Human and Social Development
Health

Women in reproductive age and pregnant women
Their partners and the male population in general
Students and teachers of upper secondary schools
Primary physicians, gynaecologists, nurses and midwives
General public

Recent research data showed that in 2009 in Poland almost 11% of women smoked during pregnancy, leading to significant percentage of prematurely born and underweight children. At the same time, 14% of women consumed alcohol while being pregnant, likewise increasing the risk of pre-term delivery, doubling the probability for low birth weight defects among newborns. Additionally, approximately 1% of Polish women declare having consumed drugs while being pregnant; this figure, however, does not include the so-called “designer drugs”, of which ongoing studies indicate that consumption has recently been exponentially increasing.

The overall goals are to reduce the use of tobacco, alcohol and other psychoactive substances by women in reproductive age and pregnant women, to improve the target groups’ health, and to reduce the socio-economic cost of the health treatment of the target groups. The specific objectives (outcomes) are: (i): raising awareness among target groups on harmful effects of using psychoactive substances; (ii): increasing involvement of target groups in making positive behavioural changes as regards use of psychoactive substances; (iii): reducing social acceptance towards pathological behaviours as regards use of psychoactive substances.

The Programme foresees three major elements: 1) trainings for medical personnel having direct contact with the target groups, pilot educational programme at workplaces, educational and informational activities at schools for the target groups and trainings for teachers on the implementation of the educational programme in schools; 2) media campaign implemented through various media channels, and by means of organization of social events at national, regional and local level, 3) internet platform with educational content which supports the campaign.

The exptected results are:

• 1’000 persons of medical personnel trained
• 100 selected workplaces (tentatively 3’000 people) reached by the pilot educational programme
• 5’200 teachers trained on implementation of the educational programme in schools
• 2’600 schools (around 50% of all schools on Poland) reached by the educational and informational activities
• 2 press conferences, 1 scientific conference, 318 local events in poviats
• Selected outputs of the social campaign: 2 7-day campaigns in the Warsaw metro, 1-month campaign per year in public transport vehicles countrywide, 2 press campaigns in female magazines a year
• Internet platform wiht educational content created