While substance and alcohol abuse has always been a prevalent issue with youth in a struggling economy that is pushing both youth and their parents toward more substance abuse, according to local agencies and organizations trying to combat the problem.
According to a 2008 year-end report by the Surry County Community Child Protection Team, nearly 5,000 adults and 500 adolescents in Surry County are in need of substance abuse services.
Robin Testerman, the director of the Children Center of Surry, who presented the year end report to Surry County Board of Commissioners last month, said there are several reasons that substance abuse issues with adolescent and parents are a growing concern.
The combination of the lack of parental involvement and the accessibility of prescription and nonprescription drugs can create a gateway for experimentation and abuse, especially in a poor economy, she said.
“The economic situation puts more stress on the family dynamics and parents become less involved because they are anxious about providing the basic needs of their family and children. They may even have to work more hours at several jobs to make ends meet therefore spending less quality time with their children. We are seeing parents having to leave their young children unsupervised because they cannot afford daycare and have little or no family support,” she said.
The year-end report stated that in 2007-08, 660 adults and 33 children from Surry County admitted they had a problem with substance abuse.
Based on a formula that takes into consideration national statistics and population size of an area, Crossroads Behavioral Healthcare is able to determine a number for people who may need substance abuse treatment.
Because all cases of such issues are not always reported, determining an accurate head count is not a easy task, a representative with Crossroads said.
“It is extremely hard to be quantitative in Surry County because some cases go unreported, it oftentimes is dealt with in the family or a school setting, so being able to attached number to say ‘Yes, it’s increased’ is a difficult task,” said Catherine Arnold, a spokesperson with Crossroads. “But it is an issue, it is a concern. With youth you always have that issue that youth may experiment. The community and the youth need to become more aware that there are tools to help resist experimentation.”
Testerman said the lack of supervision from parents can be a contributor to the increase of alcohol and drug use by youth.
According to the year-end report, 42 percent of parents were willing but unable to supervise their children, while 6 percent were just unwilling to supervise.
Answer simple,
implementation hard
The answer to the growing problem she said is “more parental involvement.”
“It is so hard as parents are struggling and their lives are busy, they’re trying to make a living,” she said. “Kids are exposed to more things, like text messaging and the influence of the Internet. Parents are the anti-drug, positive parental involvement that deters children from drinking and substance abuse.”
“I am a an advocate to have more to offer kids, they need something to keep them engaged in planning for their future. They need more positive activities to do,” she added.
She explained that the essence of parental involvement is redirecting your focus on your child and outcomes for the future.
“The more you invest (time, not money) the more positive the outcome,” she said. “Parental involvement can be parents spending more time with their children, especially with teens. We often forget that our teens need us even more.”
She suggested staying involved with their activities and school.
“It’s okay to call the high school English teacher and check up on your child’s progress. Parental involvement is spending quality time with your child playing board games instead of watching TV together; cooking dinner together instead of going through drive through at a fast food restaurant,” she said. “We all live in a busy world where we are asked to do more with less resources; whether it is time or money. Positive parental involvement takes time and energy and it doesn’t mean you have to be a perfect parent—there is no such thing. Children learn from our examples and when we make a mistake and take ownership it teaches them to take responsibility which will impact behaviors with peers, teachers, and the community.”
She said all of the Children’s Center of Surry programs focus on parental involvement, which is a resource local parents can utilize.
Some of the programs include Strengthening Families, which builds on the relationship between parents and children and provides education, support and activities to increase parental involvement. Nurturing Parenting Program teaches parental involvement by implementing nurturing parenting choices and becoming involved in their child’s health, education, and growth and development; as well as making positive choices early in their child’s life. The Parents as Teachers program promotes parents as their child’s first and best teacher and involvement in early growth, development, and literacy.
Testerman said that some parents are dealing with some of the same stresses that youth are facing in the struggling economy, which is why some turn to self-medication.
Non-prescription
drugs being abused
A study released last year by the United States Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administrations (SAMHSA) indicated that more than 3 million adolescents and young adults have used non-prescription cough and cold medicines to get high.
“It’s hard too, when parents have the same issues and self-medicate to deal with the stress with the economy and loss of jobs. Self-medication is a coping mechanism, kids see parents coping with it that way so they do it,” Testerman said.
She said because prescription drugs are legal and accessible there is often a perception that they are okay to abuse.
The Partnership for Drug Free America recently released the findings of a 2008 Partnership Attitude Tracking Study, (PATS), which shows that 37 percent of teens reported learning a lot about the risks of drugs from their parents.
