Sobre Canyes i Petes - skills training for preventing regular cannabis use, with a family component
At a glance
Country of origin
- Spain
The Sobre Canyes i Petes programme is a universal, school-based intervention that aims to prevent adolescents (aged 14-16 years) progressing from non-use or ever-use of cannabis to regular cannabis use. The programme is delivered by class teachers during 6-10 class hours of school curriculum time. Activities include the provision of information about cannabis use, discussing the risks and consequences of cannabis use, and skills training on how to refuse offers of cannabis. There is also a family component, through which parents receive guidance on how to discuss the topic of cannabis use at home with their children. The children are also directed to a website where they can access other relevant resources.
Keywords
No dataLinks to this programme in other registries
Implementation Experiences
Read the experiences of people who have implemented this programme.Contact details
Mr. Carles Ariza
Public Health Agency of Barcelona
Servei d’Avaluació i Mètodes d’Intervenció
Agència de Salut
Pública de Barcelona
Pl. Lesseps, 1.
Barcelona Spain
Phone: +34 93 238 4545
Email: cariza[a]aspb.cat
Website: http://www.aspb.cat/quefem/escoles/canyes-petes.aspx
Overview of results from the European studies
Studies overview
The programme has been evaluated in one quasi-experimental study in Spain involving young people aged 14-15 years. It found a statistically significant positive effect 12 months after the intervention ended, with fewer intervention participants compared to control participants having progressed to regular cannabis use.
Countries where evaluated
- Spain
Characteristics
Protective factor(s) addressed
- No defined protective factors
Risk factor(s) addressed
- Individual and peers: early initiation of drug/alcohol use
Outcomes targeted
- Alcohol use
- Use of illicit drugs
Description of programme
The Sobre Canyes i Petes programme aims to prevent young people from progressing from non-use or ever-use of cannabis to regular cannabis use. It was designed following the principles of other recognised interventions that adopt the evidence-based ‘life skills training’ model.
The programme is delivered during school curriculum time, with four sessions of 16 activities to be implemented over 6-10 class hours. Class-based activities include the provision of information about cannabis and social influences on cannabis use; training in how to deal with offers of cannabis and learning to refuse (life skills training and role play); discussions about the consequences of cannabis use and ways to proceed; and watching a DVD with a story that contextualises cannabis use in the student environment. Teachers are responsible for delivering the intervention to their classes, and are provided with training, materials (e.g. the DVD) and technical support from community health teams.
The programme also includes a family component: parents receive a guide to use at home, with materials to help them to interact with their children and discuss the topic of cannabis use. In addition, students are directed to a website (formerly www.xkpts.com — site no longer in use) where they can access other resources relevant to the topic.
Implementation Experiences
Contact details
Carles Ariza, MD, PhD, MPH
Main obstacles
With respect to individual professionals
The programme is implemented by teachers, with the support of health professionals of the Agencia de Salut Pública de Barcelona (ASPB) (Public Health Agency, Barcelona) for resources and training. The main obstacle is the lack of training and awareness of teaching professionals about the importance of the issue of alcohol and cannabis consumption among young people. On the other hand cannabis preventive messages have to be believable for young people, making the editing of this course much more complicated.
With respect to social context
The main obstacle until now is that the implementation of health promotion programmes in the school is not mandatory for schools. On the other hand, the social image of cannabis in our environment is very tolerant and very accessible, with the acceptance of false beliefs about its value as a herb with relaxing properties. Also the social image of alcohol as a necessary tool for celebrations is very present among adolescents, and even more, their aspiration to use it as a means to disinhibit themselves in leisure places.
With respect to organisational and economic context
Beyond the loyalised schools (35%), in the rest of the schools the decision to participate in the programme is threatened by the instability of the teaching staff, by the competition with other offers on drug addiction programmes and the great competition of extracurricular activities.
How they overcame the obstacles
With respect to individual professionals
The programme’s preventive materials on cannabis were made through a lengthy process, which included a youth writing contest. Participation consisted in sending stories related to lived experiences (directly or indirectly by close friends) about cannabis use. Among the programme’s materials, there is a website (http://www.sortimbcn.cat/xkpts/), included in a larger page on drug dependence prevention of the Public Health Agency of Barcelona (http://www.sortimbcn.cat), where the stories that were most useful for the audiovisual production of the programme can be found.
