In December 2015 the Austrian health ministry published their strategy for the prevention of addictions.

The main subject of the strategy is, to accent, that addiction is a disease and should be treated as such.
Aims of the Austrian prevention and addiction policy are to decrease the negative impacts of addiction, to take care of people who suffer from an addiction and to integrate those people in the social life.
There should be a sufficient offer of therapeutical and rehabilitative measures for addicted people and their families.
Among the aim of abstinence, the aims of harm reduction and therapy instead of punishment become more important.
The stigmatization of addiction, which is a huge problem in the society because it complicates the reintegration of people who suffer from an addiction, is also significant.

The Austrian addiction prevention strategy can be found here: http://www.praevention.at/fileadmin/user_upload/08_Sucht/suchtpraeventionsstrategie.pdf

At the beginning of November, the euro net network conference took place in Senec, Slovakia.

The focus was on a discussion concerning the present situation of peer-education in addiction prevention. Inside the network consent exists, that peer-education is still an important approach in the field of addiction prevention. Indeed it is difficult to evaluate the impact of peer-education, because of many side-effects, but this applies for other forms of prevention work as well.

Another point of discussion was the (judicial) handling with e-Cigarettes and a discussion concerning a EU-wide Addiction-prevention-week and other common projects.

New technologies and modern media play an important role in the daily life and communication of young people. According to the EMCDDA there is a general lack of services in Europe addressing young people using illicit drugs. Most existing offers provide adult-oriented services.

This is where web-based offers can provide a possibility to reach young drug users. Other advantages of web-based methods is their cost-effectiveness and the possibility for services in more rural areas. Last but not least, the target group itself has expressed their interest in web-based interventions.

Studies on the effectiveness of web-based interventions are broadly available for mental health conditions and problematic alcohol use. Recent analyses and studies on interventions aiming at cannabis use reduction, are also promising.

Despite the findings above, the number of good quality interventions is still limited and their effectiveness has not been sufficiently evaluated.

All of the above call for an expansion of the current supply of web-based offers for young drug consumers.

A guideline for the development and implementation of effective web-based interventions can promote further development in that area and support prevention experts who would like to offer web-based interventions to young drug users.

Therefore the main objective of this guideline is to give recommendations for the development and implementation of effective web-based offers interventions for young people using illicit drugs and particularly new psychoactive substances.

This guideline has been developed from februari 2014 until september 2015 in the framework of the EU-funded project “Click for Support” and will remain valid until 2018.

Click for Support – Guideline for effective web-based interventions in selective drug prevention

Research Institute for Child Psychology and Pathopsychology organizes under the requested auspices of MA Juraj Drexler, the minister of ecuation, science, research and sport of the Slovak Republik and Robert Kalinak, the minister of the interior of the Slovak Republic the 3rd International Expert Conference of the National Project with Workshops “Comprehensive guidance system for prevention and influencing of socio-pathological phenomena in the school environment” called
“Modernization of the counseling process – Basis Pillar of the Comprehensive guidance system in Slovak Republic” in Senec from 4th to 6th November 2015.
Aim of the conference is the presentation of the main outcomes of the National Project of VUDPAP, which have meaning and impact on the comprehensive guidance system, system of prevention and educational practice in Slovak Republic.
Main topics of the conference are:
– Guidance system and counseling process in EU countries – sharing good practice
– Educational, psychological and preventive needs of children and youth, and the possibilities for their assurance in school counseling and prevention facilities.
– Modernization and innovation of methods of psychological, pedagogical and social diagnostics in the school counseling system.
– Process analysis of activities of school counseling facilities as a condition of further optimization of their operations.
– Counseling processes in schools and counseling facilities and bases for their further optimization.
– Education and career guidance in school counseling process.
– KomposyT and the prospect of digitization of the comprehensive guidance process for 2020.
– Human resources development in the guidance system – education and supervision.
– Comprehensive research for the needs of the counseling and educational practices.
– Comprehensive guidance system in the resort, inter-resort and international context.
Please find more information on the web site of the National Project www.vudpap-project.sk.
This project and the educational event is co-financed from resources of the European Union.

The upcoming euro net network conference is taking place on the 4th November 2015 in Senec, Slovakia. For one thing the focus of the conference will be on the access to “hard to reach groups”, for another thing the network will adopt a position paper concerning E-cigarettes. Contentual the members of euro net will also exchange views about the topic of child protection.

Besides the final conference of the project “click for support” the euro net – network conference took place in Muenster, Germany  last week.
That gave Peter Koler from the Italian Forum Prevention the opportunity to introduce himself as the successor of Klaus Nothdurfter (Autonomous Province of South Tyrol).
The Zurich University of Teacher Education (PH Zurich) just established the research centre “Zentrum Inklusion und Gesundheit in der Schule” (centre for inclusion and health in schools). This centre is explicit aimed at prevention of addiction as a standard offer in schools. The reorientation and possibilities for cooperation with euro net have been presented by Roger Keller.
The focus of the meeting in Muenster was on the country-specific discussion on legalization of Cannabis. While the Dutchmen, who are said to be particularly liberal in the matter of the legalization of Cannabis, are rather backpedalling and reducing the number of coffee-shops drastically, some other European countries consider whether to follow the lead of the USA/ Colorado or Spain and to introduce so called “Cannabis-Social-Clubs”. Then again in other countries there is no political discussion about that topic to date.
The experts of prevention of addiction agreed about the fact, that there has to be a strict differentiation between synthetic Cannabis, Cannabis in medical context and Cannabis as a consumer good. The necessity of a particular protection of adolescents and young adults against harmful consumption has been seen by all participants of the conference.
There was also a consensus about the need of a reformation, which contributes to the decriminalisation of the possession and cultivation of Cannabis in certain cases and to the introduction of uniform standards.

Last week the final conference of the European project “Click for Support” organized by the LWL-Coordination Office for Drug-Related Issues took place in the city of Muenster, Germany.

The project team of “click for support” at the final conference in Muenster

The project addresses the gap between the (digital) living environment of young people and the professional and personal background of drug prevention experts in regard to online communication. To narrow this gap, a guideline for web-based interventions for young drug users has been developed together with 26 partners from 13 European countries.

The fact that the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Consumption (EMCDDA) has shown special interest in the project and has sent a representative to the final conference shows the project’s relevance and the need for further development of drug prevention in order to reach young people by using new media and modern technologies.
At the final conference the partners have met to make last adjustments to the guideline which will now be translated in ten European languages and disseminated in the partner countries and beyond.

The upcoming euro net network conference is taking place on the 10th June 2015 in Münster, Germany. For one thing the focus of the conference will be on the conclusion of the EU project “Click for Support”, for another thing the projects follow-up actions will be discussed.
Contentual the members of euro net will also exchange views about the topic of the legalization of cannabis.
At this network conference there are going to be 14 of the in total 17 participating countries represented.