Rates of teen substance abuse are on the way down…

Good news! According to the latest report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), a branch of the Department of Health and Human Services, more teens in the U.S. are making the right choices. The survey included over 70,000 people, and in the 12-17 age bracket, there were some noticeable improvements between the years 2002-2013. Some of the more promising stats include:

-Tobacco use is at an all time low, dropping from 14 percent to just under 8 percent

-Alcohol use is also down, from almost 13 percent to 11.6 percent

-Illicit drug abuse among teens dropped from around 12 percent to just under 9 percent

Still a ways to go, but what a great way to put a positive spin on a substance abuse unit. Have students look through the detailed report, conduct some research, and then come up with some theories about what could be leading to the decline. Could be the new brain research coming out, the fear of a negative digital footprint, or just the fact that they’ve got something better to do, but either way, it’s positive peer pressure on a national scale.

For the full report including easy to read tables, go to SAMSHA.org, or check out some of the highlights in this article from CBS News.

And for some great examples of what teens are now up to instead, check out the new advocacy campaign Natural High, or the always awesome AbovetheInfluence.com

 

More hints and tips in the classroom...

EARCOS 2017

Link to the Google Slides can be found here: EARCOS Health Workshop 2017 Lesson plans for the IB- Health Education for Teens Saturday, October 14th

Personal Tech Use Policy

  My.U.P.2013 Korean My.U.P. Chinese My.U.P. In 2011, shortly after our school went 1-to-1, our 8th graders began noticing some issues balancing their tech use. They were

Branksome Hall Asia

Excited to be working with you all. You can find the links our slide decks below. Please let me know if you have any questions

APPEC 2017

Hey gang! Here’s where I’ll be posting the links for all of our resources over the next two days. If there’s anything else you’d like

Recent Workshops

Presentations and Workshops:  Click on the green hyperlinks for resources or contact amy@thehealthteacher.com for more info. Positive Prevention: A New Approach to Health Ed SXSWEdu