Youth substance abuse prevention: a strategy for everyone

Earlier this week I blogged about environmental strategies for preventing youth substance abuse and shared handouts from the 2010 DFC New Grantee Training. One of the slides in the handout listed seven strategies for community change.

As a coalition, Prevention WINS members understand that each and every one of us has a role to play when it comes to creating a safe and healthy community which includes preventing youth substance abuse. To put that idea into practice, each individual and organization can do one or more of the strategies listed above.

CADCA's Handbook for Community Coalitions goes into more detail about how individuals and organizations can incorporate these strategies into what they already do.

Does your organization integrate substance abuse prevention messages into informational programs dealing with healthy youth, community safety, parenting, and other related topics?

Do you talk to your children, family, or friends about how to prevent youth substance abuse? If your organization works with children and/or families, do you share with them information about prevention or programs that will help them avoid drugs?

Do you provide opportunities for youth involvement in pro-social activities? Do you provide them with the skills needed to be successful in those activities? Do you recognize them for their involvement in activities that reduce risk and enhance protection?

What barriers exist in our community that get in the way of creating a safe and healthy environment for our children? What can you or your organization do, in collaboration with other coalition and community members, to eliminate those barriers?

What consequences do youth in our community face if they use drugs and alcohol? What recognition do they receive for leading healthy lives? What do we do to reduce the likelihood that youth can buy alcohol?

Where in our community do youth consume alcohol or smoke marijuana? Can anything in that environment be changed that would discourage drug use?

Does your organization have anti-drug policies and are youth aware of them? How do our local laws and policies affect youth substance use? Are laws and policies actually enforced?

As you can see, there are many opportunities to do things to prevent youth substance abuse. Some can be done individually, in the home, some can be done within your organization, and others need the full coalition and community behind them. What is clear is that each and every community member can play a role in prevention.

Nartionwide increase in youth marijuana use

From a December 14 National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) press release:

Fueled by increases in marijuana use, the rate of eighth-graders saying they have used an illicit drug in the past year jumped to 16 percent, up from last year's 14.5 percent, with daily marijuana use up in all grades surveyed, according to the 2010 Monitoring the Future Survey (MTF).

For 12th-graders, declines in cigarette use accompanied by recent increases in marijuana use have put marijuana ahead of cigarette smoking by some measures. In 2010, 21.4 percent of high school seniors used marijuana in the past 30 days, while 19.2 percent smoked cigarettes.

The survey . . . also shows significant increases in use of Ecstasy. In addition, nonmedical use of prescription drugs remains high. MTF is an annual series of classroom surveys of eighth, 10th, and 12th-graders conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, under a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health.

Most measures of marijuana use increased among eighth-graders, and daily marijuana use increased significantly among all three grades.

"These high rates of marijuana use during the teen and pre-teen years, when the brain continues to develop, place our young people at particular risk," said NIDA Director Nora D. Volkow, M.D. "Not only does marijuana affect learning, judgment, and motor skills, but research tells us that about 1 in 6 people who start using it as adolescents become addicted."

"The increases in youth drug use reflected in the Monitoring the Future Study are disappointing," said Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. "Mixed messages about drug legalization, particularly marijuana, may be to blame. Such messages certainly don't help parents who are trying to prevent kids from using drugs."

Positive community norms

Jeff Linkenbach from Montana State University gave the opening plenary and provided a workshop about the Positive Community Norms Model for prevention during the DFC New Grantee Training last week. Below I touch on a few of the ideas he shared.

At the beginning of both sessions, Dr. Linkenbach asked everyone, "Are we busy or are we effective?" Are we changing our communities or are we transforming them?

He talked about prevention as an act of leadership and presented seven core actions of positive leadership:

Be positive

Be present

Be perceptive

Be purposeful

Be perfected (learn from mistakes and share what was learned)

Be proactive

Be passionate.

Dr. Linkenbach is well-known for the Most of Us campaigns using the Positive Community Norms Model. A message that these campaigns promote is: most kids make healthy choices but exceptions do exist.

He also spoke about bringing together spirit, science, and action when communities work to reduce youth substance abuse. Together, they create synergy that can lead to community transformation.

He provided several examples of "spirit" and shared the following negative ad:

Though they are not videos for substance abuse prevention, he shared the following with us to provide examples of spirit:

Where is Matt? (as an example that good already exists in all of our communities)

Embrace Life

Substance abuse prevention ads using positive social norms may be viewed on the Most of Us website.

Environmental prevention: policy

Earlier today my blog topic was environmental prevention. During the DFC New Grantee Training, I attended a workshop about promoting policies that are proven to reduce youth substance abuse. Policy advocacy is considered an environmental prevention strategy.

The session started off with the question, "What policies (at what level?) can help make the population-level change you want to make in your community?" There are many settings within a community in which policy can make a difference.

When planning to advocate for policy change, it's important for coalition's to also ask themselves:

-- Is this winnable?

-- Is there energy behind it?

-- Is it worth the effort?

At least in the beginning of policy advocacy work, it is essential that coalition's find success to keep and build momentum.

The workshop went on to discuss different policies to address different factors contributing to youth substance abuse. Below are two factors present in northeast Seattle.

The last part of the workshop dealt with the steps to take when advocating for policy.

Policy advocacy is best when many voices are heard. A high level of support behind a policy is extremely important and it needs to be seen and recognized by the community and policy-makers.

The entire handout from the workshop if available on the coalition's website.

