36 University students develop campaigns for the prevention of substance abuse

36 students from the School of Nursing and the School of Architecture have developed 7 campaigns for the prevention of substance consumption in the campus of the University of Navarra. The innovation project professor , "Preaddiction, creating a campus that cares" is based on a research led by professors Idoia Pardavila, from School Nursing, Aitor Acilu and María Villanueva, from School of Architecture. In addition, it also has a Service-Learning approach at promote the training of student body, from the knowledge of real experiences, favouring the creation of healthy environments. 

To carry out this project, the students attended 3 sessions on substance use and prevention in January and April. In the first session, the students learned through the testimony of two patients from association ANTOX about the causes of substance use, such as alcohol and cocaine, and the treatment they underwent to stop using them. 

For the second session, Dr. Aubá, a psychiatrist at the Clínica Universidad de Navarraand Saioa Bariáin, psychologist at association ANTOX, explained to the students their professional experiences on substance disorders as well as some tips for the creation of a good prevention campaign. "It is necessary to work directly from the family and from the school, promoting sporting and healthy activities. Actions that are not passive, but that they become social agents" explained Saioa Bariáin. In the third session, in addition to Dr. Aubá, Blanca Martínez Bugarín, psychologist and manager of the ANTOX Pause programme, also participated. During this session, they shared their professional experiences on behavioural disorders with the students. 

Finally, after the workshops, the nursing students shared their knowledge with the architecture students to develop different prevention campaigns focused on university students. In this way, the students of design presented 7 campaigns. One of them was "The Maze", presented by the students Julia Mozaz, Paula Martín and Javier Cestero, and in which the students of School Nursing Laura Fuentes, Miren Muguruza and Lourdes Cons also participated. 

"The idea of this project is to reach more young people and to transmit information about the signs, symptoms and attitudes that are shown during the process of consumption and addiction", explained Laura Fuentes. To this end, they proposed the creation of an interactive play at campus. After its performance, through a short personality test, each spectator would be assigned a character to learn more about the final consequences of substance use. "The goal of this campaign is to involve users, to generate a community, so that they experience addiction from beginning to end," explained Julia, a student at School of Architecture.

Increase in drug use

Substance use has increased over the years globally. Some 29% of adults in the European Union have used illegal drugs at least once in their lives. This highlights the importance of training health professionals to develop prevention strategies on substance-related and addictive disorders.

The project Pre(ad)diction aims to create a partnership multidisciplinarybetween the students of School Nursing and Degree at design of School of Architecture, to create and develop prevention actions and interactions for one of the substance-related disorders in order to promote a culture of health care among university students. In this way, the specific knowledge on consumption prevention is combined with the applied methods and tools of the discipline of design of Services. For the creation of the prevention activities, the classroom Saludable of the School de Enfermería, Tantaka, the Clínica Universidad de Navarra and Antox have also collaborated.