Educating Sudents About Drug Use and Mental Health - Grades 9 to 10: Hot Tips for Teachers

The lesson plans and activities for Grade 9 and 10 are designed to address "the three Cs" of drug education:

• Comprehension of the issues involved
• Commitment to make behavioural changes, if required
• Capacity to make such behavioural changes

These activities are intended to serve as building blocks providing students with relevant knowledge applicable to everyday situations. The activities will also contribute to personal choices students may eventually make about their own use of substances.

For added relevance and impact, relate discussions and activities to your own school or community whenever appropriate. It is critical that teachers keep in mind the need for sensitivity to students' individual or family experiences with alcohol and other drugs as well as their own values, beliefs and use patterns.

Hot Tips for School-Based Drug Education

• Try to implement programs that are ongoing, from Kindergarten to the final year of high school, with an emphasis on junior grades.
• Repeat messages and reinforce skill development throughout higher grade levels.
• Use different approaches for different groups (based on students' age, sex, level of use, attitudes, etc.).
• Get students involved in planning and delivering the program.
• Talk about why people use drugs and what kinds of things they could do instead.
• Present honest and factual information. Don't rely on exaggeration or scare tactics. Include realistic information about the dangers of using drugs and the benefits of not using drugs.
• Discuss and correct perceptions about the use of alcohol and other drugs in society.
• Provide an open, non-judgmental and tolerant environment.
• Provide opportunities for active learning rather than a lecture-only format.
• Use leaders that the students trust, including peers.
• Reinforce messages in the community, given by parents, media and health policies.

(Reprinted from Youth Scoop - Programs That Work With Youth: Is There A Secret Formula?, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, 2000.)

Hot Tips for Teachers: Arranging a Guest Speaker

Students find guest speakers interesting and a welcome change. When arranging a guest speaker from agencies and/or organizations with substance abuse prevention/reduction as part of their mandate, it is important that the style and content of the presentation be in keeping with "Hot Tips for School-Based Drug Education". While one-time presentations do not constitute a comprehensive drug education program, they can be used to increase awareness on specific issues, generate discussion among students and to complement other drug education activities in the classroom.

When arranging for a guest speaker, you may want to keep the following in mind:

• Ask for references. Where else have they spoken and what was the topic?
• Ask for a brief biography to use when making introductions.
• Ask for an outline of the presentation, including a sample copy of any handouts. It is important to know ahead of time the mandate of the organization and its philosophy to be sure that it is consistent with your expectations.
• Ask about any audio-visual needs (e.g., VCR and TV, overhead).
• Are there any pre and/or post activities that your class can do to enhance the message of the presentation?
  

When arranging for a guest speaker, be sure you provide the following details:

• the date and time of the presentation
• the makeup of the group - number of students, mixed or same sex
• the exact location of the presentation
• the length of time the speaker has
• clear expectations of the topics that you would like covered
  

Be sure to contact your speaker if any of the above details change.

Here's a thought!  Increase youth involvement by having the students seek out external guest speakers, participate in finalizing the arrangements, or conduct "pre-interviews" or "post-interviews".

Hot Tips for Teachers on Gender Differences

Gender has an impact both on why students use substances and how substances affect their bodies.

Tobacco

For example, females tend to smoke to help deal with the realities of day-to-day life, such as stress, anxiety, depression, weight control, anger. Males tend to smoke for pleasure and social aspects. Research also indicates that women prefer being in settings that involve close, informal, personal and small group interactions. Therefore the quantity and quality of women's participation in discussions regarding tobacco use tends to increase in women-only groups.

Evidence suggests that the physical effects of nicotine addiction differ from females to males. Nicotine seems to metabolize more slowly in females, resulting in more intense withdrawal. A pregnant woman who smokes is more likely to have a premature baby, or one with a lower birth weight.

Alcohol

Because of differences in body composition, women handle alcohol differently than men. Alcohol is water-soluble (but not fat-soluble) and is evenly distributed throughout the body's fluids. Women have a greater proportion of body fat to body water than men, so any alcohol consumed by women will have less water available to dissolve in. This will result in a higher blood alcohol concentration in women even if they weigh the same and have consumed the same amount of alcohol as men. Therefore women will become intoxicated on less alcohol than men and may develop more problems related to drinking, including health consequences.

There is also some scientific evidence to show that the enzyme that breaks down alcohol (alcohol dehydrogenase), found in the stomach lining, is reduced or is less active in women, thus also contributing to increased absorption and higher blood alcohol levels. (Note: most of this enzyme is in the liver; it is not known whether there are any gender differences in the liver).

Women who drink heavily sometimes experience menstrual irregularities and infertility. Women who drink during pregnancy are at risk of having a child with fetal alcohol syndrome or fetal alcohol effects.

Medications

Unlike alcohol, many medications are fat-soluble and may stay in the body longer due to women's higher fat content (compared with men of the same weight). Benzodiazepine (e.g., diazepam) used for anxiety and sleep problems and often prescribed to women, is fat-soluble and may stay in the female body longer since it is excreted more slowly.

(Source: "The Hidden Majority: A Guidebook On Alcohol And Other Drug Issues For Counselors Who Work With Women", Addiction Research Foundation, Toronto, 1996.)

Tips for Student School Projects

Prepared by: Reference Services, CAMH Library, Toronto, ON, Canada  

Explore the resources at your school or local public library, both the print and electronic library collections, which include ‘licensed’ resources the library has purchased for your use. The Internet should not be your only source of information.

Plan the terms to use when searching a topic. Use more than one way of expressing a topic. Think of synonyms, the singular & plural, different spellings, and broad and narrow terms. Examples:

• Mental Health or Mental Illness or Mental Disorder(s) or Psychiatric Disorder(s)
• PTSD or Trauma
• Mood Disorder(s) or Depression or Depressive Disorder
• Eating Disorder(s) (Broad) or Anorexia (Narrow)   

Search for articles through periodical and magazine collections which may include databases like CBCA (Canadian Business and Current Affairs), Expanded Academic Index and Canadian Periodical Index at your school or local public library. Often the full text will be available. 

If you use the Public Internet for research, be sure to:

Examine websites exhaustively! Many web sites have full text documents, but it’s easy to miss them.  Always check out site maps, hyperlinks to publications and listed links to related organizations and resources.

Select ‘Fresh’ web pages and documents that are dated, sourced and referenced.

Avoid Websites produced by individuals or on-line stores or websites where there is no or incomplete information about the producer. The name, contact information and mission/purpose of the organization should be easy to find.

How to cite electronic documents:

See excerpts from the APA’s Publication Manual and Style Guide for Electronic References:

http://www.apastyle.org/elecref.htm

 

 

 

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