with drug issues, and parents expressed more confidence in talking to their children about drugs after the intervention. New methods to improve attendance at parent evenings were well received. Evaluation and needs assessment methods need to be improved still further, and there is a need for more dismantling and process evaluations of multi‐component programmes to determine what works and why.
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Ben Thurman and Jamila Boughelaf
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the provision of drug education in schools in England by exploring the views of young people and teachers. The study synthesises the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the provision of drug education in schools in England by exploring the views of young people and teachers. The study synthesises the commonalities between experiences of teaching and learning and, in doing so, offers insight on policy and practice.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper incorporates two pieces of research: a survey of 590 secondary school pupils in London that generated insight on the collective experience of drug education; and a survey of 288 teachers in primary and secondary schools throughout England, supplemented by 20 in-depth interviews. The paper also draws on learning from the practical implementation of the Alcohol and Drug Education and Prevention Information Service (ADEPIS).
Findings
The research provides insight into the current status of drug education provision and outlines key constraints to effective delivery. The paper also presents ADEPIS as a potential framework for supporting schools.
Research limitations/implications
The research incorporated a relatively small number of schools and only accessed the views of young people in London; the results therefore require further substantiation. There is also a need for further evaluation of ADEPIS, including comparison with schools that develop drug education practice independent of external guidance.
Practical implications
The paper highlights the need for improvement in drug education, with implications for national policy, particularly in relation to subject-specific teacher training, increased central guidance, and the statutory status of PSHE.
Originality/value
The research fulfils the need to represent the voices of young people in discussions on drug education, as well as contributing to wider debates around improving the quality of drug education.
Hannah May Scott and Sandy Oliver
Research suggests that student drug use is substantially higher than that of the general population and while the UK Government’s current Drug Strategy emphasises the importance…
Abstract
Purpose
Research suggests that student drug use is substantially higher than that of the general population and while the UK Government’s current Drug Strategy emphasises the importance of PSHE in preventing young people from becoming drug users, there is a lack of research investigating the longer-term effectiveness of drug prevention education, and students’ views using qualitative methods. The purpose of this paper is to gain a holistic understanding into university students’ lived experiences of recreational class A drug taking and the drug education taught in English secondary schools.
Design/methodology/approach
Five interviews with university students were undertaken and thematically analysed using an ideographic case study approach alongside a qualitative content analysis of publicly available drug education resources and policy documents.
Findings
The normalisation of drug taking at university and social micro-pressures to assimilate group norms were key contributing factors to participants’ drug use. While the content of drug education in PSHE is grounded in theory, its implementation is not.
Originality/value
This study extends upon existing theories of normalisation of drug use at university through the concept of micro-pressures to offer an explanation of the process by which students assimilate group norms through the implicit threat of not fitting in.
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Melissa A. Little, Steven Sussman, Ping Sun and Louise A. Rohrbach
The current study aims to examine the influence of contextual and provider‐level factors on the implementation fidelity of a research‐based substance abuse prevention program…
Abstract
Purpose
The current study aims to examine the influence of contextual and provider‐level factors on the implementation fidelity of a research‐based substance abuse prevention program. Also, it aims to investigate whether two provider‐level factors, self‐efficacy and beliefs about the value of the program, statistically moderate and mediate the effects of a provider training intervention on implementation fidelity.
Design/methodology/approach
Using generalized mixed‐linear modeling, the authors examine relationships between program provider‐, organizational, and community‐level factors and implementation fidelity in a sample of 50 high school teachers from 43 high schools in eight states across the USA. Fidelity of implementation was assessed utilizing an observation procedure.
Findings
Implementation fidelity was negatively associated with the urbanicity of the community and the level of teachers’ beliefs about the value of the program, and positively predicted by the organizational capacity of the school. Comprehensive training significantly increased teachers’ self‐efficacy, which resulted in an increase in implementation fidelity.
Research limitations/implications
School‐based prevention program implementation is influenced by a variety of contextual factors occurring at multiple ecological levels. Future effectiveness and dissemination studies need to account for the complex nature of schools in analyses of implementation fidelity and outcomes.
Practical implications
The authors’ findings suggest that both provider‐ and organizational‐level are influential in promoting implementation fidelity. Before implementation begins, as well as throughout the implementation process, training and ongoing technical assistance should be conducted to increase teachers’ skills, self‐efficacy, and comfort with prevention curricula.
Originality/value
The present study is one of the few to examine contextual and provider‐level correlates of implementation fidelity and use mediation analyses to explore whether provider‐level factors mediate the effects of a provider training intervention on implementation fidelity.
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Carl A. Latkin and Amy R. Knowlton
HIV prevention among drug users continues to be a daunting challenge. Previous efforts have shown limited success. A major research question for the next generation of HIV…
Abstract
HIV prevention among drug users continues to be a daunting challenge. Previous efforts have shown limited success. A major research question for the next generation of HIV prevention interventions for drug users is how do we design, implement, and evaluate harm reduction interventions that reach the appropriate audiences, are programmatically sustainable, maintain behavior change, and lead to meaningful changes in participants' lives. The goal of this chapter is to critique the current state of HIV prevention research and to propose using additional social science theories and methods in future approaches to behavior change. The first section of this chapter examines some of the historical and psychological factors that may have hindered progress in the field of behavioral HIV prevention. The next section presents a theoretical foundation for a social influence approach to HIV prevention interventions for drug users that considers opportunity structures within an individual's social environment. This approach emphasizes behavioral Settings, Norms, and Network Approaches to AIDS Prevention (SNNAAP). By capitalizing on naturally occurring social influence processes, promoting HIV-related behavior change among drug users may be possible. The section discusses social behavioral theories, social-oriented research methods, and individual-level factors that have been inadequately pursued in the field of HIV prevention. Examples of interventions that have incorporated social behavioral theory are presented. Next, several approaches to improving HIV prevention research methods are discussed. Finally, future directions of HIV prevention research are proposed.