What is environmental prevention?

During the DFC New Grantee Training last week, we learned more about environmental prevention strategies.

Environmental strategies address the place, settings, occasions and circumstances in which alcohol and other drug use and/or sales occur. Over the last four years, the Prevention WINS coalition mostly worked on individually focused prevention programs like Life Skills Training and Guiding Good Choices.

The DFC grant requires that we focus on environmental strategies.

While the coalition's DFC strategies will focus on environmental prevention, we will continue to work with and support community organizations that offer individual prevention programs.

Copies of this presentation and others from the New Grantee Training are available on the coalition's website.

Sharing: DFC New Grantee Training

Earlier this week, I spent three days in Washington, DC participating in the 2010 Drug Free Communities New Grantee Training. The Prevention WINS coalition is one of 169 coalitions that were awarded DFC grants this year. Nationwide, 741 coalitions receive DFC funding and there are now 30 DFC coalitions in Washington!

In addition to the workshops about managing the grant, I was fortunate to participate in other sessions that are of interest to many coalition members. I will blog about them over the next few days.

Here are a few things I took away from the training:

-- Coalitions across the nation have been successful in reducing youth substance abuse. Coalitions that include all community sectors are the most successful. Everyone has a role to play. Help individuals and organizations recognize their role.

-- Infuse prevention into all conversations about public health and safety.

-- Coalition coordinators are community facilitators and barrier removers whose job it is to support community members and their prevention activities.

-- Tell your community's story. Don't rely only on data but share with others what you see in our community.

-- Take advantage of CADCA materials and trainings.

-- Take advantage of the Above the Influence campaign materials.

-- Sugarland's Stand Up is catchy. Jack Claypool, the federal administrator for the DFC program, played it several times during the training and it didn't leave my head until I got on the plane back to Seattle.

King County Legislative Forum December 15

King County Legislative Forum: Issues for 2011 Related to Mental Health & Substance Abuse Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

6:30 - 8:30 p.m.

St. Marks Cathedral, Bloedel Hall

Agenda:

1. Light refreshments followed by program to begin promptly at 7 p.m.

2. Keynote from King County Executive Dow Constantine (Invited)

3. Presentations by Consumers and Family Members

4. Legislative Priorities for Mental Health and Substance Abuse Prevention, Community Organizing, Treatment and Recovery

5. Legislative Roundtable with King County Legislators and United States Congress Representatives (Invited)

Show your support for reducing youth exposure to alcohol ads

Thanks in part to input from anti-drug coalitions, the Washington State Liquor Control Board adopted new alcohol advertising rules in April to reduce the amount of ads that young people are exposed to in our communities.

We can, once again, show our support for a reduction in alcohol advertising by signing a Let's Draw the Line Commitment Card. Print and sign a card, get other people you know to sign them, too, and send them to the Prevention WINS coordinator. Our cards will join cards signed by other advocates and raise awareness about alcohol advertising and youth.

For information about alcohol marketing and youth, visit http://www.camy.org/.

Drugged driving

From an ONDCP press release:

Earlier this week, Gil Kerlikowske, Director of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), called attention to the alarmingly high percentage of fatalities on our Nation's roadways involving drivers that had drugs in their system and called on communities to act immediately to prevent drug use before it starts in light of a new traffic fatality analysis released by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA).

While national data focusing on the danger of driving under the influence of alcohol is readily available and often cited, less is known or discussed about drivers under the influence of other drugs. However, according to the first-ever analysis of drug involvement from NHTSA's Fatal Accident Reporting System (FARS) census, one in three motor vehicle fatalities (33 percent) with known drug test results tested positive for drugs in 2009. Additionally, according to the new analysis, the involvement of drugs in fatal crashes has increased by five percent over the past five years, even as the overall number of drivers killed in motor vehicle crashes in the United States has declined.

These new data from NHTSA's FARS census reports the presence of narcotics, depressants, stimulants, cannabinoids (marijuana), hallucinogens PCP, anabolic steroids, and inhalants among drivers fatally injured in car crashes over the past five years. Drugs recorded in FARS include illegal substances as well as over-the-counter and prescription medications, which may or may not have been misused. Alcohol, nicotine, aspirin, and drugs administered after the crash are excluded from these results. Additionally, drug involvement means that drugs were found in the driver's system and does not imply impairment or indicate that drug use was the cause of the crash. However, research shows that drugs have adverse effects on judgment, reaction time, motor skills, and memory—critical skills for safe and responsible driving.

The importance of providing youth with opportunities for pro-social involvement

The prevention strategies being implemented by the Prevention WINS coalition are based on risk and protective factors identified through community data. While we work to reduce risk factors such as easy access to alcohol and marijuana, favorable attitudes towards drugs, and families not monitoring their children, we strive to increase factors that protect our children from drug and alcohol use.

According to the Social Development Research Group at the University of Washington, two key protective factors are

(1) bonding to pro-social family, school and peers, and

(2) clear standards or norms for behavior.

Families, schools, community organizations, neighbors, and others can promote these protective factors by providing "opportunities for involvement in productive pro-social roles, skills to be successfully involved in these roles, and consistent systems of recognition and reinforcement for pro-social involvement. These factors protect against the development of conduct problems, school misbehavior, truancy, and drug abuse."

Be a part of creating a community that provides opportunities and teaches skills for pro-social involvement and then rewards young people for their involvement. Everyone in the community has a role to play.