Submission to the Education and Training Committee Inquiry into the Role of Schools in Promoting Healthy Community Living

Transcription

1 Submission to the Education and Training Committee Inquiry into the Role of Schools in Promoting Healthy Community Living From: Salt Shakers Inc PO Box 6049, Wantirna, Victoria, Mrs Jenny Stokes Nicole Reddy Research Director and Research Assistant The Role of Schools in Promoting Healthy Community Living Statement The role of schools in promoting healthy community living is important and foundational for students in not only primary school, but those attending high school as well. In the interests of the wellbeing of all Victorian students, the focus of healthy community living ought to be based on abstinence programs rather than harm minimisation programs. Harm minimisation programs impress upon our young people that certain activities are okay in moderation, or if done safely. However, we assert here that these activities are not okay and cannot be done in moderation or with 100% guaranteed safety. Such activities include safe sex, sensible drinking levels for underage teenagers and soft drugs No tolerance or abstinence programs such as the Australian government s Quit campaign provide greater success in the promotion of healthy community living. Strengths-based programs that promote high self-esteem focusing on the existing strengths of Victoria s students will also promote healthy community living. It is these programs that ought to be implemented in Victorian schools. Submission Appreciation of the Effects of Harmful Substances Existing activities in schools promoting holistic healthy living in regards to the effects of harmful substances are not enough. The latest advertisement campaign targeted at under-aged binge drinkers and the attempted taxing of alcopops by the government is a prevention campaign that fails to nip [the problem] in the bud. As well as educating our young people in regards to the effects of alcohol consumption especially exorbitant and illegal consumption, work must be done within the schools themselves. Programs that promote an abstinence from alcohol until the legal drinking age and promote responsible drinking when a student has reached the legal drinking age will be the most effective. Schools will play a vital role in

2 assisting to build this foundation in Victorian students if applied carefully and successfully. Unhelpful programs are harm minimisation programs that suggest that drinking is okay in certain situations. Abstinence programs work best when justified and introduced into the culture of the class or school. Australian culture tends to think that drunkenness is acceptable and Australian. It is time to teach our students that this is not the case. This can be best achieved by setting an example. Schools can assist by implementing programs that explore the harmful effects of alcohol, such as alcohol poisoning, loss of balance and rational thinking (that may lead to emergency scenarios), unwanted or regretted sexual encounters and alcoholism. The culture of a class is best affected when students themselves agree with one another to abstain from illegal alcohol consumption. In this way, peer pressure can be used positively. Schools will be vital in implementing this by promoting the lifestyle of abstinence and creating situations for students to discuss with one another in a facilitated context, the effects of alcohol and what they do and don t believe is acceptable and why. Guidance from staff or even parents to promote abstinence during these discussions is also a good idea. Allowing the students to research the facts themselves and understand the severity of problems that are alcohol-induced is an effective method of ensuring they are wellinformed and better equipped to make healthy decisions. In France, the Ministry of Health has discouraged all consumption of alcohol. According to a brochure released and distributed in February 2009 by France s National Cancer Institute (INCA), a single glass of wine per day will raise the chance of contracting cancer by up to 168%. Dominique Maraninchi, INCA s president, stated, Small daily doses of alcohol are the most harmful. There is no amount, however small, which is good for you. These are the facts that ought to be promoted in schools. A study undertaken by the Murdoch Children s Research Institute in Melbourne focused on the drinking habits of 1520 young people over more than 10 years from their mid-teens. They found that there a no safe or sensible levels of drinking for adolescents. In fact, as Nick Miller puts it in his article, teenagers who drink even small amounts of alcohol have a significantly higher risk of developing alcohol abuse or risky sexual behaviour as a young adult. [1] The International Youth Development Study (IDYS) is a joint project between the Social Development Research Group at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA and the Centre for Adolescent Health at the Royal Children s Hospital in Melbourne. A long-term study looking at the development of healthy and problem behaviours among young people in the state of Victoria, Australia and the state of Washington, USA, IDYS is comparing the differences between Australian and American cultures in the development of youth. In the Australian 2008 update, it states that findings from the IDYS have shown that students in Victoria have higher rates of binge alcohol use than those in Washington State. The rate of reported binge drinking is two times higher in year 7 and 3 times higher in year 9 for students in Victoria. This finding is interesting given that alcohol policies in the US focus on abstinence whereas, here in Australia, the focus is on safe use. [2] The above are all evidence that harm minimisation approaches to teenage drinking is highly ineffective. The Australian government is to be commended in its response to the harmful effects of smoking, but appreciating the effects of harmful substances does not stop there. As Scott Wilson, chairman of the Alcohol Education and Rehabilitation Foundation puts it, zero alcohol, full stop. Appreciation of the Effects of Illegal Harmful Substances A popular myth propagated amongst young people regarding marijuana is that it is non-addictive and has no adverse effects when smoked, aside from a natural high. Marijuana use impacts learning, memory and time perception so the key to battling marijuana abuse is not through simply educating Victorian students about the adverse effects. In addition to education, emphasis must be placed on the value of retaining optimum learning

