Youth Consultations on Alcohol and Drug Problems

A group of students, headteachers, youth workers, probation officers, health educators and doctors came together in 1979 with the aim of consulting young people about alcohol and drug problems in the community. The interest which brought about this initiative and the response to it are described briefly. There is undoubted demand and universal approval for the consultative approach. The richness and intensity of the response from the large number of young people consulted suggests their great desire for information and participation in problem-solving and prevention. It is suggested that processes of consulting and informing young people about social and personal problems have been lost in the distortions of cultural transmission in a period of rapid technical advances and social changes. The authors conclude that their empirical and innovative approach should be developed, studied and evaluated.