New evidence-based conversation guide on vaping for parents and caregivers

New evidence-based conversation guide on vaping for parents and caregivers

by | Health, News, Research and Evaluation

An Australian-first research project which aims to deeply understand teenagers’ experiences with vaping has revealed that parents hold more power and influence in tackling vaping than they might realise.


The Influencing Gen Vape research, led by The Behaviour Change Collaborative in partnership with VicHealth, involved surveys and in-depth conversations with over 3,500 teenagers across Australia.


The results have been used to create Talking to your teen about vaping, an evidence-informed conversation guide for parents and carers. The guide helps decode a teenager’s motivations, attitudes and behaviours towards vaping, and understand what messages resonate most.


The BCC’s Managing Director Luke van der Beeke said it was important to not just think of young people as either ‘vapers’ or ‘non-vapers’.


“Our research shows it’s more nuanced than that, so our approach to addressing the issue needs to be more nuanced too.


“For example, the teenager who is curious but hasn’t tried vaping needs a different conversation and different information to the teen who is experimenting or the one who is addicted,” he said.


Dr Sandro Demaio, VicHealth CEO, said it was a welcome finding from the research to see that teenagers really trust their parents and value their opinions.


“Many parents and carers say they feel powerless when it comes to vaping, which is completely understandable.


“So, it was interesting and exciting to find that most teenagers, including those who vape, genuinely care what their parents think.


“We’re proud to partner with The Behaviour Change Collaborative on this groundbreaking project, and to start sharing the important findings with those working to positively influence teens’ attitudes and behaviours towards vaping,” Dr Demaio said.


The goal of the research, and the partnership more broadly, is for learnings to support local communities to craft health promotion interventions and messaging that will positively influence teens’ attitudes and behaviours towards vaping.

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Youth engagement on alcohol nominated for Public Administration Achievement Award

Youth engagement on alcohol nominated for Public Administration Achievement Award

by | Engagement, News

The BCC was recently invited to attend the Institute of Public Administration of WA’s Achievement Awards after a youth consultation process we developed and facilitated for East Metropolitan Health Service (EMHS) was nominated in the 2022 Best Practice in Children’s Consultation category.

In early 2021, The BCC was commissioned by EMHS to support the Belmont, Victoria Park, South Perth Local Drug Action Group (BVPSP LDAG) develop its Youth Alcohol Action Plan. Minimising alcohol use and related harms among young people is a key priority for the LDAG.

Following the facilitation of two successful stakeholder engagement sessions with over 26 local partner organisations, we suggested meaningful consultation with young people was needed to sense check stakeholder outputs, and to obtain additional insight for potential use in the plan.

EMHS immediately supported the idea and leveraged its strong relationships with partner organisations to arrange two sessions with small groups of young people (aged 12-17) in South Perth and Belmont. The sessions were planned and facilitated by The BCC’s Luke van der Beeke, with the support of Olivia O’Connor Liv by Design.

The engagement captured the useful, and at times very candid views of 45 young people on their exposure to, and use of alcohol. We met on their terms, in places they felt comfortable and listened. Then we listened some more.

The sessions were designed to provide young people from a range of socio-economic and cultural backgrounds with the opportunity to have their say in a safe and fun environment within their own community.

The two informal workshops proved to be confirmatory of stakeholder priorities, while also providing useful insights which were used to augment and fine tune the final plan.

We’d like to thank everyone we worked with at EMHS for the opportunity to engage on such a rewarding project, and particularly Megan Milligan, Colby McGuire and Linda Parsons. Thanks also to the BVPSP LDAG and all the local stakeholders we had the pleasure of meeting on the journey.

Congratulations to everyone involved on the nomination, and more importantly, on the development of the Plan itself.

EMHS Youth Alcohol Action Plan (PDF)