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Protecting
young people from drugs
A major seminar,
'Substance Misuse and Risk Factors', is being held by the
Health Promotion Agency for Northern Ireland to talk about
the issues relating to drugs that face young people today.
Professor David
Hawkins from the University of Washington, a world expert
on adolescent drug prevention, will be speaking to over one
hundred people from all over Northern Ireland who are involved
in the field of drugs, including those from education, social
services, the voluntary and community sectors.
The seminar,
which was over-subscribed, provides professionals with the
opportunity to hear what are the risk factors for substance
misuse among young people and to discuss risk-focused prevention.
Professor Hawkins has written extensively on the subject of
risk-focused prevention with young people and has carried
out extensive research in the area. Professor Hawkins says:
"There is a real need to enhance protective factors, for example,
a supportive family, non-user friends and a positive attitude
to school. If these protective factors are introduced early
in a child's life then the risk of them becoming problem users
will be significantly decreased.
"The trick is
to prevent problems before they happen - this means identifying
the factors that put people at risk and either eliminating,
reducing or somehow buffering the effect of exposure to the
risk."
The seminar is
part of the Agency's ongoing work to keep colleagues and professionals
in Northern Ireland informed of new developments in drug prevention.
It reflects the continuing support of the Northern Ireland
Drugs Campaign and the new Northern
Ireland drugs strategy launched during August 1999.
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