The Darlington Drug and Alcohol Action Team (DDAAT) have been conducting a healthy behaviours survey among secondary schools in the area for the last four years, collecting data on local students about differences in attitudes and actual behaviour in smoking, alcohol and drugs use, bullying and sexual health. These differences are expressed in social marketing campaigns (see poster) to change the social norms of students about risky behaviour. The team is keen to make better use of the data collected and develop it into a commissioning and evaluation tool for public health interventions.

Fuse researchers are in conversation with representatives from the DDAAT team to discuss opportunities for bench marking the data and to provide more targeted feedback to schools participating in the survey. The researchers will review the current survey and make recommendations for future development and analysis. This support will be given free of charge.

Ideas for collaborative research were presented by DDAAT members at an 'Open Conversation' slot at the Fuse Knowledge Exchange Group (KEG) meeting, which encourages an informal conversation between Fuse academics/ students and local health practitioners about their research ideas and provides them with helpful feedback. A working group of interested researchers and practitioners was formed to take the proposed work forward.

Contact details:

Paul Hindle, Performance Analyst

Darlington Drug & Alcohol Action Team

Tel: 01325 346769

Email: paul.hindle@darlington.gov.uk