Guidelines and Recommendations for School-based Prevention

Over the past 25 years, there has been a significant focus on the need to address young people’s health and behaviour as a major and necessary part of the school curriculum.

The objectives for prevention have to include effective policies and practices that aim to:

• Reducing the compulsive use of drugs and addiction
• Reducing the regular use of drugs
• Reducing the problematic and harmful use of drugs
• Preventing any drug use (promotion of abstinence)
• Delay onset of use
• Promoting responsible and safer use of drugs if it occurs
• Contribute to the health, safety and well-being of each individual
• Promote healthy behaviour and personal and social confidence, competence and well-being, and
• Reflect evidence-based approaches that have shown to be effective

This short document aims to address some of these propositions in a little more detail and to propose certain
recommendations, principles and guidance as to how schools should consider the development of their school-based prevention programmes.