The Icelandic prevention model, Planet Youth, that combats drug and alcohol use in young people has been adopted by Wicklow and was formerly launched by Cathaoirleach Cllr. Paul O’Brien on Monday 7th of October.
The Planet Youth model is a five-year process where a school-based anonymous survey is taken by transition year students across all participating schools. The survey gathers information on all aspects of young people’s lives ranging from family life, school life, community life, substance use and mental and physical health. Once submitted, the data is collected by the Icelandic team and returned to the Planet Youth Wicklow Team. The Wicklow team will then work alongside the experts in Iceland to interpret the data and identify actions developed with the real-time information from the youths themselves.
The survey is completed in year one, three and five of the process. This November, 20 secondary schools and 4 Youthreach centres in Wicklow will take the first survey. Planet Youth Wicklow is led by the East Coast Regional Drug and Alcohol task who provide the Coordinator. It is jointly funded by Wicklow County Council, Wicklow Children and Young People’s Services Committee (Wicklow CYPSC), HSE Health and Wellbeing and County Wicklow Partnership. It will impact how all of the services for children and young people in County Wicklow provide support.
Cathaoirleach of Wicklow County Council, Cllr. Paul O’Brien, said: “This snapshot in time will allow the stakeholders, including Wicklow County Council, to assess how we can implement real and tangible change in the lives of our young people. The wealth of information that will be gathered over the next five years, cannot be underestimated.”
Chief Executive of Wicklow County Council, Emer O’Gorman, highlighted the importance that “the stakeholders, not just hear, but listen, and act, upon what comes back from the survey data and then use the powers and influence that we have at our disposal, to implement the findings into our infrastructure and our social life.
Minister for Health Deputy Stephen Donnelly congratulated the project team for getting Planet Youth to this stage and expressed his delight at Planet Youth launching in Wicklow. Minister Donnelly said “the damage addiction can do to families and communities is immense… this approach is trying to minimise young people falling into addiction and it fits very well with what the government are doing in Health care and Healthy Ireland.
For more information on Planet Youth, go to www.planetyouth.ie, the Irish website and www.planetyouth.org, the Icelandic website.