Pubdate: Sat, 15 Jun 2013
Source: Patriot-News, The (PA)
Copyright: 2013 The Patriot-News
Contact: http://www.pennlive.com/mailforms/patriotletters/
Website: http://www.pennlive.com/patriotnews/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1630
Author: Kara Newhouse

SURVEY SHOWS HIGHER DRUG AND ALCOHOL USE AMONG CLASS OF 2014

What's going on with the class of 2014? That's the big question that
emerges from the results of the Pennsylvania Youth Survey (PAYS) that
Perry County students took in 2011.

At the time of the survey, today's rising seniors were sophomores, but
many of their rates for drug and alcohol use were on par with or
higher than the seniors of that year -- the class of 2012.

Regarding alcohol, for example, 63 percent of students surveyed from
the class of 2014 reported some lifetime use as of 2011, while 60.7
percent of the class of 2012 reported the same.

The survey also revealed that 36.2 percent of the class of 2014
reported using alcohol in the 30 days prior to taking the survey,
while 31.1 percent of the class of 2012 reported past-month alcohol
use.

The class of 2014 also reported higher lifetime use of marijuana and
inhalants than the class of 2012, as well as higher past-month rates
of alcohol use, binge drinking, marijuana use and inhalant use.

In comparison to the rest of the state, the class of 2014 reported
higher-than-average use in the following categories where the class of
2012 reported lower rates than the state average: past-month binge
drinking; past-month alcohol, marijuana, cigarette, heroin, pain
reliever and inhalant use; and lifetime use of alcohol, cigarettes,
marijuana, inhalants and any illicit drug other than marijuana.

"It's a grade level that we need to be more observant of and [look at]
the possibility if there need to be some sort of interventions," said
Glenys DiLissio, executive director of Perry Human Services (PHS),
which provides drug and alcohol prevention and rehabilitation serves
to the county.

The Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD)
administers the PAYS every other year. Typically, schools are selected
randomly for the survey, but organizations also can pay to have a
survey conducted in their area. In 2011, PHS secured grants from
Carlisle Area Health and Wellness Foundation, Cumberland-Perry Drug
and Alcohol Commission and United Way of the Capital Region to
administer the survey in Perry County. Students who were in eighth,
10th or 12th grade in the fall of 2011 were asked to take the survey,
which is voluntary and anonymous.

In total, 823 Perry County students participated in the PAYS. That's
slightly less than half of county's enrollment for those grades. In
May, DiLissio led four town hall meetings -- one in each school
district -- to share the results of the survey. Attendance was
minimal, and DiLissio said she was disappointed with the turnout by
borough and township officials, local business owners and residents.
"We can't just say it's the school's issue or Perry Human Services'.
It takes everybody."

Each year, PHS conducts more than 500 presentations on drug and
alcohol prevention and healthy life skills promotion at local schools,
primarily in the elementary grades. Staff members also are part of the
Student Assistance Teams at middle and high schools.

"We can give all kinds of accurate alcohol and drug information, but
if they're not seeing family members and community members role
modeling healthy life skills, we're only a small piece," DiLissio said.

The next step for her agency will be to present the PAYS data to the
Perry Family Services Partnership Board, a group of agencies and
social service providers that meets once per month to update each
other on what issues they're seeing among clients and what resources
are available.

Another piece of the PAYS that will help the partnership board
identify local strengths and weaknesses is the section on risk and
protective factors for student drug and alcohol use.

For example, while school and community "rewards for prosocial
involvement" ranked among the highest protective factors, "community
opportunities for prosocial involvement" was the lowest protective
factor.

"I think [youth] don't realize how much is out there and no one has
made an effort to hook them in," said DiLissio. When she takes the
information to the partnership board, her goal will be to brainstorm
about how to connect with churches and service organizations around
the needs indicated by the PAYS.

DiLissio said it's important to recognize and praise young people who
have developed healthy life skills. For those who haven't, she asked,
"How do we engage them so they can make a different choice?"

Highest risk factor scores reported by Perry County students in the
PAYS were for community disorganization, perceived availability of
handguns and laws and norms favorable to drug use. The lowest risk
factors were early initiation of drug use, friends' use of drugs and
rebelliousness.

Perry County students also took the PAYS in 2007. The cost of the
survey and the accompanying report prevented PHS from having it
administered in 2009, which means there isn't a benchmark for the
class of 2014's attitudes and behaviors when they were
eighth-graders.

The elimination of the PAYS cost for 2013, however, provides the
possibility to survey that class and other grades in the fall of this
year.

Geoff Kolchin, program analyst in the state Office of Juvenile Justice
and Delinquency Prevention, said that the PCCD, Department of
Education, and Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs partnered to
make the next survey free so that local agencies could "use their
dollars for direct prevention services rather than the cost of the
survey."

The opportunity is huge, according to DiLissio. "With the consistency
. it will show better numbers. It will show the baseline data. With
all that we're doing, is something getting better? Is something
jumping off the page?"

Even as the next survey goes out, DiLissio will be working in the
trenches on local drug and alcohol problems. Despite the striking
numbers and stories, she maintains some idealism.

"If we could eliminate drug and alcohol use across the county, across
the state, across the nation, the amount of issues and problems that
we have in this country would be so reduced," she said. "When we look
at crime, incarceration, [vehicle] crashes, insurance -- it impacts
every aspect of our lives."
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MAP posted-by: Matt