Engaging youth with research on substance abuse through performing arts, Sekhukhune District

In South Africa, the prevalence of substance abusers among the youth, especially in rural areas (Makiwane et al, 2017) including in Limpopo province continues to be a cause for concern (Matla and Madu, 2012, Govender, Nel & Mogotsi, 2014). International research has established understanding about the relationship between abuse of substance (alcohol, illegal and prescribed drugs mental health problems which manifest in cognitive and behavioural consequences (suicide, schizophrenia, social anxiety, mood disorders such as depression, theft and perpetration of violence and crime or being a victim). The relative lack of knowledge is exacerbated by lack of capacity and ability to access and engage with data on substance abuse and mental health. Available datasets such as the SABSSM (2018) and South African Community Epidemiology Network on Drug Use (SANCEDU) 2018 contain valuable information that can be used to create awareness about the mental health problems associated with substance abuse and facilitate deterrent behaviours among the youth. However, such data has not been packaged and disseminated in a way that it is usable by the youth who are not researchers, nor through platforms that will get the attention of the youth and facilitate critical engagement with scientific evidence. As a result, there is lack of prevention and response to substance abuse through interventions that place youth agency, participation, human rights and care at the centre of such interventions. The prevalence of substance abuse among the youth is reportedly high in the Limpopo province of South Africa. Matla and Madu (2003) found high incidences of illicit drug use (19.8%) and alcohol use (39.1%) among 435 secondary-school adolescent students around the Pietersburg area in Limpopo, with the average age of use approximately 15 years. Another study conducted by the University of Limpopo in 2013 shows that prevalence of drug use among the youth is very high with the most used drugs being commercially produced alcohol at 54. 8%, cannabis at 49% and inhalants at 39% (Govender, Nel & Mogotsi, 2015). These results are consistent with findings from more recent studies such as the SABSSM (2018) and South African Community Epidemiology Network on Drug Use (SANCEDU) (2018). A field visit assessment conducted by the HSRC in 2018 in Sekhukhune district in Limpopo corroborated the status of high prevalence rates of substance abuse among the youth. This body of research also established that there is also very little understanding about the risk to life that is posed by drug abuse, especially among the users. The University of Limpopo study established that 62% of the surveyed users did not perceive drug use as potentially 2 harmful to their health. Observations of interventions available in the Sekhukhune district show that there is also a scarcity of pro-active interventions that harness creative arts and popular cultures among the youth as tools to mitigate and combat drug abuse. Most of the available interventions are reactive and are often designed through scientific processes by professionals in the field who are mainly based at treatment centres, without effective contextualisation that would empower the affected to fight substance abuse themselves in their own communities. These interventions very often focus more on physically treating the affected and rarely use their experiential knowledge base as a resource that can be harnessed to address drug abuse among their peers. Moreover, current approaches fail to harness the creative potential of the affected youth and their potential ability to know ways in which the peers can be communicated to.