This article was originally published on The Conversation, a non-profit independent data, research and observation source from education experts. Disclosure data can be obtained from the original website.
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Author: Jacqueline Lewis, Associate Professor, Sociology, University of Windsor
The Designated Driver (DD) is a successful public fitness strategy dating back to the 1980s. To better reflect the realities of today’s society, the time has come to develop the initiative to mitigate harm related to substance use in general and beyond drinking. and driving.
Promoting ‘circles of friends’, as an expanded harm relief strategy, is one imaginable way to achieve those goals. Like the SD, the goal of the proposed Circle of Friends initiative is to challenge criteria and publicize behavior replacement to lessen harm.
The concept of a circle of friends, however, expands that of the designated driver, taking into account ingredients and dangers, adding COVID-19 and social media, to build a more comprehensive damage mitigation strategy for the 21st century.
The designated driving force and beyond
In North America, the concept of designated behavior was born in 1988 as a component of the Alcohol Project at Harvard University’s School of Public Health. The assignment referred to a component with major Hollywood television networks and studios. For more than 30 years, this program has achieved its goal. integrating DS into our language and culture.
According to Jay Winsten, founding director of the Health Communication Center at Harvard’s THChan School of Public Health, there were two elements involved in the successful promotion of SD to the public: the first was that it was presented as a positive message, which “conferred social legitimacy on the option of abstaining from drinking and generating social tension to fulfill. “The timing was that the DS “should be perceived as an integral component of evening entertainment and not as a spectator. “
Since its inception, SD has been linked to alcohol consumption. This original orientation still dominates our popularization of the program (for example, see the definition of SD’s online dictionary).
Today, as a number of developing countries relaxing their drug policies in reaction and / or as a result of increased awareness of drug use habits and the harms related to prohibitionist policies and practices, Array adds Canada, where legalized recreational hash in 2018 and beyond. pressure increases to decriminalize the ownership of all drugs; As in Portugal, a broader technique is needed for substance use and related dangers.
Expanding the program
A circle of friends initiative can deal with a variety of potential hazards or damage. Here are four highlights:
– excessive substance use
– involuntary or non-consensual use of substances
– to social media
– COVID-19 [FEMALE
Damage related to excessive substance use comes with overdose, fainting, vomiting, vomiting, sexual or physical assault or harmful and/or embarrassing behavior.
There is also the threat of unintentional use, such as the use of a drink or other doped substance using a more potent drug (p. E. g. Heroin containing fentanyl) or “rape” drugs (e. g. E. g. GHB and rohipnol).
Another threat domain in the 21st century is related to smartphones and social media. Taking and posting photos of you and your friends is an event. These photos come with photos of intoxicated people, which can be posted (and often posted) on social networking sites through friends or strangers.
Despite legislation that protects the right to privacy, such publications can have serious negative consequences for people. Elements of your behavior on social media that are evidence of questionable “honesty, adulthood, or morality” could possibly result in loss of homework or assignments, loss of scholarships, cancellation of school admissions, or other missed opportunities.
Now, by 2020, COVID-19 is adding one more layer to the evolution of substance-like harm mitigation methods. As communities remove restrictions on COVID-19, we see young people specifically participating in social gatherings on beaches, home parties, on and off college campuses and bars, participating in the use of similar substances and behaviors that would possibly increase the threat of COVID transmission. -19.
Circles of friends
Promoting circles of friends as a damage relief strategy can address those concerns. The concept is based on DS successes, reinventing how lessons learned can be implemented in rules similar to socially guilty behavior of substance use. It also incorporates familiar elements of the most recent ones. COVID-19 “social circle” campaigns, such as restricting our exposure to others to reduce risk.
Circles of friends are small teams of Americans who combine socially and seek the well-being of others. Circles of friends can paint if the organization stays or leaves, participates in parties (small or large, indoor or outdoor), or is to go to bars or other closed public places.
On successive social occasions, members of the circle take turns playing the integral role of “guard companion” (similar to SD), abstaining from the substance and taking the initiative to inspire the organization to monitor each other to mitigate the damage. This might come with reminding members to stay together, maintain social distance, wear masks, wash their hands, and avoid taking and sharing pictures of non-punctual members. The on-call couple can also get help when needed and make sure everyone gets home safely at the end of the night, regardless of the means of transportation.
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Jacqueline Lewis works, consults, owns shares or obtains investments from any company or organization that gains advantages from this article, nor has it disclosed any applicable association beyond her university appointment.
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This article has been republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Disclosure data must be had on the original website. Read the original article:
https://theconversation. com/the-designated-driver-role-gets-a-modern-update-covering-dangers-from-covid-19-to-social-media-144672