Getting kids to kick the habit

CRAP may sound like a fight, but students at CBS Westland Row, Dublin, who were involved in the pilot programme, see it more as a "bit of fun" and a break from normal school routine.

SCRAP stands for the Smoking Cessation and Reduction Action Programme for Schools, which was piloted in 13 schools throughout the country last year and is now available as a resource for all post primary schools.

In the past, anti smoking programmes have concentrated on emphasising the long term health risks of smoking, but all the evidence points to the fact that even when people know they are doing themselves serious damage they will continue to smoke.

"Most people who smoke know that it is bad for their health. There is a lot of evidence to show that when youngsters start smoking they don't enjoy it - they just do it to be cool and to keep up with their friends," says Catherine Joyce, who is head of pastoral and health education at CBS Westland Row, which has been co educational for the last six years.

The SCRAP programme, which has been developed co operatively by the Department of Health, The Irish Cancer Society, the National Youth Federation and the Department of Education, is designed to encourage young people to take responsibility for their own health.

The programme targets first year, second level students and is based on peer led education - students work together in small groups and take turns to act as peer leaders. Lessons cover facts about smoking, discussions on why young people smoke, on the positive and negative aspects of smoking, on passive smoking, on the rights of non smokers and on advertising. Role play provides a means of teaching children to resist peer pressure.

"The main feature of the programme is that it is done by peer tutoring," explains Catherine Joyce. "This method is extremely effective and could be introduced into other areas. The children have to take responsibility for their own learning. The teacher introduces each lesson to the class and keeps things moving along. The groups report back at end of class. Some children are not familiar with role playing so you have to do a bit of explaining about that." However, once they got used to it, they enjoyed it", she says.

Joyce finds that allowing a class to form its own groups is beneficial. "I used to pick groups at random but no longer do so. I've learned that if they form their own groups they get on with each other better and you introduce an element of competition which means they work harder..."

But although the programme works well with smaller classes, Joyce believes that large numbers could make implementation difficult.

"I think it's best to start the programme midway through first year or at least after the first six weeks of school - by then you have established your control and the class is beginning to gel together."

Of the 18 Westland Row students who took part in the pilot programme, only one was a smoker, while another - Orla Ellison - smoked between the ages of nine and 11 years, when she gave it up for health reasons. "If I had taken the course before I began smoking I don't think I would have started," she says. "When you're young you don't know about the diseases you can catch if you smoke."

THE youngsters are very aware of the downside of smoking and can see little good in it. "You notice how badly short of breath children who smoke are - when they run they're panting," they say.

These students are all children of smokers and they complain of the unpleasantness of passive smoking. "The smoke gets in your eyes and makes you choke and cough." They complain to their parents who are unable to give up the habit. "My ma did try to give it up but she got narky and went back to it, says one boy.

The group, many of whom are involved in sports, believes that the SCRAP programme has reinforced their anti smoking views, but think that it would be unlikely to deter confirmed smokers. "It would be better if it was done in fifth or sixth class before children start smoking," says Anthony Lane, who adds, "the programme was a bit of fun. It was better without the teacher telling you what to do."

SCRAP has now been slotted into Westland Row's health education programme in which the issue of smoking also crops up in later years. Educational psychologist Dr Mark Morgan, who evaluated the pilot programme, believes that the fact that the programme is peer led is crucial to its success.

"Just giving young people information on the consequences of smoking can be counter productive," he says. "You can only be successful when you involve peers and equip them to resist peer pressure... As substances become more easily available, it is important to get young people to take responsibility for their own health."