Introduction
Drug addiction is becoming a major concern to the youths of school-going age. It is a chronic disorder that relapses and causes health crises globally (Trigo & Le Foll, 2017). Drugs that may lead to addiction can either be illegal drugs or medications prescribed by the healthcare worker. Therefore, both family-based and school-based drug prevention programs have been put into use. This paper evaluates drug prevention programs used in the community today to reduce substance abuse in society and highlights the shortcomings and advantages of each program and its effectiveness.
School-Based Prevention Programs
When setting programs for drug abuse prevention, some principles must be considered. First, the programs should be community-based and involve the whole or most of the community. Second, the programs should cover the prevention of many drugs abused in the community and not specific to a certain drug only. Third, the program’s focus should be on the youth and the young adults since they are the most affected. These principles ensure that the programs are objective-based and achieve their intended purpose.
Most evidence-based approaches for the youths and adolescents on drug use prevention are developed and tested in schools. Many programs were ineffective because they focused on lecturing students on the long-term effects of abused drugs and their dangers. Some programs aim to drive fear to students so that they cannot get involved in substance use. The primary prevention practices did not consider the driving factors like family factors, development factors, social factors, and other factors. As such, their prevention measures were not based on the required theory
A number of more effective programs were designed and evaluated after some time had passed. New school-based programs focused on the causes of substance misuse among teenagers as well as the prevention of abuse at an earlier stage before they were addicted to drugs or other substances. Currently available preventive initiatives can be classified into three key categories: social resistance, competence enhancement, and normative education.
Social Resistance Approach
The social resistance approach to the prevention of drug use aims to strengthen the refusal skills among children and youths to ensure they are able to resist the social pressures and drug consumption. This approach focuses on teaching students to avoid peer pressure and social acts which may lead them to drug use (Singh et al., 2011). They are educated on how to identify the pressure from the media which normalizes the use of drugs and how to prevent the temptations. In addition, students are taught how to handle peer pressure in a situation where they experience the urge to smoke or drink alcohol due to social influence.
One of the most famous social resistance models is project DARE, Drug Abuse Resistance Education. This project uses police officers who have been trained to teach students on substance use prevention. Unfortunately, DARE had little effect in the prevention program mainly because the students perceived it as an expected message from the authorities (West & O’Neal, 2004). The shortcoming of the social resistance approach was that it assumed the students do not want to use drugs thus preventing them from being encouraged to do drugs.
Competence Enhancement Approach
Low self-esteem and other personal factors are some of the risk factors when it comes to substance abuse. Students will low self-esteem and poor social skills may be vulnerable to influencers who can convince them to abuse drugs. This approach addresses all the personal attributes as well as social attributes that may make students use drugs. This approach teaches youths generic skills as well as coping with social pressure. Some personal attributes include problem-solving skills, critical thinking and decision-making, anxiety, and common social skills. Compared to the social resistance approach, this model has been the most effective, and its effects lasted longer than the social resistance approach. This is because this approach emphasizes teaching generic personal and social skills either alone or in combination with elements of the social influence approach. As such, it has become effective in enhancing behaviors towards the positive lifestyle of lack of drug and substance abuse.
Normative Education
The majority of students believe that smoking and drinking are typical activities and that practically everyone engages in them. Education about the true prevalence of drug usage in society and throughout the world is taught through normative education. Students are demonstrated that the prevalence of substance abuse is not as high as they believe it to be by using statistics from either the local community or national statistics to demonstrate this point.
Family-Based Prevention
The family-based prevention program is focused on the involvement of the family and involves two primary approaches. First, the parents are taught how to prevent their children from substance use effectively. They are taught how to communicate and bond with their children. Helping children to develop personal skills like self-confidence and preventing them from being antisocial is also introduced. The second type of family-based approach is dealing with the family and teaching them the importance of communication. The family should develop a policy on substance abuse, and the parents should ensure the guidelines are followed to the latter. This family bonding approach proved to be the most effective and successful. The inability of the parents to reinforce the laws and mostly the parents whose children are in their teens is one of the shortcomings of the family-based approach. However, the family-based approach has been a successful to drug the prevention of drug abuses and use.
Conclusion
To prevent teenagers and youths from drug addiction nd long-term drug effects in the future, the government and the community have brought some preventive measures to reduce drug use at a younger age. These approaches have been subdivided into school-based and family-based preventions. School-based approaches are taught in school, while family-based mainly focuses on the family at large. These preventive measures have been proven to be effective in most of the studies. However, some teenagers still fall into temptations of substance use despite all these measures.
References
Singh, R. D., Jimerson, S. R., Renshaw, T., Saeki, E., Hart, S. R., Earhart, J., & Stewart, K. (2011). A summary and synthesis of contemporary empirical evidence regarding the effects of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education Program (DARE). Contemporary School Psychology: Formerly” The California School Psychologist”, 15(1), 93-102.
Trigo, J. M., & Le Foll, B. (2017). The role of the Endocannabinoid system in addiction. The Endocannabinoid System, 187-236. Web.
West, S. L., & O’Neal, K. K. (2004). Project DARE outcome effectiveness revisited. American Journal of Public Health, 94(6), 1027-1029.