Oct. 7, 2016 "Anti-drug program targets high- risk youth": I found this article by Maia Szalavitz in the Globe and Mail. I like this article because it talks about the program Preventure that really is helping kids and teens from doing drugs and alcohol:
Preventure, developed by a Montreal professor, tests middle-school children for personality traits that put them in danger
Drug education is the only part of the middle-school curriculum I remember – perhaps because it backfired so spectacularly. Before reaching today’s legal drinking age, I was shooting cocaine and heroin.
I’ve since recovered from my addiction, and researchers now are trying to develop innovative prevention programs to help children at risk take a different road than I did.
Developing a public anti-drug program that really works has not been easy. Many of us grew up with anti-drug programs such as DARE or the Nancy Reagan-inspired anti-drug campaign “Just Say No.”
But research shows those programs and others like them that depend on education and scare tactics were largely ineffective and did little to curb drug use by children at highest risk.
But now a new anti-drug program tested in Europe, Australia and Canada is showing promise. Called Preventure, the program, developed by Patricia Conrod, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Montreal, recognizes how a child’s temperament drives his or her risk for drug use – and that different traits create different pathways to addiction. Early trials show that personality testing can identify 90 per cent of the highest-risk children, targeting risky traits before they cause problems.
Recognizing that 80 per cent to 90 per cent of teenagers who try alcohol, cocaine, opioids or methamphetamine do not become addicted, they focus on what’s different about the minority who do.
The traits that put children at the highest risk for addiction aren’t all what you might expect. In my case, I seemed an unlikely candidate for addiction.
I excelled academically, behaved well in class and participated in numerous extracurric- ular activities.
Inside, though, I was suffering from loneliness, anxiety and sensory overload. The same traits that made me “gifted” in academics left me clueless with people.
That’s why, when my health teacher said that peer pressure could push you to take drugs, what I heard instead was: “Drugs will make you cool.” As someone who felt like an outcast, this made psychoactive substances seem like catnip.
Preventure’s personality testing programs go deeper. They focus on four risky traits:
sensation seeking,
impulsiveness,
anxiety sensitivity
and hopelessness.
Importantly, most at-risk children can be spotted early. For example, in preschool, I was given a diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which increases illegal drug-addiction risk by a factor of three. My difficulty regulating emotions and over- sensitivity attracted bullies. Then, isolation led to despair.
A child who begins using drugs out of a sense of hopelessness – like me, for instance – has a quite different goal than one who seeks thrills.
Three of the four personality traits identified by Preventure are linked to mental health issues, a critical risk factor for addiction. Impulsiveness, for instance, is common among people with ADHD, while hopelessness is often a precursor to depression.
Anxiety sensitivity, which means being overly aware and frightened of physical signs of anxiety, is linked to panic disorder.
While sensation-seeking is not connected to other diagnoses, it raises addiction risk for the obvious reason that people drawn to intense experience will probably like drugs.
Preventure starts with an intensive two- to three-day training for teachers, who are given a crash course in therapy techniques proved to fight psychological problems.
The idea is to prevent people with outlying personalities from becoming entrenched in disordered thinking that can lead to a diagnosis, or, in the case of sensation-seeking, to dangerous behaviour.
When the school year starts, middle schoolers take a personality test to identify the outliers.
Months later, two 90-minute workshops – framed as a way to channel your personality toward success – are offered to the whole school, with only a limited number of slots.
Overwhelmingly, most students sign up, Conrod says.
Although selection appears random, only those with extreme scores on the test – which has been shown to pick up 90 per cent of those at risk – actually get to attend. They are given the workshop targeted to their most troublesome trait.
But the reason for selection is not initially disclosed. If students ask, they are given honest information; however, most do not and they typically report finding the workshops relevant and useful.
“There’s no labelling,” Conrod explains. This reduces the chances that children will make a label like “high risk” into a self-fulfilling prophecy.
The workshops teach students cognitive behavioural techniques to address specific emotional and behavioural problems and encourage them to use these tools.
Preventure has been tested in eight randomized trials in Britain, Australia, the Netherlands and Canada, which found reductions in binge drinking, frequent drug use and alcohol-related problems.
A 2013 study published in JAMA Psychiatry included over 2,600 13- and 14-year-olds in 21 British schools, half of whom were randomized to the program. Overall, Preventure cut drinking in selected schools by 29 per cent – even among those who didn’t attend workshops. Among the high-risk children who did attend, binge drinking fell by 43 per cent.
