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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