This week the Hon Mark Butler MP (Minister for Health and Aged Care) made the exciting announcement that the federal government will be rolling out the OurFutures Vaping Prevention Program to high schools across Australia in 2025!
Ken Wallace, CEO of OurFutures, joined Minister Butler with some of the key researchers behind the vaping prevention program at Cannon Hill Anglican College in Brisbane, where the funding initiative was launched on Wednesday.
L-R: Ken Wallace, CEO OurFutures Institute; Mark Butler MP, Minister for Health and Aged Care; Ashley McGrath, Chairperson OurFutures Institute.
The program, based on the evidence-based OurFutures prevention model developed by researchers at the Matilda Centre, empowers young people to make informed decisions regarding vaping use by developing their skills in social influence and identifying misinformation about vapes. As A/Prof Emily Stockings (Program Lead of ‘Smoking, Vaping and Mental Health’ at the Matilda Centre) stated on Wednesday, “This unique, evidence-based program provides young people with a toolkit of skills that can be used in the real world to prevent vaping and smoking. We know these kinds of coping skills can also have flow on effects on mental health and wellbeing.”
L-R: Prof Nicola Newton, co-founder of OurFutures and Director of Prevention at the Matilda Centre; Mark Butler MP, A/Prof Emily Stockings, Chief Investigator of the OurFutures Vaping program at the Matilda Centre.
The OurFutures Vaping Program is currently being rigorously evaluated in a cluster randomised control trial across 40 Australian high schools and 5,000+ students, using the same prevention education methodology as our other award-winning prevention programs.
Initial results have shown that immediately after receiving the program, students had significantly reduced intentions to vape, as well as improved knowledge about the harms and risks associated with vaping.
Over 8 in 10 students said the skills and information they learnt would help them deal more effectively with vaping situations in the future.
Summary:
The OurFutures Vaping program will be available for free to students in year 7 and 8 across all high schools in Australia through funding from the federal health department.
The program is opt-in and free. Contact us if you’d like to register your school for 2025.
Relevant news coverage:
Read the media release from Minister Butler’s press conference in Brisbane on the national anti-vaping program roll-out for young people here.
Read the transcript here.
Read the ABC News article here.
Listen to the RN National Radio episode with Minister Butler here.
Listen to the ABC Listen episode here.
Listen to ABC Adelaide Drive episode with Prof Nicola Newton (co-founder of OurFutures) here – (47:18 minutes in).
Author: Francesca Wallis