Conrod says that Preventure probably affected nonparticipants by reducing peer pressure from high-risk students. She also suspects that the teacher training made instructors more empathetic to high-risk students, which can increase school connection, a known factor in cutting drug use.
A 2009 study also showed that Preventure reduced symptoms of depression, panic attacks and impulsive behaviour.
For children with personality traits that put them at risk, learning to manage what makes us different and often difficult could change a trajectory that can lead to tragedy.
New York Times News Service
Apr. 28, 2017 "I posted this photo of my dying son to warn of the dangers of fentanyl": I saw a little bit of this on the Global news in the morning. It was on TV in the staff room at my work. I already saw a W-Five episode about fentanyl. This was in the Globe and Mail. This article is about a woman who loses her son to drugs and is telling parents to watch their kids, and encouraging addicts to stop doing drugs:
On April 19, Sherri Kent, of Calgary, shared a photo of herself lying with her son in his hospital bed in the hope it would save lives. It has been shared more than 102,000 times.
I arrived at the hospital in Kelowna, B.C., from Calgary on March 15, a Wednesday. Michael had overdosed on heroin, laced with fentanyl, the evening before. The EMS found him lying in a filthy bathroom, in a little corner store, where he’d met this guy who told him he had great stuff.
His sister, Danielle, lost it and told her younger brother earlier to steer clear of the guy. Michael said he would, but when Danielle took a nap, the guy messaged Michael again, and he left to meet him. By the time Michael was found in the public restroom, he was in cardiac arrest. Michael was my baby. He was only 22. He would have turned 23 on June 2. (I have four kids, and they’re all close to me).
Michael’s sister had moved to Kelowna six weeks before he died. Michael joined her four weeks later to find work in construction. He got a call for a job after he passed.
The toxicology report hasn’t come back yet, but doctors say they’re sure it was a fentanyl overdose. When I arrived at the hospital the next day, doctors told me my son wasn’t going to wake up. They held onto him for a couple of days for us. I had a lot of time to think, to cry, to ask why?
Michael died March 21 and I decided to donate his organs because I know that is what he would have wanted. As a kid, Michael was always happy. He was a sweetheart. He gave awesome hugs.
I don’t know who the recipients of his organs are, but I know they all survived the transplants. One person got a double lung transplant. Another, a life-saving liver transplant.
Two people received his kidneys and someone with severe diabetes received his pancreas. It makes me feel so good. I know Michael would have been proud of me, too.
I never left the hospital. The worst part of this is I’m never going to see my son again. And I almost lost my daughter, who is 25, three weeks before Michael. She and a friend overdosed on cocaine laced with fentanyl. Within five minutes, her friend was unconscious in the front seat. Danielle was able to drive to the hospital, which thankfully, was not far. They got the help they needed, or they wouldn’t be here today, either.
I can’t tell you how lost I am. So mad. It’s so scary out there. I’ve received a lot of criticism from people – I call them trolls – for saying my kid was not an addict. My friends have wanted to fight back, but I’ve told them not to waste their time.
The reality is that kids are doing it, regardless of how many times you plead, cry and tell them not to. It’s a mess. And it’s getting worse. Thousands of people have shared my post on Facebook.
I never expected it would be this big. I’ve seen the hurtful comments, but the vast majority are kind, from parents who want to thank me – and from addicts, who say they so desperately want to stop.
They’ve thanked me for posting it because it made them realize they’re not just hurting themselves. They don’t want this to be their mother.
I was with my sister in the hospital. She took the photo. I wasn’t sure whether to post it, and then decided I had to do something. Parents have to be aware; they can’t be naive that their kids aren’t doing it.
There is so much pressure on kids to do drugs. I can only hope that the picture might save other kids, other families.
I’ve heard from people in Egypt, Mexico, London – all over the world. Parents say it’s waken them to the reality of kids and drugs.
My daughter is devastated by her brother’s death. And she’s used since, which breaks my heart. I think she knows she made a mistake. I’m close to her, and I think she’s telling me the truth that she hasn’t used since then.
I’ve harped on her. I’ve cried and cried. I can’t lose another child. I just can’t. I didn’t even know what fentanyl was until a year ago. It hurts me still to see the picture. It always will. But my son – and the countless other sons and daughters who have died because of this awful drug – are human beings. They have faces. Families who love them. They are not just numbers.
Sherri Kent’s son, Michael Kent, has a one-year-old son, and wanted to be a boilermaker like his older brother.
As told to Gayle MacDonald
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