Substance Misuse and Emotional Well Being
Drugs and alcohol misuse can pose as a risk to a young person’s physical and emotional well-being. It is important to ensure all children have the best start in life and have access to information that will help them keep safe and reduce risks or issues around emotional well-being. Many young people that use substances can often have a wide range of other issues such as experiencing offending, family issues, experiencing bullying etc.
You can access this link to find out how some young people have spoken about their experiences of substance misuse and the impact on their emotional well-being: http://www.healthtalk.org/young-peoples-experiences/drugs-and-alcohol/drugs-and-mental-health
Substances effects young people in different ways and the type of substances that people use can also impact on individuals differently. To find out more visit: https://www.rethink.org/living-with-mental-illness/young-people/looking-after-your-mental-health/drugs-alcohol-and-the-links-with-mental-health
Drug education is important and relevant to children and young people as this helps to keep them educated and informed. By delivering drug education in a range of settings it allows children and young people to develop and enhance life skills; these can be built on and will help support future decision making. Early Break has developed a drug education site called dontbeazombie to help young people understand the risks associated to substance misuse, please visit this website to find out more information.
