MY Healthy Future Course
A free course for students caught vaping or thinking about going vape-free
Introduction
The “MY Healthy Future: A Self-Paced Online Course” is an Alternative-to-Suspension (ATS) program created by the Stanford REACH Lab, developers of the Tobacco Prevention Toolkit and the Cannabis Awareness and Prevention Toolkit. This course is for any student caught using tobacco/vaping on school campus, or anyone working with students who want to quit. This new online, self-paced course can be completed independently by students in 40-60 minutes.
Materials and Resources for Implementation
Course Overview
Why Use this Course?
Suspending students from school for using tobacco or other drugs is not an effective disciplinary action.1 Suspension allows students to be home, often unsupervised, vaping even more, without providing support to help the student quit.
Further, research shows clear demographic disparities in suspension rates, with students from minority and low-income backgrounds more likely to be suspended, and more likely to experience negative consequences from the suspension.2 Instead, educating students and providing resources to help them quit is the most effective way to reduce and stop youth tobacco use.
Ways to Use this Course
The MY Healthy Future course can be used alone or in conjunction with any Alternative-to-Suspension (ATS) program, including our Healthy Futures Curriculum or other ATS programs.
Schools and districts using other ATS programs can assign the course to students to complete independently. This can be especially useful for youth who are not presently interested in quitting (“precontemplation” in the stages of change model) because it provides education on various topics (“consciousness raising” in the processes of change model), including but not limited to health effects, social justice issues, and mental health.
Adult Follow-Up is Critical
Like our Healthy Futures Curriculum, that is delivered by educators either one-on-one or in small group settings, this course focuses on discussion and reflection, especially after completion.
Thus, it is critical that within 3 days of completing the online course, there is a 15–30-minute follow-up with the students. The follow-up meeting can be conducted by the school’s interventionist, TUPE (Tobacco-Use Prevention Education) site liaison, counselor, nurse, health educator, social worker, community-based agency staff, or other people who have some training and background in this area.
References:
1. Lhamon, C., & Samuels, J. (2014). Dear colleague letter on the nondiscriminatory administration of school discipline. Washington, DC: US Department of Education Office of Civil Rights & US Department of Justice Civil Rights Division.
2. Welsh, R. O., & Little, S. (2018). Caste and control in schools: A systematic review of the pathways, rates and correlates of exclusion due to school discipline. Children and Youth Services Review, 94, 315-339.
Visualize the Course in Action
Where to Find the Course?
The course lives on the Stanford Medicine Educational Technology website.
The adult providing the course to the student will need to provide this link to the course registration form: https://mededucation.stanford.edu/my-healthy-future-registration/
The student will receive immediate access to the course after registering. They have the ability to sign in and out of the course and move through it at their own pace.
Where to Find Quit Resources?
This website offers a list of existing quit resources on our Going Smoke-free or Vape-free/Reducing Your Risks for COVID-19 page.
It is imperative that the student expresses interest in wanting to quit or go vape-free.
There are telephone-based tobacco cessation services better known as quitlines. Click here to see available quitlines in your state, territory, or province compiled by the North American Quitline Consortium (NAQC).
Preview the Course Modules
Module 1: Don't Miss Information
Module 2: Choose My Motivator
Module 3: Make My Momentum