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Reducing substance misuse among vulnerable children and young people
Short Text
Introduction
This pathway covers recommendations on how to intervene in community settings, such as schools and youth services, to identify and help vulnerable and disadvantaged children and young people who may be misusing, or at risk of misusing, substances.
The recommendations are for those working in the NHS, local authorities and the education, voluntary, community, social care and youth and criminal justice sectors.
Source guidance
The NICE guidance that was used to create the pathway.
Interventions to reduce substance misuse among vulnerable young people. NICE public health guidance 4 (2007).
Quality standards
Quality statements
Effective interventions library
Successful effective interventions library details
Implementation
Costing support
Costing support includes national cost impact reports that summarise the national costs and savings and discuss the assumptions used; costing templates to assess the impact on local budgets; and costing statements when the impact is not significant or impossible to quantify at a national level.
Slide sets
Slide sets provide a framework for discussion and assist in local dissemination of the guidance. The slides contain the key messages from NICE guidance and can be tailored for local presentations.
Pathway information
Supporting information
Who should take action?
Practitioners and others working in the NHS, local authorities and the education, voluntary, community, social care, youth and criminal justice sectors should take action. In schools this includes teachers, support staff, school nurses and governors.
Glossary
For the purposes of this pathway, substance misuse is defined as intoxication by – or regular excessive consumption of and/or dependence on – psychoactive substances, leading to social, psychological, physical or legal problems. It includes problematic use of both legal and illegal drugs (including alcohol when used in combination with other substances).
Vulnerable and disadvantaged children and young people aged under 25 who are at risk of misusing substances include:
- those whose family members misuse substances
- those with behavioural, mental health or social problems
- those excluded from school and truants
- young offenders
- looked-after children
- those who are homeless
- those involved in commercial sex work
- those from some black and minority ethnic groups.
Reducing substance misuse among vulnerable and disadvantaged children and young people
Reducing substance misuse among vulnerable and disadvantaged children and young people
Substance misuse
For the purposes of this pathway, substance misuse is defined as intoxication by – or regular excessive consumption of and/or dependence on – psychoactive substances, leading to social, psychological, physical or legal problems. It includes problematic use of both legal and illegal drugs (including alcohol when used in combination with other substances).
- Strategy, policy and commissioning to reduce substance misuse among vulnerable or disadvantaged children and young people aged under 25
- Preventing the uptake of smoking among children and young people or helping them to quit
- Preventing misuse of alcohol
- Working with vulnerable and disadvantaged children and young people aged under 25 to reduce substance misuse
Strategy, policy and commissioning to reduce substance misuse among vulnerable or disadvantaged children and young people aged under 25
Strategy, policy and commissioning to reduce substance misuse among vulnerable or disadvantaged children and young people aged under 25
Strategy, policy and commissioning to reduce substance misuse among under-25s who are vulnerable or disadvantaged
Local partnerships should develop and implement a strategy to reduce substance misuse among vulnerable and disadvantaged children and young people aged under 25, as part of a local agreement. This strategy should be:
- based on a local profile of the target population developed in conjunction with the regional public health observatory. The profile should include their age, factors that make them vulnerable and other locally agreed characteristics
- supported by a local service model that defines the role of local agencies and practitioners, the referral criteria and referral pathways.
Implementation tools
Failed to load fragment (default behaviour with no loader supplied): staticcontentfragments/implementation-node-multipleSource guidance
Failed to load fragment (default behaviour with no loader supplied): staticcontentfragments/source-guidance-nodeWorking with vulnerable and disadvantaged children and young people aged under 25 to reduce substance misuse
View the 'Working with vulnerable and disadvantaged children and young people' pathPreventing misuse of alcohol
View the 'Alcohol-use disorders overview' pathPreventing the uptake of smoking among children and young people or helping them to quit
View the 'Smoking prevention and cessation in schools' pathPaths in this pathway
Pathway created: December 2011 Last updated: December 2011
Copyright © 2013 National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. All Rights Reserved.