Drinking competitions; weekend binges; youth involved in fatal accident on way back from a party. Sounds familiar? Our guess is yes, as these stories/happening are becoming increasingly common in our great State of Goa, and even beyond! We have some data to share with you about this looming ‘epidemic’ and it’s our hope that this would draw the needed urgent attention. We celebrated the World Mental Health Day 2018 recently. This year’s theme was on Young people and mental health in a changing world. We wondered why this theme and were immediately reminded that this astonishing fact may have a role: 50% of all adult mental health disorders have their roots in adolescence! The focus on youth this year was therefore very appropriate and for this piece we intend to start a discussion on what is often regarded as a taboo topic and to share some insights regarding ways to tackle this public health issue of problematic drinking among young people.
Research conducted in Goa among 2000 male individuals has shown that thrice as many Goan adolescents are drinking alcohol today as compared to 30 years ago. Furthermore, a review of studies conducted in India suggest the prevalence of ‘current alcohol use’ in the age group of 13 to 21 ranges from 6% to 53%….that is more than half all young people in this age group in India currently consume alcohol! And females are beginning to consume alcohol at rates similar to males. These data are supported by WHO that reports that harmful use of alcohol and illicit drugs among adolescents is a leading mental health issue that has been recognised as a worrying and upward trend in many countries.
We do not intend for this piece to delve into the whys these trends are being observed as we think most of us know the reasons but perhaps have been in denial! For those who need reminding: we can think of a more liberal drinking culture (Goa, a tourist destination, has come to be notoriously associated with cheap and wide spread alcohol and illicit drug availability and use among tourists and Goan youth), proliferation of alcohol outlets (some of them competing with schools/colleges for space!), weakening family values, and most importantly, the influence from peers that it is ‘cool’ to drink as a young person. Whilst these are common reasons, there is also the fact that adolescents are/can be vulnerable because it is a stage in life where they are met with making tough decisions about their careers, and more importantly their self-identity. The good news is research has also shown us that adolescence represents an unique opportunity to promote attitudes and behaviours that prevent some of these practices such as problematic drinking, with benefits for a healthy adulthood.
‘It’s time to talk’ and ‘It’s OK to talk’ about adolescent mental health and substance use because it is the right thing to do and also because we can no longer continue to behave as the proverbial ostrich and feign tabooeness! This is why Sangathan NGO in Goa (http://www.sangath.in/contactus/) is putting its skills to use by developing/planning to develop easy to use and accessible interventions to strengthen families and provide adolescents with essential skills to help them deal with the pressures to drink. POWERTXT and AMBIT are two different but complementary initiatives currently being developed. POWERTXT will develop a chatbot brief intervention for problematic drinking among adolescents (18-24 years); AMBIT will develop a simple text messaging (what we usually refer to as SMS) brief intervention for problematic drinking among adults aged 18 to 40 years. With these two research projects, in several years’ time, we will be in the position to offer adolescents the options of interacting with SMS or a chatbot to help them deal with their problematic drinking! This is what Sangath has to offer but there is a lot that we as a community, a state, and country can do. For example: community action through enacting by-laws to prevent adolescent access to alcohol outlets; leadership/commitment from politicians during election periods not to offer alcoholic drinks to youth on campaign trails; create awareness of and an understanding of the early warning signs about the challenges that adolescents may be facing; schools and colleges along with parents can play a key role to help adolescents build life skills to cope with everyday challenges at home and at school; our policy-makers/politicians can introduce/support counselling services at educational institutes to detect and manage/refer early cases of alcohol and illicit substance use among adolescents; and finally….
‘It’s time to talk’ and ‘It’s OK to talk’ about mental health and substance use issues affecting adolescents.
