PDF (Lessons learned in drug abuse prevention: a global review)

LOCAL
● Focusing on high-risk individuals and their integration into society is an
important approach: To facilitate the social integration of children at high risk,
prevention work should focus on those in close social proximity to the child, including
the family, teachers and peers. The project targets all the social agents in direct contact
with a child.
● Continuous training of staff is necessary to enhance the impact: The quality of
the work of the staff is important in order to achieve a positive effect. As the social
interaction between educators and children and the therapy sessions in the therapeutic
centres are the core components of this approach, the better-trained and qualified the
educators are, the more effectively they will address the individual child's problems.
● Co-operation with local services in exchanging information and experience,
and in developing a common strategy: The experience gained by running such a
project and service should be fed back to other local services that should, in return,
share what useful information they have. This reduces the unnecessary duplication of
efforts and enhances effectiveness.
● The success of a programme will depend on its ability to integrate into and
gain support from local society: 'Local society' includes inhabitants, schools, police,
social services and other organisations working in the field of drug abuse prevention.
A project is easier to implement if the local society approves of it.
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