With respect to social context
The programme tries to develop responsibility in considering these addictive substances. Specific role-play exercises about consequences of alcohol and cannabis abuse, or personal experiences shared by people who have had troubles with consumption of these substances, are used to deal with this important social pressure.
With respect to organisational and economic context
The offer of the programme is presented to the schools every year in the set of all health promotion programmes for the Secondary School. From the Drug Plan of Barcelona, recommendations also come to the schools from the districts. The fact that it is an evaluated programme is valued, with a determined measure of effectiveness, which allows it to compete better with other programmes that have uncertain results.
Lessons learnt
With respect to individual professionals
Teachers appreciate the resources because they notice that they connect with students. The coverage of the programme is stationary (between 30 and 35% of schools in the city) because of the insecurity that teachers feel about these issues and the difficulty in accepting training.
With respect to social context
The programme coexists well with a cannabis-tolerant environment and, at least, has managed to reduce early onset of cannabis use and especially its problematic consumption. At present, we are designing a selective prevention programme on alcohol and cannabis that is tailored to environments where their use is even more accepted.
With respect to organisational and economic context
Taking into account all the components of the programme, including the design and maintenance of the different versions, the costs of health personnel for its design, renovation and maintenance, the educational costs for the programme’s implementation and the costs of the materials, it is estimated that the cost of an annual programme is €129,059.21. For an average coverage of 5,500 schoolchildren, the cost per student is €23.46. That's a good cost-benefit ratio, considering the costs that can be estimated to arise from each person addicted to or with at-risk consumption of alcohol or cannabis in economic and social terms.
Strengths
- Good acceptance of the programme by young people.
- Teachers’ satisfaction with the programme is also usually high (7/8 points out of 10).
- Audiovisual resources are accessible on the web and this simplifies previous problems of infrastructure or access to copies of the materials.
- The programme makes it possible to bring a debate to the classroom on a topic that is present in the real lives of young people, especially during the weekend.
Weaknesses
- The complexity of the content for teachers: they do not want to apply it without prior training.
- It only works when applied with continuity in schools with motivated teachers.
- It requires a periodic and continuous renewal of materials and resources.
- It is easy for some of the aspects promoted by the programme to be contradicted by the social norm that is so tolerant of alcohol and cannabis.
Opportunities
- It is a topic well received by students.
- A large majority of the boys and girls to whom the programme is directed are at the moment of initiating socialisation with the consumption of alcohol and cannabis.
- The programme offers an activity to involve parents and offers some guidelines so that they can talk with their children about this topic.
- The impact to reduce future dangerous consumption is optimal.
Threats
- The lack of short-term results on preventive behaviour discourages teachers.
- Lack of a regulation and curricula framework for health education.
- The easy accessibility for obtaining and buying alcohol and cannabis in our environment.
- The permissiveness and great tolerance of the use of cannabis or alcohol abuse among many of the families.
Recommendations
With respect to individual professionals
- It is essential to train teachers who will apply the programme for the first time.
- Do not forget the transcultural adaptation of materials. Audiovisuals, beyond the aesthetic aspects that are overcome over time, pose similar content and problems in the context of European countries.
- It is also important to exchange information with schools on changes in the prevalence and incidence of alcohol and cannabis use among young people in each context.
With respect to social context
- In our Spanish environment, an element of tension is the movements and fairs of the hemp sector, which tends to trivialise the consumption of cannabis and its effects. The minimum distance between cannabis clubs and schools has recently been regulated.
- In Spain it has not yet been possible to pass the child protection law in relation to alcohol consumption.
With respect to organisational and economic context
- It is important to have the support of the families and the school management. Our programme has a concrete moment in which a specific material is sent to families about how to talk with their children about cannabis, to ensure their support.
- Our programme is public and the Public Health Agency of Barcelona ensures that every year all interested schools, whether public, private or with an economic agreement, can take part in the programme.
