From a young age we learn there are certain things that are good for us, and some things that are harmful to our health. Take smoking and ask any 9 or 10-year-old whether they think this is good for their health, or bad. You could ask them the same question on vaping, taking drugs or getting drunk. And it probably won’t surprise you that they know all four have poor health implications.

Interestingly, many will swear that they would never smoke, vape or take drugs. However, we know that there is a change that happens as children enter their teenage years.

Wednesday is World Children’s Day and we have an opportunity to learn from our experience of what works and what doesn’t, to actually change what it is like to grow up in Scotland. Are we as a country going to invest in prevention or continue to keep only picking up the pieces?  

In our most recent Planet Youth survey 8% of Scottish 15-year-olds told us they smoke regularly, 14% said they vaped daily and 13% admitted to trying cannabis. As well as this, 25% said they had been drunk in the last year. 

So what is it that moves us from 10 year olds swearing they’d never smoke or take drugs to those same kids becoming teenagers and doing exactly that? Planet Youth is about finding out. 

We know teenagers know smoking, vaping, drugs and getting drunk is bad for them, but they do it anyway. Adults make similar decisions every day, despite knowing the risks, so why do we expect teenagers to listen when we say “don’t do that”? 

An alternative approach can be found in Iceland, where Planet Youth, also known as the Icelandic Primary Prevention Model, led to a significant culture shift and a dramatic reduction in the number of teenagers drinking, smoking and taking drugs over the last 20 years. 

Despite having high levels of alcohol and drug use amongst teens in the 1990s, in Iceland this has fallen to around 4-5%. In comparison, around 20-40% of Scottish teenagers engage in the use of alcohol and drugs. 

The Planet Youth approach identifies factors which lead to risky behaviour while also recognising the best ways to tackle it. It’s not about saying no, it’s about the adults in teenagers’ lives – teachers, parents, carers, or others like youth groups – offering them better options. 

Not unlike Scotland, Iceland had suffered from issues around alcohol and drug use. In recent years it has been hard to escape the depressing figures showing stubbornly high death rates linked to substance abuse in Scotland. But looking at our Nordic neighbours, we know this doesn’t have to continue. We need to embrace culture change, just like them and focus more on prevention rather than purely on treatment. 

Working with our teenagers of today to change the lives of those who will follow, could help usher in the wider change needed. 

A key part of our Planet Youth toolbox is our survey. Every two-years we ask 15-year-old’s about their experiences with smoking, vaping, drugs and alcohol. And we also seek to find out about their lives too – how do they feel about things impacting them such as their surroundings.  

Our last survey found that about one third of teenagers don’t feel safe in their communities. Our data allows us to examine the correlation, to paint a more focussed picture. And this shows that young people who don’t think it’s good to live in their neighbourhood are roughly twice as likely to have been drunk, take drugs or smoked e-cigarettes than young people who think it is good.  

Truly understanding the lives of our current 15-year-olds – and all the factors that play into their decision making – the adults around them can make different decisions about how they are influencing the children who are entering their teenage years now.  

And this snippet shows us that improving neighbourhoods is an area that we should be focusing on. 

Rather than hoping for the best and trying to mitigate the consequences of the use of health harming substances in teenagers, Planet Youth follows the science and delivers informed preventative alternatives. 

Although led by adults, all our steps are informed by teenagers so the services supplied to the next generation of teens are based on the needs of those who are best placed to advise. 

Through working with current 15-year-olds to identify factors which have led them to smoking, using other substances or drinking alcohol, we can then focus on how to make it easier for them to make better decisions.  

We are already piloting Planet Youth in 24 communities across Scotland, working with local authorities, health boards and the government to bring the change Scotland needs. But the real benefit will come when we are able to roll this our right across the country, taking a nationwide approach. 

There’s a moral argument for helping teenagers to avoid pitfalls that could impact the rest of their lives, but the financial argument is strong too. Investing now will result in savings as these young people hit adulthood and beyond – in justice, healthcare, and building our future workforces to name a few.  

Zahra Hedges is CEO of Winning Scotland