The YAC (Youth Advisory Council) is a structured forum for solicitation of input regarding research priorities, protocol vetting, study implantation and discussion of research challenges for youths directly impacted by iTech studies. YAC meetings are also used as an opportunity for education, training and discussion of results and strategies for dissemination of research findings. YAC meetings are held once a month. For more information about the YAC, click here.
Check out the takeaways from this month’s meeting:
Asking and Educating About Drugs in Research
- Articles should be presented so that I can look at it quickly and see which part of the article to read to get the info I need, and it should be written in as few words as possible.
- Social media is a good place to learn about drugs, find drugs, ask people to find drugs for you – Twitter, Tumblr, and Grindr. BlueLight.org has forums to talk about how to use drugs safely but there’s no professionals on there. I also go to YouTube videos of people talking about their experiences with drugs.
- Questions we have when being asked about drugs in a research study:
- Am I going to get in trouble?
- Are they going to ask me more questions about how I got the drugs?
- What’s the confidentiality protocol for if you find out if someone is using hard drugs – does it have to be reported? Are you going to try to get a social worker? Will you help me find resources or will you force me into resources?
- When talking about drugs in research studies use the correct name of the drug and add a few slang terms in parentheses.
- How to make drug education attractive:
- Address claims of what drugs can do for your life (e.g., marijuana can help you lose weight)
- Include drugs we may not have heard of before
- Videos with animation
- Cooler tones (blue, purple, green, etc)
- Tidbits of info and bulleted lists
- Keep it casual and fun