Study title

The study charted how substance abuse prevention, especially prevention of gambling problems, was provided in three regions in Finland. The aim of the study was to examine how different regions had enacted the new substance abuse prevention law, which came into effect in December 2015, ruling that drug substance abuse prevention should be provided as a part of public services. In each region, individual interviews from social welfare and health care managers as well as group interviews from substance abuse prevention groups and other preventive service workers were collected. The data include 16 individual interviews and 14 group interviews, where the group size varied between two and twelve persons. The interviews were conducted in the same regions in 2016 and 2017. Some of the interviewees participated during both years, but excluding two managers, the interviews given by the same participants cannot be connected to each other. The funding for the study was included in the framework agreement between the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health and the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) according to which THL manages gambling problem prevention, treatment development and research into the issue. The funding is based on section 52 in the Lottery Act. The interviews charted local knowledge on gambling problems, the kinds of substance abuse prevention that were provided in the region and the aspects the interviewees saw as local strengths or weaknesses both generally in substance abuse prevention and specifically in the prevention of gambling problems. The key actors in the region and the role of businesses and authorities in substance abuse prevention were also charted. The substance abuse prevention law was examined through the viewpoint of local execution. The interviewees discussed the themes of the interview through their own work. In the 2017 interviews, the prevention of gambling problems was more heavily focused on. The implications of the...