In the area of primary drug prevention, the ministry was entrusted with the coordination of primary drug prevention on the inter-ministerial level by Czech Government Resolution No. 549/2003, On Strengthening the National Anti-Drug Policy.
It was driven not only by the overall number of children, pupils and students being educated in schools, but also by the total length of time when they are affected by the school environment. The period of school education has a very important function in the area of young people’s character formation, and anything that fails at this stage can only with great difficulty be corrected in adulthood. This is also the reason that the area of the prevention of sociopathic phenomena in the school population is paid exceptional attention, namely not only on the part of the ministry but also on the part of all the other components participating in the management of the system of education, especially the regions and municipalities.
Sociopathic phenomena are perceived as a whole and only subsequently divided for working purposes into the prevention of drug addiction and the prevention of criminality. Primary prevention is understood as all the specific activities implemented with the objective of preventing the problems and consequences connected with sociopathic phenomena, or minimising their impact and limiting their spread.
Basic Objectives of the Strategy
- education towards a healthy lifestyle
- development and support of social competencies
- achievement of higher quality and efficiency in the programmes being implemented by improving the quality of the
coordination and inspections of specific primary prevention across ministries
Starting Points of the Strategy for Primary Prevention in Education
- regular meetings with district and regional coordinators
- analysis of the needs in the field
- long-term objectives in the regions
- experience with the fulfilment of past conceptions
- conception of prevention in the principle governmental and international documents
Principles of Primary Prevention in Education
Prevention in the jurisdiction of the ministry includes mainly activities in the areas of:
- violence and bullying;
- playing truant;
- criminality, delinquency, vandalism and further forms of violent behaviour;
- endangering morals and threatening the moral education of the young;
- xenophobia, racism, intolerance and anti-Semitism;
- use of addictive substances (including the neglected alcohol and smoking), anabolic steroids, medicaments and further substances;
- virtual drugs and pathological gambling;
- hooliganism;
- commercial sexual abuse of children;
- syndrome of maltreated and abused children;
- sects and sociopathic religious movements.
Segmentation of Primary Prevention
- Non-specific primary prevention is understood as leisure-time activities which form an inseparable part of general primary prevention and which comprise all the methods and approaches enabling the development of a balanced personality, including the opportunity to develop talents, interests, and movement and sporting activities. Programmes of non-specific prevention (e.g. various leisure-time activities) would exist and be desired even if there were no sociopathic phenomena.
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Specific primary prevention is understood as the system of activities and services for individuals
in the absence of which further negative development could be expected. It includes support programmes for groups
at risk, for children with special educational needs as prevention from exclusion.
Objectives of Specific Primary Prevention
- the interconnectedness of the system of the ministry of education and the systems of the other related ministries
- a unified system of the coordination of activities in the area of primary prevention on the horizontal and vertical levels of preventive activities of organisations directly managed by the MEYS and preventive strategies on the level of the regions
- effective cooperation on the international level in the area of primary prevention of sociopathic phenomena in children and youth
- a functional information system for the implementation of preventive action
- a functional system of school methodologists and regional prevention coordinators
- an effective system of accreditation of educational programmes in the area of primary prevention
- multisource and multiple-year financing of the primary prevention projects
Target Groups of Specific Primary Prevention
Children and Youth
The objective of activity in the area of the prevention of sociopathic phenomena is a child:
- responsible for his/her own conduct and way of life to an extent corresponding to his/her age with strengthened mental resilience to stress, negative experiences and influences
- able to make independent (and if possible correct) decisions
- with adequate socio-psychological knowledge
- able to solve problems, or able to seek assistance when solving them
- with a clearly negative relation to addictive substances
- participating in the creation of the environment and life conditions.
Pedagogical Staff
- Increasing the resistance of children and youth to sociopathic phenomena requires systematic and coordinated preparation on the part of the implementers of preventive activities in schools and educational facilities.
- A prerequisite for fulfilling the objectives in the area of prevention is an educated, professionally erudite
pedagogue equipped in terms of the communication, psychological potential and special-education skills
necessary.
Specific Target Groups
Prevention based in society presupposes a number of cooperating units. Along with the family, schools and educational facilities, it is necessary to coordinate and interconnect measures in the areas of social-legal protection of children, health-care facilities, local authorities, non-governmental not-for-profit organisations, counselling institutions in education, religious associations, police, cultural centres, interest organisations, business entities, etc.
Standards of Professional Qualifications of the Providers of Programmes of Primary Prevention in the Use of Addictive Substances
The standards form an instrument for judging the quality of preventive programmes.
General requirements of the programmes:
- availability of professional programmes and respect for the rights of the clients
- respect for the specific problems and needs of the target group
- principles of providing professional programmes
- professional leadership and development of employees and teams
(provision of the conditions for quality work and professional development)accessibility and external relations - provision of the fundamental organisational, personnel and economic requirements for providers
- minimal security (occupational safety and health, occurrence of infection, evacuation plan, suicidal tendencies, violence, acute intoxication etc.)
- clear setting of material-technical needs of the programme
- ensuring the integration of the programme into a wider system of preventive action (ensuring connectivity)
- evaluation of the quality and effectiveness of the professional programmes
The implementer of this process is the Institute for Pedagogical-Psychological Counselling (IPPP), whose tasks are chiefly:
- education of auditors (certifiers)
- provision of the implementation of local investigation
The Focus of the Programmes:
- programmes of specific primary prevention provided within school attendance
- programmes of specific prevention provided outside of school attendance
- programmes of timely intervention
- educational programmes in the area of specific primary prevention
- publication activity in the areas of primary prevention
Secondary Prevention
Within the area of education, this system includes Educational Care Centres. These centres:
- are components of selected diagnostic institutes and educational institutes
- have their activity defined in Sections 16 and 17 of Act No. 109/2002 Coll., On the Provision of Institutional and Juvenile Correctional Education at School Facilities and on Preventive Educational Care at School Facilities
- have the task to help prevent the origin and development of negative manifestations in the behaviour of a child or disruption of his/her healthy development, to limit or eliminate the causes or consequences of already established behavioural disorders
- work predominantly on the level of secondary prevention
- accept their clients (children or parents) on the basis of their free choice
- are divided into workplaces
- drop-in
- all-day (stationary)
- residential (boarding)
- work predominantly with the entire family
- offer and provide comprehensive preventive educational care and psychological assistance to children and youth at risk or with manifestations of behavioural disorders and negative phenomena in the social development as well as to children and youth released from institutional treatment during their integration into society
- provide consultations, professional information and assistance to parents or legal guardians and the pedagogical staff of schools and educational facilities in the area of the education of pupils at risk or with manifestations of behaviour disorders and negative phenomena in their social development
- cooperate in the preparation of plans for activities that prevent sociopathic phenomena and drug addiction in the area of their activity
- prepare professional bases at the request of courts, police and Organs for Social-Legal Protection of Children for their decisions, including institutional care
- cooperate with the probation and mediation service
