Drug Educations Changes Lives

This discussion paper on Drug Education Changes Lives explores how effective drug education has been and how effective it can be in the future. It examines what the role of the educator is, the effectiveness of evaluations and looks at particular approaches to prevention education.

The paper also identifies what barriers there are to overcome for health prevention education today and in the future. The paper retraces the history of drug education in Australia and asks some pertinent questions about how far have we come?

The paper explores what skills and attributes today’s drug prevention educator must have to be effective, and what’s required in terms of resources and investment to make for successful drug prevention education.

Ultimately the drug prevention educator is trying to increasing people’s knowledge, affecting change in people’s thinking, attitudes and behaviors and creates change in culture. There is no silver bullet; instead a myriad of sound innovative evidence based strategies and collaborative strategies are needed to create change.

Does drug education change lives and how do we know? It sounds like a simple question but the answer to this is much more complex and thought provoking than first appears. One thing is clear however; that drug prevention education is not that simple and learning’s from the past, investment into the future and innovative, critical thinking must be employed for effectiveness to prevail into the future.

It appears drug prevention education is a noble pursuit and one worth doing if change happens for individuals, for communities and across systems of service provision.

Download the full article: Drug Education Changes Lives