About Positive Choices
Positive Choices is an online portal to help school communities access accurate, up-to-date drug education resources and prevention programs.
Research suggests the teenage years are when alcohol and other drug use are first initiated. This highlights the importance of intervening early with young people to prevent drug use uptake and associated harms. School staff and parents can play an important role in protecting young people from drug-related harms and empowering them to make positive choices. Teachers, school counsellors and parents are also the primary sources of contact for young people seeking advice or help for drug use issues, thus it is crucial they are equipped with accurate information and evidence-based harm prevention strategies.
To meet this need, the Australian Government Department of Health funded the development of Positive Choices, an online portal that recognises cultural diversity and provides access to interactive evidence-based drug education resources for school communities.
Positive Choices has a range of information and resources including:
- Evidence-based teaching programs and activities, webinars for teachers, and resources for their students.
- Parenting advice and information to help parents talk to their children about drugs and alcohol.
- Facts, advice and interactive tools for students to find out information about drugs and alcohol and make positive choices.
- Evidence based drug education resources for individuals from culturally and linguistically diverse communities.
- A collection of culturally appropriate resources based on research and consultation with people from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
Who is Positive Choices for?
Positive Choices has resources for teachers, students & schools, parents & families, culturally & linguistically diverse peoples, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Is there a cost to use Positive Choices?
The Positive Choices website is free to access and use. Positive Choices has a number of recommended programs which can be used in a school setting. There may be costs associated with use of some of these programs.
How to access Positive Choices
Positive Choices can be accessed at https://positivechoices.org.au/
Positive Choices Research and Evaluation
Positive Choices was informed by input from teachers, parents and students across Australia, and was developed in collaboration with researchers from:
- The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, at the University of Sydney (formerly known as the NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Mental Health and Substance Use, at the University of New South Wales)
- The National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC), University of New South Wales
- The National Drug Research Institute, Curtin University
