Psycho-social skills intervention for substance use amongst street children

INTRODUCTION: The unrestrained exposure to the street and its associated lifestyles make the street child vulnerable to substance use. However, the effectiveness of psycho-social intervention on the knowledge and use of these substances among street children in transitional communities has not been fully investigated; hence the need for this study.

METHODS: It was a community interventional study with a total sample of 360 street children allocated to the intervention and control clusters. The knowledge of and psychosocial correlates of substance use were assessed and a psycho-social intervention package implemented for the intervention group (IG) while the control group (CG) had an HIV/AIDS health education programme.

RESULTS: The mean age was 16 ± 1.2 and 16 ± 1.3 for the IG and CG respectively, 54% of IG were males compared to 62.8%in CG.  Current substance use was 58.7% and 69.7% in IG and CG respectively among children that were fully on the street. The mean knowledge scores increased from 8.6 ± 3.9 at baseline to 18.1 ± 3.5 immediate post intervention and reduced to 17.3 ± 2.9 at 12 weeks post intervention in the IG compared to the CG, where it reduced from 8.0 ± 5.1 at baseline to 7.1 ± 6.3 immediate post intervention before increasing to 8.7 ± 4.1 at the 12 weeks post intervention period; (P<0.005). Post intervention, there was a statistically significant reduction in the current use of hypnosedatives, tobacco, pawpaw leaves, solvents, and ethanol but use of stimulant was unresponsive. In the CG there was a general increase in the current use of the substances at the 12 weeks post intervention.

CONCLUSIONS: An interactive psychosocial package may be effective for reducing psychoactive substance use amongst street children. However, further research will be needed to address stimulant use which was unresponsive in this study.