School staff and parents play an important role in protecting young people from substance use-related harms and supporting their well-being.
Teachers, school counsellors, and other educators are the primary sources of contact for young people seeking advice or help.
We have developed a range of resources to equip teachers, and students and parents with accurate, up-to-date information and evidence-based programs to prevent substance use and improve well-being.
Explore our school-based programs below.
OurFutures is a universal prevention model that underpins a suite of internet-based programs designed to prevent mental ill-health, substance use and related harms among school-aged students.
Adopting innovative methods to engage and educate students, the programs utilise interactive cartoon storyboards to empower students to improve their health and wellbeing. Each module includes 4-6 lessons that are mapped to the health education curriculum and require no formal teacher training.
The OurFutures programs are based on rigorous evaluation across 10 cluster randomised controlled trials (8 complete, 2 ongoing, including 292 schools, >26,000 students).
Compared to health education as usual, the OurFutures programs have demonstrated effectiveness in preventing the uptake, and reducing the harmful use, of alcohol, cannabis, psychostimulants and emerging drugs during adolescence, as well as, increasing knowledge about substance use, chronic disease risk factors and mental health.
The OurFutures programs are publicly available via the OurFutures Institute, a not-for-profit organisation established to distribute the evidence-based programs to schools in Australia.
The OurFutures Institute also feature resources for schools, such as:
Learn more about the OurFutures Institute.
Positive Choices is an online portal that helps school communities (parents, teachers and students) access up-to-date evidence-based alcohol and other drug education resources.
It provides a central access point for evidence-based information and prevention resources about alcohol and other drugs, and allows users to search by drug type, by resource type, such as factsheets, games or videos, and by age appropriateness.
The resources can be used to develop lesson plans which align with the Australian Curriculum.
Positive Choices resources include:
Additional resources can be found at Positive Choices.
Strong & Deadly Futures is the first school-based alcohol and drug prevention program that is culturally inclusive for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. It draws on cultural strengths and promotes student empowerment.
The program was co-developed with Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and non-Indigenous high school students and educators. It combines animations with customisable classroom activities, including those that celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership and cultural strengths. Strong & Deadly Futures is currently being trialled in high schools across Australia.
Learn more at Strong & Deadly Futures.
Learning with FASD is an Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care funded initiative to provide evidence-based resources to help Australian primary and secondary school teaching and support staff understand and support children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). Learning with FASD was informed by input from researchers, experts, educators, and parents and caregivers across Australia.
Learning with FASD hosts a variety of resources, including factsheets, videos, guides, and webinars for both the primary and secondary education sector.
View all the resources at Learning with FASD.
