A recipe for good mental health: A pilot randomised controlled trial of a psychological wellbeing and substance use intervention targeting young chefs

Abstract

Aims: Workforce entry is a key transition period. It offers an ideal, but under-utilised opportunity to implement intervention strategies to prevent mental health and substance use problems among young people. A brief psychological wellbeing and substance use intervention targeting a high-risk group – apprentice chefs – was undertaken to explore this opportunity. Method: A RCT design (N = 71) was used. The intervention group received two face-to-face sessions, and controls received five related information sheets during the first 2 weeks of training, with 4-month follow-up. Results: These apprentices were a high-risk group for alcohol and other drug harm and poor psychological wellbeing. At T1, 70% of the participants had AUDIT scores indicating problem drinking; 28% had used cannabis and 18% had used amphetamines in the last 12 months; and 24% had high K10 scores. At T2, the intervention group had significantly reduced risky alcohol use (p = 0.008), improved psychological distress (p = 0.045) and ability to talk with supervisors about work issues (p = 0.001) and cope with work stress (p = 0.001) and verbal abuse (p = 0.005), compared to the control group. Conclusions: Brief tailored interventions, delivered in an occupational training environment, have potential to reduce substance use risk and enhance young workers’ psychological wellbeing.

• Alcohol and other drug use
• cannabis
• intervention
• randomised controlled trial
• workplace
• young people

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank all participants who gave their time to participate in this research. Thanks are also owed to Jane Fisher from NSW TAFE who helped to support this project and Michael White for his assistance with resource preparation and delivery.

Declaration of interest

This study was undertaken with financial support from the National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre and the Australian Government Department of Health. The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.