Initiating Community action on alcohol and drug prevention

1. Initiating Community Actions

15. 2. This type of prevention work has been done in the past too, but no good has come of it. If there had been no such activities in the past the situation could have been worse. Also we are now equipped with new innovative approaches to prevention which are much more promising, and also enjoyable.

19. 3. When we engaged in preventive activities drug users will get offended Prevention is not a battle between users and non users. The community as a whole suffers from the consequences and must respond as a whole community. This effort is for all of us, users included. The prevention approach should not offend or in any way antagonize current users.

20. 4. Wouldn’t the families of illicit brewers suffer if consumption falls? If money being spent on alcohol, tobacco and other substances is saved it still gets spent on other activities, which also generate income and employment. These other ways of spending money will also generate jobs and income for people. The expenditure is usually on something which is of greater value to the community. We also need to consider the harm caused to families by alcohol and other drug use. Even the families that produce illicit liquor don’t usually function very well as a family. Thus the loss of illicit liquor is not a loss to the community, nor often to the families in the illicit alcohol trade

22. Cont…… The most important element for success in your community effort is enthusiasm and interest in the group of people working to prevent drug problems. It is also important that the community action team looks at ways of making their efforts as efficient and effective as possible. This requires assessing the current situation, planning, monitoring and evaluation the prevention efforts. But most people who are keen to work in the community are often not interested in these aspects. If you can persuade them, try to induce them, to make the initial assessment. The community action team has to find out answers to some of the following questions initially, to assist in systematic planning and implementation of activities.

24. Enabling the community to identify the extent of alcohol, tobacco and other drug use problems in the community Very often, allowing the community to discover the extent of drug related harm is itself enough to initiate a response. Most people and communities are surprised when they discover the extent of financial outlay on alcohol, tobacco, and other substances. They can also be guided to discover the ways in which substance use promotes injustice and exploitation of the weakest segments of society

25. Communities are also often stimulated to action when they find out what could be provided for the community if the expenditure on these substance could be retained in their own hands. Therefore it is very important for the community action team to calculate and discover this cost, at least approximately, and create an awareness of this fact within the community.

26. One way of calculating this is to take the figures for bout 50 houses at random in the community through a survey, and generalizing to the entire community. Another approach is to investigate the personal experience and the observation of the participants, and based on these assess the amount through consensus.

27. Expenditure can be estimated also by establishing friendly relationship with the licit and illicit sales outlets in the community. This type of date could be obtained even through persons who already have contact with the sales outlets. After obtaining the figures, the community could be informed in any suitable way, of the facts which emerge from the assessment.

28. Establishing Indicators To achieve success you should continually assess the impact of your drug prevention programme. Observing the changes of attitudes towards substance use and the level of use would be strong motivation for the organizers. It is therefore important to establish certain indicators to evaluate the programme from time to time.

29. If the community has done their own assessment about the extent of drug use at the start, they could measure it again after, say one or two years to see whether this has changed. The community could measure changes which occur earlier, such as a change in public attitude about alcohol use or drunken beheviour – even they cannot accurately assess consumption. For example, a reduction in glamour and manliness that young people associate with alcohol use would be such an intermediate change that could be assessed.

30. Identifying resources In the prevention activities of any given community, resources are needed. One such resource is people. Inclusion of prevention activities into the activities of all organizations, groups, and institutions in the community by lobbying their leaders and members will be a key factor in success. For this purpose it is very important to make them realize how prevention of substance use furthers the aims and objectives of their own individual organizations.

31. EDUCATING THE WIDER COMMUNITY

32. EXPECTED CHANGE IN THE COMMUNITY The ultimate expectation of the prevention efforts is to create an environment where non user are not induced to start substance use, while uses are inspired to reduce or discontinue drug use . To achieve this the community as a whole has to refrain from glamorizing and mystifying alcohol and other drugs , and related experience . People can even work to reverse the existing positive image about the alcohol and other drug experience and the status given to it now .

33. This approach could be implemented by identifying the rituals and symbolic meanings which colours and gives value to substance use , and then changing the social influences through creative and innovative activities . In such a changed environment people would see alcohol , tobacco and other drugs use as quite unglamorous and not invested with a special aura of power , enjoyment , or relaxation . The drug experience itself in such a milieu would be only the chemical experience , which in laboratory studies is found to be quite unexciting and often unpleasant

41. CHANGING THE ENVIRONMENT THROUGH CREATIVE ACTIVITIES EXISITING SITUATION IDEAL SITUATION