3 abilities. Australian students need to value their minds and skills more than they value risking them for a hit or even the one-off experience of getting high. The National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), a component of the US Department of Health and Human Services clearly states on it s website that, Long-term marijuana abuse can lead to addiction; that is, compulsive drug seeking and abuse despite its known harmful effects upon social functioning in the context of family, school, work and recreational activities. [3] The Drug Advisory Council of Australia, in its article Teenage Cannibas Use Expands as Young Adults identifies how disturbing recent studies which confirm early cannabis use progressing to heavier cannabis use later in life are. Specifically, they note that it is disturbing because they indicate the potential for increasing health problems for our community. [4] Statistics on drug use in Australia from 2002 note that more than one in four teenagers used any illicit drug and around one in four teenagers used marijuana/cannabis in the past 12 months. It also highlights that, More than one in ten marijuana/cannabis users aged years used the drug every day, while about one in five used once a week but less than every day, one in six used about once a month and about half used less often. [5] According to the Drug Advisory Council of Australia (DACA), the way forward is to provide Australian children with the ability to resist drug pressure at a young age so they will not use illicit drugs Studies show that resistance is ten times more effective than rehabilitation. [6] The Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation reported that teenagers who use drugs or are sexually active are more likely, later, to become clinically depressed. Findings from the study show depression came after substance and sexual activity, not the other way around. This challenges the notion that teenagers engage in drug use or become sexually active to self-medicate their own depression. For females, even modest involvement in substance use and sexual experimentation elevates depression risk. In contrast, boys show little added risk with experimental behaviour, but binge drinking and frequent use of marijuana contribute substantial risk. [7] Sex Education in Schools Sex education in schools across Australia is evidently not working. Teenage pregnancy and STI contractions have increased even with current sex education. Telling young people to use condoms and participate in safe/safer sex should they choose to have sex normalises promiscuity from an earlier age. A standard national sexual education curriculum that guides schools in providing accurate and useful information to students in regards to sexual relations and the rights, risks and responsibilities involved whilst continuing to promote abstinence is required to lower Australia s high teenage pregnancy statistics and incidences of STI contraction. Young people need to know that condoms are not 100% effective in prevention pregnancy, let alone in preventing STI transmission. Currently, our young people are informed by the ACT Health Fact Sheet that Chlamydia is transmitted by having vaginal, anal or oral sex without a condom, with someone who has the infection. Queensland Health tells us that the best way to avoid Chlamydia is to use a condom. These are examples of false information that will mislead Victorian students. Chlamydia can be contracted even with the use of condoms. In 2000, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the USA reviewed all the studies undertaken concerning condom effectiveness. The Report [8] showed that the failure rate of condoms in preventing pregnancy in the first year of consistent and correct use by a couple is 15%. It also found that condoms provide no protection for some STIs, especially those where a lesion is on the skin. It stated that condoms decreased the risk of HIV/AIDS by 85%, but this still leaves a 15% failure rate for a fatal disease. Gonorrhea is reduced by consistent

