Keeping our Teens Safe from Themselves

Written by: Alina Baltazar, LMSW, CFLE

Assistant Professor and MSW program director of Social Work for Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan, USA

From Revival and Reformation: Families Reaching Across.

Presented by: (add presenter name here)

Introduction

• God’s task for parents.• Adolescent growth and change.• Experimentation is common.• Vignette’s:

• Jessica’s story• Ray’s story• Jeff’s story

• “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6

• Small group activity:• What fears do these scenarios bring out in you as a parent?• Are there things you can do to decrease the chance your

teenagers end up in such horrible circumstances?

• Vast majority of 9-12th graders in the US report drinking alcohol once in their life.

• 90% of youth age 12-20 binge drink alcohol on multiple occasions in their lifetime (most are college students).

• Almost half have used marijuana in their lifetime, about 25% during the last 30 days.

• Almost a quarter have used prescription drugs without a prescription in their lifetime.

• About 10% have used inhalants in their lifetime.

Adolescent Substance Use Rates

• Communicate care• Stop whatever you are doing and listen.• Actively, unconditionally listen.• Listen to their point of view.

• Educate on the dangers of substance use• Choose a good time to talk.• Share stories from the news or people you know.• Make them away of legal issues.

• Communicate clear expectations• This is especially important when there is limited supervision

or they are away at school.• Make sure they know what the consequences will be.

• Role-play• Pair up with someone else and practice what you would say

to your teen about drugs and what behavior you expect. Then switch roles.

Power of Communication

• Parental monitoring and involvement

• Keep prescriptions locked up.

• Discussion question• What will you do to monitor your teen’s

behavior?

Parental Monitoring

Religiosity

• Decreases substance use.• “Do you know that your bodies are temples of the Holy

Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you are bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

• Support their spiritual journey.• Discussion Question:

• What helped your religious development during the teen years?

• What have you or could you do to support your teen’s religious development?

• Third to second leading cause of death for those age 15-24 in many countries

• For every death there are 20 attempts• Rates are increasing worldwide.

Adolescent Suicide Rates

• Family history• Depression• Low self-esteem• Substance use• Impulsiveness• Females more likely to attempt, males more likely to

succeed.• Anxious attachment to parents• Sexual abuse• Lack of supportive friends• Overwhelming loss or stress• Access to a firearm or lethal means.

Suicide Risk Factors

• Get involved when serious or repetitive.

• Approach teacher then principal.

• Get authorities involved if severe.

• Intervention

Bullying

• Giving hints may be want to be around• Talking about feeling hopeless• Isolation• Writing about death• Giving away treasured possessions• Losing interest• Trouble concentrating• Changes in eating or sleeping• Risk-behaviors

Suicide Warning Signs

• Support • Healthy lifestyle• Social activity• Relaxation/medication• Positive thinking• Suffer consequences of their own behavior• “Anything that lessons physical strength enfeebles the

mind and makes it less capable of discriminating between right and wrong. We become less capable of choosing the good and have less strength of will do that which we know to be right.” Christ’s Object Lessons, p.346

• Individual activity: What do you do to cope?

Coping Skills

• Counselors • Medication• Psychiatrist• Inpatient hospitalization• Role-play

• Similar to the role-play communicating about substances, now practice what you would say about suicide, then switch roles.

• What situation would prompt you to say something?

Professional Resources

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2010). Alcohol and public health (Fact sheet). Retrieved from http://www.cdec.gov/alcohol/fact-sheets/under-age-drinking.htm.

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2011). Trends in the prevalence of alcohol use national YRBS: 1991-2011. Retrieved from www.cdec.gov/healthyouth/yrbs/pdf/us_alcohol_trend_yrbs.pdf

• Cail, J. & LaBrie, J. W. (2010). Disparity between perceived alcohol-related attitudes of parents and peers increases alcohol risk in college students. Addictive Behavior, 35(2), 135-139.

• Compas, B.E., Hinden, B.R., Gerhardt, C. A. (1995). Adolescent development: Pathways and process of risk and resilience. Annual Review Psychology, 46, 265-293.

• Labrie, J.W. & Sessoms, A. (2012). Parents still matter: The role of parental attachment in risky drinking among college students. Journal of Child & Adolescent Substance Abuse, 21(1), 91-104.

• Low, N. C. P., Dugas, E., O’Loughlin, E., Rodriguez, D., Contreras, G., Chaiton, M., & O’Loughlin, J. (2012). Common stressful life events and difficulties are associated with mental health symptoms and substance use in young adolescents. BMC Psychiatry, 12(116). Retrieved from http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1471-244X-12-116.pdf.

• Pierorazio, D. A. (2009). A reframing of protective factors in the context of risk, adversity, nd competence in adolescents. Retrieved from http://www.csm.edu/wfdata/files/Academics/Library/InstitutionalRepository/19.pdf

• Scales, P.C. & Roehlkepartain, E.C. (2004). Community service and service-learning in U.S. public schools, 2004. Retrieved from http://www.search-institute.org/system/files/2004G2GCompleteSurvey.pdf

• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2013). Respond to bullying. Retrieved from http://www.stopbullying.gov/respond/index.html.

• Werner, E. (2005). Resilience and recovery: Findings from the Kauai longitudinal study. Research Policy, and Practice in Children’s Mental Health, 19(1), 11-14.

• World Health Organization. (2013). Suicide prevention (Fact Sheet). Retrieved from http://www.who.int/mental_health/prevention/suicide/suicideprevent/en/

References