Mental and Social Health Commons^™

Review Of Cannabis Use Among Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander People, Julia Butt, Mandy Wilson, Jocelyn Jones, Simon Lenton

Journal of the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet

The health effects of cannabis use may not always be seen as a high priority for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. However, the impact of cannabis use on physical and mental health can have significant consequences. It is known that the use of high potency cannabis has increased over the last two decades, with a corresponding increased risk to health. In particular, young people are at increased risk of experiencing harms to mental health. Physical harms to health include effects on the respiratory system, cardiovascular system, an increased risk of cancer, and in-utero effects from maternal use. The review …

Understanding And Building Resilience With Art: A Socio-Ecological Approach, Meagan Shand

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Resilience is a widely researched phenomenon, it means different things to different people and is perceived and measured according to the theoretical lens being applied. The following thesis reviews the theoretical development of resilience that has led to contemporary understandings, to establish a platform for the research topic - understanding and building resilience with Art. Narrative research methods are combined with art processes to illuminate the stories of eight culturally diverse women participating in a community based mental health art program, in Western Australia. Fifteen resilience themes emerged from the collective experience, and are presented in a socio-ecological framework to …

Impact Of Extra-Curricular Activities On Adolescents' Connectedness And Cigarette Smoking: Final Report, Margaret Hall, Greg Hamilton, Therese Shaw, Donna Cross, Tommy Cordin, Leanne Lester, Stacey Waters

Research outputs pre 2011

In Australia, cigarette smoking is still the leading cause of preventable death and yet in the past 10 years, despite efforts that have been made in the classroom and through the media, there have been limited reductions in adolescent smoking. The Extra-curricular Project builds on the work of two other projects conducted by researchers from the Child Health Promotion Research Centre (CHPRC). The Smoking Cessation for Youth Project (SCYP), conducted by the Western Australian Centre for Health Promotion Research, led to the identification of connectedness as a key mediator of cigarette smoking. The role of extra-curricular activities in mediating school …

Optimising School Nurse Involvement In Youth Based Tobacco Control Programs: Presented To The Western Australian Health Promotion Foundation, Child Health Promotion Research Unit, Edith Cowan University

Research outputs pre 2011

A significant proportion of youth smoke regularly, placing them at risk of addiction to cigarette smoking. It is known that adolescence is a critical period for the establishment of adult drug use behaviours. The key focus for this research program is the investigation of interventions addressing adolescent smoking cessation, with a particular emphasis on School Nurse involvement.

The research program aims to provide capacity building benefits at three levels: to secondary school nurses, to two post-graduate students, as well as school health promotion /smoking prevention/cessation practitioners and researchers. Ultimately this project may add previously underused but well trained, highly credible …

Outcome Evaluation Of The School Drug Education Project: Final Report Presented To The School Drug Education And Road Aware Project, Therese Shaw, Margaret Hall, Donna Cross, Hamilton Greg

Research outputs pre 2011

In 2002, Curtin University's Western Australian Centre for Health Promotion Research provided a report which explored the feasibility of a range of options to evaluate the impact of the School Drug Education Project (SDEP) on students' drug use, perceptions of drug-related harm and attitudes towards drug use. Given the difficulties of achieving a prospective design, this proposal recommended comparing retrospective measures of SDEP participation, level of SDEP training and dose of SDEP implementation with Years 8-12 student drug-related outcome data collected from four large Western Australian studies conducted somewhat concurrently with the School Drug Education Project.

It was hypothesised that …

Impact Of Extra-Curricular Activities On Adolescents' Connectedness And Cigarette Smoking: Annual Report, Donna Cross, Greg Hamilton, Rob Mcgee, Margaret Hall

Research outputs pre 2011

Cigarette smoking is the primary cause of preventable death in Australia, killing approximately 19,000 people every year.⁸ Up to 90% of smokers begin smoking by 18 years of age.^9,10 In spite of the obvious public health burden, current approaches have led to very modest decreases in adolescent smoking in the past 10 years. ¹¹ The Smoking Cessation for Youth Project (SCYP)⁴ was a cluster randomised control trial that resulted in lower cigarette smoking among Year 10 students who received a harm minimisation intervention over two years. This project also led to the identification of connectedness as a …

Trans-Adaption Of Successful Cigarette Smoking Intervention To Randomised School-Based Cannabis Intervention Trial, Child Health Promotion Unit, Edith Cowan University

Research outputs pre 2011

Despite the emergence of cannabis use as a public health issue of significance in the 21st Century, no school-based interventions specifically addressing cannabis use have been reported in the literature. The prevalence of adolescent cannabis use has risen during the 1990s while the age of onset has decreased. This three-year trial seeks to trans-adapt a successful school-based cigarette smoking program underpinned by harm minimisation (HM) theory (including abstinence messages), into a school-based cannabis intervention trial. This innovative intervention will be compared to the largely abstinence-based drug use prevention activities currently used in W A. The first and second years of …