Minister Feighan announces €1.5 million for drug prevention and education programmes

Minister for Public Health, Wellbeing and National Drug Strategy, Frank Feighan, today announced the allocation of €1.5 million for a 3-year drug prevention and education programme.

The funding programme is a key deliverable under the national drugs strategy to strengthen the prevention of drug and alcohol use, and associated harms among children and young people. The programme fulfils a Programme for Government commitment and aligns with actions in the EU Drugs Action Plan.

Minister Feighan stated:

“I am delighted to announce the allocation of €1.5 million for a drug prevention and education programme over 3 years. This is the first time that national funding has been provided for drug prevention. Drug prevention is a key pillar in our health-led approach to drug and alcohol use, that seeks to reduce the harmful use of drugs and alcohol from an early age. This initiative will build on local and sectoral initiatives, such as Know the Score, and will draw on evidence from Europe to professionalise and elevate the practice of drug prevention in Ireland. In particular, the programme will promote the European Prevention Curriculum and international prevention standards.”

The programme will support prevention across 5 sectoral themes:

schools
general youth/community
families
environmental
third level institutions

Funding of up to €100,000 a year for 3 years will be available for drug prevention projects under each theme.

Minister Feighan added:

“I am inviting stakeholders with an interest in drug prevention to submit joint proposals that are evidence-based and informed by population needs. Inter-agency partnership and collaborative working is at the heart of the national drugs strategy. Local and regional drug and alcohol task forces have a good track record in drug prevention. They have an opportunity now to advance their work in collaboration with sectoral bodies such as youth organisations, family services, third level institutions, community action against alcohol initiatives, the HSE and the Department of Education."

The Department of Health hosted a webinar to mark the launch of the drug prevention and education programme. The guest speaker was Gregor Burkhart, Principal Scientific Analyst for Prevention at the EMCDDA, and Co-founder of the European Society for Prevention Research. Mr. Burkhart spoke about evidence and guidance on drug prevention. The recording of the funding programme launch is available.

An information document and an application form are available. The call will be open for 6 weeks, with a closing date of 11 November, after which the successful projects will be announced, according to the criteria set out in the programme. It is envisioned that successful projects will commence activities in Q1 2023.

Notes

Drug Prevention is defined broadly as policies, programmes and practices designed to reduce the incidence and prevalence of drug use (including alcohol, tobacco, illegal drugs) and associated health, behavioural and social problems. Prevention can be measured in terms of behavioural changes. It includes:

universal interventions and policies address all members of a target group, regardless of their underlying risk of substance use or substance use history. However, most are likely to be non-users. This category of interventions would encompass most of the school-based curricula and school and environmental policies that we will learn about later
selective interventions address vulnerable groups, where substance use is often concentrated, and focus on improving their opportunities in difficult living and social conditions. This category also includes school and family interventions, and policies that keep children in schools
indicated interventions address individuals, helping them to deal and cope with their individual personality traits and risk factors that make them more vulnerable to escalating substance use
drug education can be defined as the range of interventions available which aim to enhance the knowledge, skills and competencies of individuals regarding their decisions around substance use or misuse. It can be measured in terms of attitude changes

EU actions on prevention and education

Strategic Priority 5 of the EU Drugs Action Plan focuses on prevention and education, and includes the following actions:

Action 26 commits to expand and promote educational campaigns targeted at families, teachers, social workers and local decision makers, to increase their knowledge and support them in increasing health literacy and promoting positive behaviour, a healthy lifestyle, and a safe environment for young people and other groups
Action 27 aims to increase the availability of reliable information on effective prevention measures
Action 28 focuses on the promotion of effective prevention messages in communication and social media channels, including rapid risk alerts on emerging threats as they arise

The European Prevention Curriculum

The European Prevention Curriculum (EUPC) is a European curriculum developed for use in prevention training for decision- and policymakers. The primary goal of the EUPC training is to reduce the health, social and economic problems associated with substance use, by building international prevention capacity through the expansion of the European professional prevention workforce.

EMCDDA Xchange

The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction hosts a registry (Xchange) that lists useful and thoroughly evaluated prevention interventions.

Programme for Government commitment

The Programme for Government commits to build on recent initiatives at junior and senior cycle and support secondary schools in introducing drug and alcohol awareness programmes, particularly in relation to the hazards of casual drug use.