title: Children and drug education: the P.I.E.D. Pipers. People Involved in Education about Drugs.
abstract: Substance use and abuse are a part of daily life for many children in the 1990s. An innovative project, The P.I.E.D. Pipers, focused on drug education for children as a positive strategy. Changes occurred in children through the educational process at a primary level of intervention. Changes in life-styles to promote drug-free health and the development of coping mechanisms to deal with the drug culture on a daily basis were identified by the children as positive outcomes of the project. Nursing has a responsibility to protect and promote health in a changing society. Positive health habits learned and established in early childhood and continued into adolescence can protect and promote healthful and productive living in adulthood. Research utilization was the basis for the project, with the application of research-based knowledge available from multiple sources. Research utilization for the P.I.E.D. Pipers project provided the impetus and opportunity for children and many professionals to address a societal problem. Nurses as leaders united with trainees, drug counselors, and administrators to form a family that developed a sense of togetherness by promoting a capacity for change, mutual and independent activities, and a feeling of cohesiveness to face the challenge of substance abuse and its consequences.
authors.affiliation: College of Nursing, State University of New York at Brooklyn, USA.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gloss
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D005381:Financing, Organized; D006266:Health Education / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration; D006801:Humans; D008507:Medically Underserved Area; D009519:New York City; D016730:Program Development; D015397:Program Evaluation; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000517:prevention & control*