Lanark takes Iceland approach to teen addiction
‘Planet Youth’ turned around substance abuse crisis in early ’90s
In 2016, Iceland welcomed a Lanark County import by the name of Eliza Reid as the country’s first lady after her husband, Gudni Johannesson, was elected president. The Oxford-educated Reid grew up on a hobby farm near Ashton, on the edge of the rural Ottawa Valley county.
Two years later, Lanark County is repaying the hospitality, in a sense, by welcoming an import from Iceland by the name of Alfgeir Kristjansson.
And county public health officials and community activists are hoping the message the expert on teen addiction brings will be game changing for the youth of Lanark.
Kristjansson, who currently works at the School of Public Health at West Virginia University and the Centre for Social Research and Analysis at Reykjavik University in Iceland, is an expert on what has become known as the Iceland Model of reducing teen substance abuse, a program known as Planet Youth.
Through prevention and community engagement, Iceland was able to turn around a crisis in teen addiction and alcohol abuse.
The program, now emulated around the world, was born out of a desperate need.
By the early 1990s, Iceland was home to a teen drinking culture that was entrenched, widespread and worrisome.
Forty two per cent of the country’s teenagers reported that they had been drunk in the past month, many age 13 or younger. Iceland had the highest rate of teen drinking in Europe and it was part of an ingrained culture. At the same time, 17 per cent of Icelandic teens were using cannabis.
Twenty years later, fewer than five per cent of Grade 10 teens report being drunk in the past 30 days and seven per cent report having used cannabis.
The dramatic change was the result of a primary prevention program aimed at delaying or preventing the onset of substance use among teens, in part by getting the entire community involved and making sure teens have something better to do.
Rather than trying to treat teens and adults once they become addicted, primary prevention — preventing those at risk from becoming binge drinkers or addicts in the first place — offers the best returns for individuals and society, says Kristjansson, who speaks regularly about Iceland’s success in curbing teen addiction.
Lanark County public health and community officials were attracted to the model because of growing concerns about the well-being of teenagers there.
In a 2013 survey, nearly 20 per cent of students from Leeds, Grenville and Lanark reported having poor mental health — compared to about 15 per cent across the province and 16.6 per cent in a survey done four years earlier.
Those numbers were particularly worrisome in light of recent history in Lanark County and area, where six young people took their lives in 2010.
Alcohol-use rates in the region are high, but have gone down in recent years. In 2013, 76 per cent of children between Grades 9 and 12 reported having used alcohol in the past year. In 2017, that statistic was down to 57 per cent, according to data collected by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Cannabis use and smoking rates have also gone down in recent years, but the overall picture is still too much alcohol use and worrisome mental health concerns, say Lanark public health officials. With the opioid crisis across the country, including in Lanark County, local officials felt they had to act.
“Our young people are telling us that they are feeling stressed. They are not feeling well,” said Dr. Paula Stewart, medical officer of health with the Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit.
David Somppi of Carleton Place, who chairs the community-led Planet Youth Lanark County, said there are reasons to be concerned about risk factors among youth in Lanark County, as with youth elsewhere. Planet Youth aims at protecting them from those risks.
“Planet Youth is about … an assessment of risk factors that exist and developing strategies to build more protective factors,” said Somppi.
Iceland has set up a non-profit organization called Planet Youth whose mission is to help communities around the world embrace their model.
In previous presentations, Kristjansson, who speaks in Carleton Place on Nov. 28 and Perth on Nov. 29 (planetyouthlanark.ca), has said the Iceland model shows that social problems such as drinking and drug abuse can be prevented.
“When it comes to lifestyle-induced problems like drug use, we can change all that well before those problems are initiated.”
The approach in Iceland included convincing parents to spend more time with their children, community engagement so that teens who were at risk could be identified and, crucially, funding for arts and sports programs to make sure teens were kept busy and interested.
Even if the approach delays a young person’s use of drugs or alcohol, said Kristjansson, it can make a huge difference.
“If we can delay the onset of use by a single year, we have saved a lot of money, we have saved a lot of family misery, we have saved a lot of health care and we have created a better community.”
Lanark County will survey Grade 10 students regularly to see whether things change over time and to assess where the needs are.
Kevin Clouthier, executive director of the organization Open Doors for Lanark Children and Youth, travelled to Iceland to learn more about the program.
He said the initiative, which includes access and transportation to recreational and arts activities for teens, had a broad positive effect on Icelandic society.
Although it was designed to tackle drug and alcohol use, the program also had a positive impact on teen pregnancy rates, bullying and crime.
“Culturally, it is like a rising tide raises all boats.”
When it comes to lifestyle induced problems like drug use, we can change all that well before those problems are initiated.