University Extension as a Humanist Mediation for Drug-Addiction Prevention

Abstract

University Extension is one of the substantive functions capable of articulating comprehensive training with the prevention of drug use; however, its humanistic potential is often diluted in informative and moralizing practices. This qualitative, exploratory and theoretical-practical study aimed to characterize the educational work of drug addiction prevention developed by the University Extension at the University of Holguín (Cuba) and to explore the perception of teachers and students about preventive activities, between 2023 and 2025. 16 teachers linked to extension, intentionally selected, and 140 students from first to third year chosen through stratified sampling in the Faculty of Computer Science and Mathematics participated. Semi-structured interviews, perception surveys, participant observation, documentary review, focus groups and analysis of creative products were used; The information was processed through thematic content analysis. The preliminary results suggest that students perceive traditional preventive actions as repetitive and insignificant, and that they value listening spaces where prevention emerges from an authentic bond. The analysis made it possible to systematize four humanistic dimensions —dialogic, narrative, community and ethics of care— and two extension devices of our own design: the elective subject "Health and quality of life" and the project "SATURDAY UHo". It is concluded that University Extension can become a humanistic mediation of prevention when it goes beyond the logic of informative talk and is oriented towards listening, dialogue, community and care for others, without substituting clinical, epidemiological or structural policy approaches.