Vaping is an epidemic. How can Hopelab help?
At Hopelab, it’s our mission to improve the health and well-being of teens and young adults. When an influx of news items in 2019 made it startlingly clear that the vaping epidemic is especially dangerous for young people, we wanted to see how we could make an impact in this important area. Danielle Ramo, PhD, Hopelab’s Senior Research Director and an expert in teen vaping, has spent the last 15 years of her career researching the effects of digital interventions on substance use. Her work showed that vaping is not safe for teens, and that digital solutions like social media are likely to reach young people and can help them to quit smoking. Dr. Ramo has also spent much of the last five years speaking to concerned parents about how to help their teens stop vaping. She heard parents’ desperation for science-based information and tips for having productive conversations at home, not just another “don’t do drugs” talk.
At Hopelab we believe that there are many different ways to make an impact, as long as there is a clear pathway to how we might improve the lives of young people. In this case, we know that teen vaping has caused an epidemic of nicotine addiction among young people that needs to be addressed. We also know that parents play a critical role in helping to shape children’s beliefs about substances, and can help their teens to stop if they become dependent. In collaboration with All Mental Health and the American Heart Association, we embarked upon a project aimed at helping parents have respectful, nuanced, informed conversations with their teens. Simultaneously, there was an opportunity to share the resources Dr. Ramo was giving to parents with a much wider audience.