You need to read this section on Risk & Protection in the correct order:
- Introduction
- Individual
- Community
- Family
- Peer and school factors
- Responding from a risk and protection framework < You are here
What does this mean for me in my job?
If we are able to identify risk and protective factors, what does that mean for us in our work? The aim of coming to a better understanding of risk and protection is to assist those in service delivery to enhance protection and to minimise risk factors.
Example: Road Safety
Let's return to the example of road safety. What steps are taken to maximise road safety? As the risk and protective factors occur at different levels, the interventions need to be targeted at these levels. Certainly, in regards to road safety, much education and information is focused on the driver of the vehicle, but it is not the sole focus of all road safety efforts. What other measures are taken to minimise the chance of road accidents?
- safer roads: removal of poles from road sides, road barriers (in knowledge that people will have accidents and this will minimise the damage), speed limits?
- safer cars: air bags, ABS brakes, yearly vehicle registration?
- better forms of other public transport to minimise the use of cars?
So what if we decide to we want to decrease the road toll. Into which strategy should we invest most resources? Better roads, better cars, driver education, or into policing speeding drivers or the wearing of seat belts or more bus and rail infrastructure? Which will be most successful? Obviously, the most successful interventions will be those that target more than one of the risk or protective factors.
Much like the above example, any attempt to influence a young person's life needs to be multifaceted to have any lasting influence.
Unlike our vehicle accident example, interventions addressing risk and protective factors are also reliant upon timing.
For example, the provision of school health education has been shown to have a positive impact upon "favourable attitudes to the problem behaviour" when targeted to young people in Year 7 and above. However if this intervention is targeted at Year 6 students, it is shown to have no effect or to be counterproductive of good outcomes. (Toumbourou, Patton, Sawyer, Olsson, Webb-Pullman, Catalano, & Godfrey, 2000)
Activity
For the young person that you chose (Tung, Sally or Mike) develop a list of strategies or activities that might minimise risk and enhance protection. Think about those that you in your current role would have a direct impact upon.
Summary
As we have seen, the pathways for young people who develop patterns of regular and problematic or harmful use appear to differ from those who merely experiment or maintain irregular use.
Personality characteristics, genetic and biological factors, individual differences in vulnerability, family difficulties, association with substance using peers, differential exposure to substances, shared and non-shared environments, and accumulations of social disadvantage all play a role (Spooner, Mattick and Howard, 1996).
The interplay of these variables in particular cultures and situations, or more broadly varying contexts, is crucial. Some sub-groups of young people may be more at risk. For example: Indigenous young people, street youth, gay/ lesbian/ bisexual/ transgender young people, those within juvenile justice systems, and young people from war-torn areas and refugees.
However, methodological difficulties abound in studies on causation. In addition, recent research has stressed that there are multiple pathways to escalation of drug use and that the above variables act in neither a direct causal nor correlational manner. Most act in association with each other, increasing or decreasing the impact of each other.
For example, the influence of drug-using or approving peers appears to be highly significant in the development of problematic drug use by an individual; more so than family influence. However, family variables, such as low levels of involvement and attachment increase the likelihood of association with, and influence by, drug using peers. Likewise, risk factors are reciprocal - they can be both a potential 'cause' and consequence of involvement in drug use.
As the factors involved in the causes and origins of problematic AOD issues are diverse and many, our responses likewise need to be multifaceted and targeted at different levels. Interventions that concentrate on only one aspect can have limited effect. For workers in the field this means that we cannot work in isolation.
How we respond to young people experiencing AOD related problems will be revisited in the sections that follow. Whilst reading these sections, and completing the activities, it will be important to keep the risk and protection framework in mind. Now, let us turn specifically to drug use and young people.
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Working with Young People with Alcohol or Other Drug Issues: A self-paced learning package Published: 2006 Funded by NSW Drug & Alcohol Workforce Development Council. Written & compiled by Kristy Delaney, YAPA, and Matt Stubbs & John Howard, Ted Noffs Institute. Additional material by Nick Manning, YAPA, & by Shopfront Youth Legal Centre. Opinions are the author's.
Be careful! YAPA and the authors took reasonable care to ensure that this information was correct at the time of publishing. However health information, and government regulations, laws and standards are complex and changing. The authors may not have health, safety, or legal qualifications, and information provided is general - it is not specific health, legal or professional advice. Do not rely on it - check with other publications and authorities and if necessary get qualified, medical, legal or professional advice for your situation.
