Research and Key Documents

 The following are some of the documents and research that inform the Bridges model:

The National Drug Strategy: Australia's Integrated Framework 2004-2009 states “A comprehensive harm-minimisation approach must take into account three interacting components: the individuals and their communities involved; their social, cultural, physical, legal and economic environment; and the drug itself.” (p.11)

Drug Use in the family: impacts and implications for children (2006), an ANCD Report  by Sharon Dawe, Sally Frye, David Best, Derran Moss, Judy Atkinson, Chris Evans, Mark Lynch and Paul Harnett also informs the Bridges model as it indicates :-

• "tackling drug use in isolation is unlikely to be effective" (viii)
• "treatment programs need to attend to the management of parental mental health issues."(viii)
• "effective interventions for substance abusing families need to target parent's capacity to seek and sustain support systems in their family and social networks" (viii)
• "A significant protective factor in a child's life is a secure relationship with his/her parents."(ix)

The Best Practice brief (#25) (2002) on Validating the Assets Approach identifies 40 developmental assets.  The paper states that "an adolescent with a high number of assets with engage in few or no risky behaviours". This includes violence, depression, sexual intercourse and substance use.

Benard and Marshall's, Protective Factors in Individuals, Families, and Schools: National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health Findings (2001) write (p.1) that "Initial results from the largest most comprehensive survey of adolescents provide powerful; research support for resilience-based prevention" They comment on "connectedness" as a protective factor.

Len Syme, Professor of Epidemiology at the University of California Berkley, a well respected researcher indicated on the Mastering the Control Factor, Health Report, Radio National, ABC (2000) that the importance of people having a sense of control over their lives is a major factor determining all aspects of health, and that social support is one of the ways that people use to control their lives.

The use of these broader approaches to address drug issues is also supported by the ANCD report Structural Determinants of Youth Drug Use (2001) by Catherine Spooner, Wayne Hall and Michael Lynsky which states:

• "Research. has identified how social environments, such as the availability of social supports and levels of social cohesion can affect health and well-being. (p. ix).
• "..there is good evidence for understanding drug misuse in the context of other health risk behaviours, psychosocial disorders and developmental health" (p. x).
• "Communities can foster resilience in children when they have..strong social networks in which adults are connected with each other .." (p.12)
• "Shift the focus from the negative to the positive. Work towards supporting young people to be happy, socially connected and engaged in life, rather than focusing on negative outcomes such as drug use." (p. xi).

--refer also to Spooner, C. & Hetherington, K. (2005). Social determinants of drug use. Technical Report No. 228. National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre.

Pathways to Prevention, the Commonwealth Government's National Anti-crime strategy published in 1999 also supports a contextual approach to working with people affected by drug use. This report emphasises the importance of addressing risk and protective factors to support people through different points and events in their life.  Furthermore it emphasises recognising the context and relationships for the person: "a developmental approach to prevention should therefore never focus solely on the potential offender or even on his or her immediate family, but also on the critical element of his or her relationships and social environment that interact with individual qualities in ways that produce negative outcomes. Individuals never exist in isolation."(pg 18)

Bridges is funded by the Australian Government Department of Family & Community Services
and the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing

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