How has addiction affected education?

Sponsored: Infinity Addiction Solutions looks at how the education sector is responding to teacher and student drug use, and how they can help

Contributor

The education sector is one that’s often misrepresented. How? We’re told from a very early age that we should be grateful for the education we receive and for those teaching within it, grateful that they get to teach and that’s exactly right.

We should be appreciative to receive an education and of course apply our education in order to teach those whose turn it is to learn. That goes without saying.

However, what comes along with this message of gratitude is often an unspoken rule that we shall not speak of the stress and effect on our mental health that comes with it, whether you’re a teacher or a student.

In spite of this, by most people’s standards, teachers are one of the most underpaid and undervalued workers in the UK. They have a huge skillset and an even bigger responsibility to prepare the next generation yet in spite of them being incredible assets, they’re constantly under the threat of budget cuts, school violence and ever-changing policies.

Students aren’t able to escape this stress and pressure either with ever-increasing pressures and expectations on them to learn and produce work to, for some, unachievable standards.

Unrelenting pressure and stress

These continued stresses, placed upon teachers and students alike, are unrelenting and can have hugely negative impacts on mental wellbeing. Many feel the problem is compounded too, by the stress being almost contagious within the classroom itself and for the students who didn’t feel the strain, often eventually begun showing levels of stress also, if their teachers were particularly burned out.

For teachers in particular, the Journal of Drug Education in 1990 noted the work-related stress that teachers felt were not only related to a desire to leave the sector itself but also drug use.

A 1985 article in particular noted that teachers reported a “great-to-major need” when it came to drug use in order to cope with the stresses placed on them through their jobs, with some teachers in particular using drugs almost every day, and in some cases, every day religiously in order to help calm the anxiety they were experiencing.

School drop outs and drugs

For students in particular, reports have shown those who drop out of school, as well as those who go to college and university yet fail to achieve a degree, are at an increased risk of substance abuse also. It’s also worth noting that a low education level, while not a definite indicator of substance abuse, is a contributory factor.

How is the education sector battling drug use?

So the question remains, how is the education sector battling drug use? In the best way they know how… more education. Not only are education related websites teaching stress management and how to relieve the stress they feel in a safe and manageable manner but schools themselves are providing more drug education to both students and teachers.

It’s also worth noting that within the education sector itself, there are now a number of systems in place in direct response to the levels of drug use within the sector rising. These have been put in place to address substance abuse itself and include policy frameworks to prevent and address the substance abuse use within children and young people as well as national curricula.

Training and support for teachers is proving invaluable, by both school health practitioners and the likes of Infinity Addiction Solutions who not only provide private rehab services but also provide workplace training, including the support of employees, as well as workplace testing and implementation of policies.