SURVEY COMING
Tue, 01/24/2017 - 12:00am
NCSA to conduct research in primary schools
There are plans in the pipeline for the National Council on Substance Abuse (NCSA) to conduct research in the local primary schools to look at the use of illegal drugs among those students.
This survey is needed, says Manager of the NCSA, Betty Hunte, as research across the region and internationally points to a lowering of the age of initiation, the first time persons start
to engage in substance abuse. Her comments came as she was speaking to the media after the recent launch of the Barbados National Anti-Drug Plan.
“If that is the case, we thought it best that instead of getting emotive about it, [we would] go into our primary schools again – the last time we did it was in 2006. Those children have gone on – some of them have left secondary schools – so it is time to go into the schools again to see where the problem is,the type of problems that exist [and] what resources are needed to tackle the problem,” she said.
Hunte explained that included in the survey instrument that they will utilise in the schools, will be questions pertaining to where children get drugs from and who introduced them to drugs in the first place. With that in mind, she said apart from actually determining the age of initiation, they will also seek to see if it is staying the same, if it is lower, and if it reflects what other research indicates.
“We were alarmed to find out that when we did our secondary school survey, some people indicated they started using at 10. If we go into primary schools, somebody at 10 may indicate they started using a little earlier than this,” she said.
The NCSA Manager added, “We really need, as the Minister said, to rejig our programmes. So it is necessary for us to go back and see what is happening so that we can tailor our programmes according to what is happening and the trends that will emerge.”
Her comments came as she said that the Council will be hosting a workshop “very shortly” on emerging trends, so they can see not only what is coming out, but how to address them better. (JRT)