Background:
Preventure is an innovative personality-targeted coping skills program with a sound evidence base in Australia and internationally for the prevention of mental ill-health and substance misuse in adolescents. While Preventure has been delivered in diverse settings and populations internationally, to-date Preventure has predominantly been delivered in schools in metropolitan areas of Australia. A strength of the Preventure program is the ease of tailoring the program to specific populations through a collaborative adaptation model. This presentation will describe a project currently underway in NSW, optimising the Preventure program to address the needs of young people in regional and rural areas.

Methods:
This project involves community consultations with youth and key stakeholders to update the Preventure program materials and implementation model to enable scale up of Preventure in regional and rural NSW. Community consultations will be conducted with young people and their families, people with lived experience of drug use and mental health problems, members of local community drug action teams, community leaders, and health and education professionals in local health districts in regional and rural NSW. The consultations will focus on understanding the local area and how best to respond to the unique needs of young people in the area, and recommendations on modifications to the program materials and implementation strategies to tailor them for regional and rural youth.

Outcomes:
Following the consultations with youth and other relevant stakeholders, as well as recommendations from the project steering committee, we will make the necessary adaptations to optimise Preventure for implementation in regional and rural NSW.

Conclusion:
Preventure has a strong evidence base for multiple issues in adolescents and can be adapted to suit the needs of specific populations.