Dundee pupils deliver ‘open and honest’ response in Planet Youth substance abuse pilot programme

Teenagers across Dundee have made their voices heard as the findings of a pioneering initiative aimed at helping tackle the city’s drugs crisis are revealed.

Since 2021, Dundee secondary school pupils have been taking part in the Planet Youth model – a community-based approach aiming to deter young people’s substance use.

The model was first developed in Iceland over 20 years ago and has since been adapted in more than 30 countries around the world.

Dundee was one of six areas chosen to be part of a pilot looking at how it could be implemented in Scotland.

This involved S3 and S4 pupils filling out an anonymous survey in order to gather information about young people’s health and wellbeing.

Alcohol most commonly used substance

Around 1,300 pupils from four city schools – Baldragon Academy, St Paul’s Academy, Harris Academy and St John’s High School – took part in the latest survey last October.

It revealed that amongst teenagers across the city, alcohol is the most commonly used substance – followed by tobacco and cannabis. The use of vapes and e-cigs also continues to rise.

However, there were low reported rates of other substance use.

The survey’s findings also highlighted that young people expressed low feelings of safety outwith their home, as well as low levels of self-esteem and self-respect.

There is also an increase in young people accessing pornography, in addition to low levels of sexual health education received at home, school and in the community.

Survey gave pupils ‘safe space’

The idea behind the survey is find out what the pupils feel is needed, or perhaps missing, in the local community.

St Paul’s Academy headteacher Kirsty Small is among those who are now looking at the findings to see what more can be done to help young people.

She said: “We have a passion and drive for things to change within on our own community and, as a Catholic school, we also have the opportunity to reach others across Dundee.

“The main takeaways for us were the importance of youth voice and really listening to what they had to say.

“The surveys gave the pupils a safe space to be honest and open and judging from the responses we got, we felt that they were.

“And they are responding well because we are saying we’ve heard them and here’s what we are going to do.”

The Scottish Government has invested £1.5million over two years in the Planet Youth initiative to test the model and build capacity for using data insight to drive preventative action locally.

It’s hoped the Planet Youth model will eventually be rolled to all secondary schools in Dundee.