Prevenção do uso de drogas na adolescência : uma intervenção educativa integrando unidade de saúde e escola

Abstract

This study is the result of the researcher’s experiences as a member of the Family Health Strategy (ESF) and observations of the scarce actions regarding the prevention of drug use. Adolescence is the phase between 10 and 19 years of age, in which biophyschosocial development occurs. In Brazil alone there are 21 million adolescents. Drug use continues to have a great impact globally. Around 210 million people use illegal drugs each year. The objectives of this research were to verify the results of an educational intervention to prevent inappropriate drug use by students in the school environment, identify the adolescents’ knowledge of and behavior towards alcohol and other drugs before and after the educational intervention, describe the opinions of the principal, teachers, parents and health professionals about the educational intervention regarding inappropriate drug use at school and analyze the variables of the instrument before and after the test, in accordance with the intervention results. This consisted of an intervention research, with a quasi-experimental outline and a quanti-qualitative approach. The data from the questionnaire was tabulated on Microsoft Excel and exported to SPSS software; the analysis considered a confidence of 95% (p<0.05). The analysis method was used for the qualitative data. The results showed that alcohol is the drug most used by adolescents, followed by tobacco; illegal drug use was mentioned by a minority of students. The ease with which adolescents purchased alcohol was noted, as were the changes in their behavior. The school proved to be an important space for carrying out educational interventions with adolescents. Participative technologies promoted a greater engagement in the activities. The professionals acting as facilitators expressed positively the activities integrating the school and health services. Distinct working strategies aiming for the same result increased the opportunities to evaluate the actions that had been carried out and allowed interesting reflections about both the educational intervention and the results, such as team work. It was concluded that this study of an educational intervention was important for the adolescents, the health professionals involved, school administrators and the ESF, strengthening public policies for Health and Prevention in Schools (SPE) and the Health at School Program (PSE), both important for the Unitary Health System.