National Drug Research Institute

Preventing Harmful Drug Use In Australia

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SHAHRP
School Health and Alcohol Harm Reduction Project

Overview

The School Health and Alcohol Harm Reduction Project (SHAHRP) and SHAHRP 2000 are research studies conducted over a seven year period with aims to reduce alcohol related harm among secondary school students. The studies are being conducted by the National Drug Research Institute and are funded by Healthway, the Western Australian Health Promotion Foundation. The studies reflect the Australian National Drug Strategy by adopting a harm minimisation approach, in this case, by providing three phases of alcohol harm reduction lessons during secondary school and aiming to reduce the level of alcohol related harms in students who drink alcohol, and to reduce the harms experienced by those students who do not drink alcohol but interact with others who do drink.

The teaching program

SHAHRP and SHAHRP 2000 programs are evidence-based and draw on the findings from several studies conducted in Australia and overseas. In addition, the SHAHRP and SHAHRP 2000 researchers conducted a series of focus groups with secondary school students to identify young people's alcohol use experiences, alcohol related harms that are of particular concern to young people, harm reduction strategies used by young people and educational approaches likely to be effective with young people. Therefore the SHAHRP and SHAHRP 2000 program materials have a basis in situations experienced by young people. Health education teachers from a variety of schools were also involved in the development of program activities and in modifying activities based on their teaching of the program. This has helped refine the program so that it is a useable and acceptable resource for teachers.

The SHAHRP and SHAHRP 2000 lessons are conducted in three phases with eight lessons in the first year of the program, five booster lessons in the following year during phase two and four additional booster lessons in phase three, two years later. Phase one of the program is targeted at students prior to a time when a high proportion of students had started drinking. This allows the students to gain alcohol harm reduction skills and strategies immediately prior to the adoption of a new behaviour. Phase two provides reinforcement of knowledge and skills during a time when most students are experimenting with alcohol, ensuring that information is immediately relevant. This period of experimentation often exposes teenagers to a higher level of risk due to the type of drinking generally undertaken (bingeing) and their relative inexperience in handling the changes brought about by alcohol in themselves and in others. The third and final phase of the intervention is conducted when prevalence data indicated a steep rise in alcohol use in later teenage years. During this age, drink driving and drinking at licensed premises are additional issues for consideration. A teacher manual, and teacher training support the delivery of SHAHRP lessons and a colourful student workbook in phase one and phase two of the program support the activities conducted during the program.

The prevalence of alcohol initiation and use often varies between localities and the researchers suggest that teachers who are interested in using the SHAHRP programs target the phases of the intervention to meet the needs of their students. The best way of doing this is to access local alcohol use prevalence data from district or state health department. Keep in mind that the first phase of intervention should target students when the majority of them are not yet regular consumers of alcohol, the second phase should reach students when the majority have recently initiated alcohol use and the third phase when prevalence data indicates a rise in alcohol use (usually in the mid to late teens).

The SHAHRP and SHAHRP 2000 lessons provide utility knowledge sufficient to allow students to develop an awareness of situations with alcohol related risk, and skills training to enable students to make and implement choices that minimise harm when in such situations. The main SHAHRP and SHAHRP 2000 studies involved surveying the students (n=2300) at regular periods during and after the program to determine changes in knowledge, attitudes, consumption, risky consumption, context of use, harm associated with own use of alcohol and harm associated with other people’s use of alcohol. These results were compared to a group of control students who received alcohol education during phase two. Control schools provided a variety of alcohol education to their students including: Rethinking Drinking, How Will You Feel Tomorrow; WA K-10 syllabus and pilot lessons from the School Drug Education Project.

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