Community Substance Use Prevention

Substance use, such as alcohol, nicotine, cannabis, and other drugs among youth in our communities, is a complex problem that requires a complex solution. Substance use prevention strategies have traditionally targeted individual behaviours by providing substance use messaging and education programs to youth. Planet Youth is an upstream prevention approach focusing on changing the environment by reducing the known risk factors and strengthening the known protective factors. This upstream prevention approach reduces or stops substance use problems before they arise. Planet Youth focuses on implementing local data-driven solutions that work to improve the health and well-being of youth that goes far beyond simply reducing substance use.

In late 2023, Elgin County held a community forum to discuss the Planet Youth Model for Substance Prevention. You can view the forum online

What is Upstream Prevention?

Upstream prevention focuses on addressing the root causes of a health issue. It uses strategies and interventions that enhance protective factors, such as social connectedness and positive social and health outcomes. It also minimizes risk factors and associated negative outcomes, such as substance-related harms.

Levels of Prevention

Primary Prevention:

The purpose of primary prevention is to prevent a disease from ever occurring. Primary prevention strategies target population is healthy individuals.

Secondary Prevention:

Secondary prevention emphasizes early disease detection, and its target is healthy-appearing individuals with sub-clinical forms of the disease.

Tertiary Prevention:

Tertiary prevention targets the treatment of a disease. It is implemented for patients showing symptoms of disease and aims to reduce the severity.

More about Planet Youth

Planet Youth, 2023

Planet Youth is not a program—it’s an approach that uses localized data to identify, mobilize and develop local resources and community-driven solutions that promote positive social and environmental changes for long-term, sustainable transformation of substance use rates. The Planet Youth model was pioneered in Iceland over 20 years ago — since then, the youth substance use rate there has gone from 48% to less than 5% in 2017. Some of the successful steps taken in Iceland and other countries include:

removing barriers to positive activities and pursuits for youth (leaving park lights on later in the winter months when it gets dark earlier)
creating policies and social contracts that change the way we use and talk about substances in our community, talking about the benefits of increased family time and parental supervision.
improving lines of communication between schools, parents, community organizations and youth.

Who is Planet Youth for?

Planet Youth focuses on pre-teens and teenagers. By investing our energy and resources in this age cohort, we optimize the impact of Planet Youth across the region.
A core principle of Planet Youth is that prevention activities should engage the whole population of young people rather than targeting particular individuals or groups.
Planet Youth works to implement solutions based on primary prevention that change the environment and societal factors that influence substance use.

Understanding Risk and Protective Factors

Understanding Risk and Protective Factors is Key!

How Does it Work?

Five Guiding Principals.

Apply a primary prevention approach designed to enhance the social environments that impact youth.
Emphasize community action and embrace publicly funded schools as the natural hub of neighbourhood/area efforts to support child and adolescent health, learning, and life success.
Engage and empower community members to make practical decisions using local, high-quality, data that is accessible to them.
Integrate researchers, policymakers, practitioners, and community members into a unified team dedicated to solving complex, real-world problems
Match the scope of the solution to the scope of the problem, including emphasizing long-term intervention and efforts to marshal adequate community resources.

For a more in depth look at applying the Planet Youth model, importance of upstream prevention and evaluation model: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t6-zrwnNsg

Resources

Check out the following links for more information about Planet Youth, and it’s guiding principles.

Planet Youth

Planet Youth Guidebook

Blueprint for Action: Preventing Substance-Related Harms Among Youth Through A Comprehensive School Health Approach

The Chief Public Health Officer’s Report on the State of Public Health in Canada 2018

Helping Schools: The Ethics of Risk and Resilience

Evidence-based strategies for preventing substance use-related harms among youth aged 15-24 years in Ontario

Podcasts:

Building Strong Communities for Youth: The Icelandic Model

The Social Impact Lab Podcast – Planet Youth

The Peanut Gallery Podcast - Ep. 59 - Elgin Coalition discussion on Planet Youth