Of the students surveyed, in grades 7 to 12, one in five teens, or 4.7 million, report abusing a prescription medication at least once in their lives, and one in ten teens, or about 2.5 million, report having abused a prescription pain reliever in the past year. About 7 percent, or 1.7 million teens, have reported over-the-counter cough medicine abuse in the past year.
PATS shows 41 percent of teens mistakenly believe that abuse of medicines is less dangerous than abuse of illegal street drugs and 61 percent of teens report prescription drugs are easier to get than illegal drugs, up significantly from 56 percent in 2005.
“They’re is a mindset that if it is legal that it’s okay, it’s more acceptable. It’s amazing that adult and teenagers don’t think they’ve done anything wrong,” Testerman said. “It’s accessible and easy to get.”
While it can be hard to quantitatively measure the level of abuse, may local officials like Testerman say it’s a growing concern.
“It is more chronic. We have been reporting this increase for at least five years,” Testerman said. “A lot of families are repeating a cycle of substance abuse and do not see the harm they are causing their children because they grew up in the same environment and it is a ‘way of life’.”
She also said she believes that the sour economy is making it more difficult to combat the issue of substance/prescripition drug abuse.
“The economic situation increases the abuse of substances. Parents use this to cope with the added stress and self medicate to treat their own depression and anxiety,” she explained.
She said one of the most effective tools for preventing substance and alcohol abuse is “word of mouth.”
“The only tool now is word of mouth and education, videos, communities, churches, schools and parents,” she said. “The more people we can educate, the more in tune they’ll be with what’s going on.”
“We need more prevention programs, counselors working with adolescent,” she added. Just say no doesn’t work, there need to be more resources for parent education and more activities for children.”
According to Crossroads, the number of youth in Surry County under the age of 18 who were arrested for substance abuse grew from 15 in 2000-01’ to 26 in 2007. Those arrested for alcohol went from 18 in 2000 to 25 in 2007.
Schools look to help
Dr. Darrin Hartness, the superintendent of Mount Airy City Schools, said the issue of students abusing prescription drugs is one MACS has worked hard to tackle.
“Substance abuse has been a concern of administrators,” he said. “We have seen cases where students have abused prescription drugs, and we have done a couple of things to address the issues. Back in the fall put we put together a meeting along with the Surry County School System, school administrators, and police to get feedback from them to see how parents can be educated about prescription drug abuse.”
He also said on the Mount Airy City Schools Web site there is a link entitled “Do you speak teen?.” Hartness said it is a resource for teens and parents that provides information about prescription drug abuse.
Last October at its home football games MACS set up tents to provide more information to parents and students about this issue.
“We also asked our school resource officer to talk with the staff about signs to look for students abusing prescription drugs,” he said. “It is a growing trend. I think there are some students unfortunately, now , who think because it’s prescribed by a doctor it’s not dangerous, but it can be dangerous, if not more dangerous.”
“Prescription drugs is an issue we’re aware of and will not tolerate,” he added. “ It’s very dangerous and experimental risky behavior of teenagers and adolescents.”
Dr. Terri Mosley, assistant superintendent of Surry County School System, said to help combat drug concerns in the school system, it has completed random drug testing for the past 2 years.
She said there are fewer cases of children being involved in substance abuse, which she said can be attributed to better enforcement of random drug testing that has been ongoing for 2 years at the schools.
In 2008, the programs first year, out of the children tested 96 percent tested were in compliance with the no-drug policy, she said.
She said the policy started as an opportunity to intervene with students who might have made a poor decision, and create a structure to encourage other students to make good decisions.
Of those who weren’t in compliance, 81 percent followed through with the mandated substance abuse counseling.
She said there are a small number of those who test and refuse treatment, but there are a high number of children seeking out help for substance abuse.
“A student who does not follow through with treatment is eliminated from extracurricular activities and from driving privileges on campus for the year,” she said. “Students are required to complete drug counseling with a provider of their choice, we receive notification if they don’t complete the program. The intent of the program is to be preventive, not to be punitive.”
According to Mosley, in 2006-07’ there were 37 incidents of prohibited substances and 12 of alcohol, in 2007-08’ there were 32 incidents of prohibited substances and 9 of alcohol.
So far this year, as of February, there have been 14 incidents of prohibited substances and none of alcohol.
She said there are several in-school programs that educate students and encourage positive decisions like the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE), Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD), and other character education programs.
“We have chapters of that on all our campuses,” she said. “We also have the Dream Team, which is high schools who work to support positive decisions by peers.
Arnold, the crossroads spokesperson, said local agencies and the community have to be vigilant to break the cycle of drug abuse within families and peer groups.
“(Substance abuse) can progress from experimentation, and reduce the quality of life and eventually take life,” she said. “Awareness is important.”
Contact Erin C. Perkins at eperkins@mtairynews.com or 719-1952.
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