4 condom use for men, but not for women. HPV infections were found to be unaffected by condom use. Studies regarding Chlamydia demonstrated either no or some protection and are inconclusive. The current National Sexually Transmissible Infections Prevention Campaign is a harm minimisation campaign currently run by the federal government. The benefits of this campaign are doubtful. By encouraging consistent and correct condom use, there is an underlying message of promoteded promiscuity. Even more alarming than this are the condom negotiation pocket cards that give quick-witted responses to common excuses for not wearing a condom. Instead of teaching our young people how to tell their sexual partners to wear a condom, schools should promote to our young people self-respect, assertiveness and the confidence to say no to having sex. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the USA released a 6 page Summary called Male Latex Condoms and Sexually Transmitted Diseases. In this report, they clearly state, The surest way to avoid transmission of sexually transmitted diseases is to abstain from sexual intercourse. [9] Choices, Decisions, Outcomes by Jane Power is an Australian developed abstinence program written to help students better understand their choices and consequences thereof. From student testimonials, it is clear that it leads to a healthier and more mature approach to sex that weighs up the outcomes of the choice to have or not have sex. It also promotes the devalued ideal of true love that revolves around trust, respect, understanding, equality, loyalty, openness, sharing your values and bringing out the best in the other person. In order to have healthy community living, schools ought to be promoting healthy values and healthy approaches to relationships. Communities are formed on the basis of relationships, and without addressing the key to forming healthy relationships, how can we expect to have healthy community living? We need values-based sex education rather than allowing commoditising sexual encounters to be accepted as normal, acceptable and reality. By removing values, we are teaching our children that it really doesn t matter what they do with themselves or their bodies, and should they land themselves in hot-water, there s a pill or procedure that can take care of that for them. As the NSW Syllabus for Personal Development and Physical Education Years 7-10 states, Young people who have a feeling of connectedness with parents, family and school have lower levels of smoking, drinking, other drug use, suicidal thinking, risky sexual behaviour and exposure to violence. It also rightly asserts that, A wholeschool approach is important. This means developing, implementing and reviewing policy and guidelines, consulting and working in partnership with families and the school community, accessing community resources and involving students. It involves ensuring that school policy and procedures support the messages provided in the formal school curriculum. [10] Healthy communities revolve around healthy values, healthy communication, respect for self and respect for others. Bullying in Schools Bullying in schools must be addressed. However, bullying should not be categorised. All bullying is disrespectful, offensive and wrong, regardless of the victim and should be treated as such. Reverse discrimination occurs when one highlights a problem such as one student bullying another student for being gay as homosexual bullying. Children are also bullied when they experience heterosexual attraction to another person. Certainly, the statistics for these incidents are not as highly prominent, but singling out homosexual bullying, for example, creates a category or particular class of victims. All men, women and children are equal and should be treated thus. Different consideration to a victim of bullying should not be given to a child who is bullied because they are of a different race or nationality or have a varying sexual orientation. An example of Reverse Discrimination promoted by the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) can be found on the Health and Physical Education section of their website. [Students] evaluate policies and practices in relation to sexual harassment, homophobia and/or discrimination, and consider

5 their rights and responsibilities in these areas. [11] By outlining homophobia specifically, the VCAA is marginalising a group of people. Schools wishing to promote healthier community living would do well to promote the Australian value of equality instead. Activities that help students understand that there is no difference in value between one person and another regardless of their race, gender or socio-economic background. would be the simplest way of creating an environment and promoting a mindset of equality as well as diversity. Schools should also take responsibility for the bullying that occurs in their schools. By this, we are not referring to legal responsibility, but we are referring to the idea of training and educating the staff and faculty to understand and identify bullying as well as to be equipped to deal with the problem before it escalates. Recently, there have been reports of evolving forms of bullying via technology which may not always be controlled by the school but can be minimised through the education of the students as well as school policies, consistent throughout the State. Zero tolerance regarding the use of mobile phones in class could be one such policy. The espectful use of via the internet could be another. Opening communication lines between students, parents and staff by using methods such as open forums and small facilitated discussion groups focusing on the types and effects of bullying, and what to do when being bullied or even seeing someone being bullied are helpful methods of achieving a decreasing in these incidents in schools across Victoria. All schools should implement a policy of zero tolerance for bullying and should be accountable for this. Strengths-based Approaches Aside from abstinence-based programs in the promotion of healthy community living, another effective approach would also be strengths-based approaches. One such program is the Resilient Families [12] program, run by the Centre for Adolescent Health. The study examining this program aimed to investigate whether increasing family protective factors through early secondary school can improve individual, peer and school adjustment and prevent the development of health and social problems in young people, while also enhancing educational outcomes. It found that, of the students in the control schools exposed to the Resilience Families intervention they experienced higher family attachment, school rewards and attendance as well as the unexpected finding that these students also showed higher social concern. By focusing on the existing strengths of our young people, promoting self-respect through informative abstinencebased programs, we have a greater chance of nurturing a generation of young Victorians who experience high selfesteem and high esteem for others. Schools prepared to work with families on this issue will communicate with their students most effectively and will play a vital role in promoting and achieving healthy community living. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]

6 [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]