Odyssey House Lafayette Avenue client Ashley’s marathon journey was profiled by News 12‘s Jessica Cunnington. Check out the fantastic clip and remember to support the Odyssey House Marathon Team on Sunday, November 1st!
Category: teens
Drug Facts: High School and Youth Trends
As National Drug Facts Week winds down, here’s a look at why the goal to shatter the myths about drugs and drug abuse for teens is so important. The data below is a summary from the latest Monitoring the Future survey, from NIDA’s website.
Illicit Drug Use
Illicit drug use among teenagers remains high, largely due to increasing popularity of marijuana. After a long period of decline, marijuana use by adolescents has been on the increase. In 2013, 7% of 8th graders, 18% of 10th graders, and 22.7% of 12th graders used marijuana in the past month, up from 5.8%, 13.8% and 19.4% in 2008. Daily use has also increased: 6.5% of 12th graders now use marijuana every day, compared to 5% in the mid-2000s.
Rising marijuana use reflects changing perceptions and attitudes. Young people are showing less disapproval of marijuana use and decreased perception that marijuana is dangerous. The growing perception of marijuana as a safe drug may reflect recent movements to legalize the drug for medical and adult recreational use in many states.
New synthetic drugs are a cause for concern, but their use is not increasing. Synthetic marijuana (also known as Spice or K2)—referring to herbal mixtures laced with synthetic chemicals similar to THC—was added to the MTF survey in 2011, when 11.4% of high school seniors reported using it in the past year; in 2013, it had dropped to 7.9%. These mixtures could be obtained legally until 2012 and are still wrongly perceived as a safe alternative to marijuana. The synthetic stimulants known as “bath salts” were added to the survey in 2012; in 2013, just 0.9% of seniors had used these drugs in the past year.
Non-medical use of prescription and over-the-counter medicines remains a significant part of the teen drug problem. In 2013, 15% of high-school seniors used a prescription drug non-medically in the past year. The survey shows continued abuse of Adderall, commonly used to treat ADHD, with 7.4% of seniors reporting taking it for non-medical reasons in the past year. However, only 2.3% of seniors report abuse of Ritalin, another ADHD medication. Abuse of the opioid pain reliever Vicodin has shown a marked decrease in the last 10 years, now measured at 5.3% for high school seniors, compared to 10.5% in 2003.
Positive trends in the past several years include reduced use of inhalants and less use of cocaine, especially crack cocaine. Past-year inhalant use by younger teens continued a downward trend in 2013, with 5.2% of 8th graders and 3.5% of 10th graders reporting use. Five-year trends of past-year cocaine use across all grades showed a drop as well. Other drugs, such as heroin, methamphetamine, ecstasy (MDMA) and hallucinogens, are holding fairly steady.
Alcohol
Alcohol use among teens remains at historically low levels. In 2013, 3.5% of 8th graders, 12.8% of 10th graders, and 26% of 12th graders reported getting drunk in the past month, continuing a downward trend from previous years. Significant declines include sharp drops from previous years in daily alcohol use by 10th and 12th graders (0.9% and 2.2%, respectively, in 2013). In 2013, 22.1% of high school seniors reported binge drinking (defined as 5 or more drinks in a row in the past 2 weeks)—a drop of almost one-third since the late 1990s.
Tobacco
Fewer teens smoke cigarettes than smoke marijuana. Cigarette smoking by high school students peaked in 1996–1997 and has declined continuously since then. In 2013, 9.6% of students surveyed by MTF were current (past-month) cigarette smokers—the lowest teen smoking has been in the history of the survey. By comparison, 15.6% were current marijuana smokers.
Other forms of smoked tobacco are becoming popular, however. The use of hookah water pipes and small cigars has raised public health concerns and has recently been added to the MTF survey. In 2013, 21.4% of 12th graders had smoked a hookah at some point in the past year, an increase from 18.3% in 2012, and 20.4% had smoked a small cigar.
Learn More
Complete MTF survey results are available at www.monitoringthefuture.org. For more information on the survey and its findings, also visit www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/monitoring-future.
Let’s Shatter the Myths about Drug Abuse
Have you heard the news? The National Institute on Drug Abuse is holding the third annual National Drug Facts Week from January 27 – February 2, 2014. Taking part in National Drug Facts Week means you have the opportunity to help shatter the myths about drug use for teens.
Every day, teens are bombarded with conflicting messages that may leave them feeling confused and unsure of who to ask for information about drug use. With 7.4% of teens reporting abuse of prescription drugs in the past year and 22.6% of 12th graders reporting using marijuana in the past month, it’s crucial to reach teens with the facts.
Wondering how you can take part? There are plenty of ways to get involved in National Drug Facts Week. You can:
- Host a local event in your community — don’t forget to register it online
- Distribute the Drugs: Shatter the Myths booklet to teens
- Take the National Drug IQ Challenge, which is updated each year
- Become a social media partner
For more ideas and the latest news, visit the National Drug Facts Week website.
New program to enhance adolescent treatment in the Bronx
Odyssey House Outpatient Services is introducing a new evidence-based program for adolescent boys (12-17 years) with substance use disorders. Called the Seven Challenges, the program will be incorporated into our existing BUY-In program, which was recently awarded a three-year, $1.3 million contract by the NYS Office of Alcoholism & SubstanceAbuse Services (OASAS).
The Seven Challengesprogram is designed to motivate a decision and commitment to change – and to support success in implementing the desired changes. The program helps young adults address their drug problems as well as their co-occurring life skill deficits, situational problems, and psychological problems.
Odyssey House kicked off the program with a community meeting to introduce the program to referral sources. Attendees included representatives from OASAS, the Bronx Borough President’s office, Bronx Futures, and Bronx Community Services.
Seven Challenges is intended to avoid power struggles between the client and counselor, instead focusing on encouraging honesty. Richard Barr, director of training and support for Seven Challenges, said, “It is an empowering model – designed to help adolescents make thoughtful decisions: internally motivated and committed. We want clients to take charge of their own lives.”
Robert Anderson, director of adolescent, outpatient and admissions services for Odyssey House, said, “We are very excited about this opportunity to implement yet another evidence-based practice of the quality that Seven Challenges exhibits. The training was very valuable and we look forward to providing to great services to the youth we serve.”
Odyssey House Grant Focuses on Teens and Their Families
Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Weekly
Last month Odyssey House received a three-year grant from the New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS) for the program’s Bronx Outpatient Clinic. The OASAS grant is funded by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and is aimed at serving adolescents who have a substance use disorder, as well as their families.
The grant was one of two grants made in the entire state — Odyssey House “downstate” and Citizen Advocates, Inc., based in Franklin County in northern New York, “upstate.” Each grant will expand treatment to 200 additional adolescents over the course of the three-year period.
“The unique needs of young people are often overlooked by mainstream treatment providers,” said OASAS Commissioner Arlene González-Sánchez in announcing the awards. “We need to improve access to treatment for adolescents and the quality of that treatment by expanding the use of nationally recognized evidence-based programs.”
Innovations
Like many of the treatment communities in New York City, Odyssey House has a history of working with special populations. In addition, Odyssey House focuses on innovations, said Peter Provet, Ph.D., president and CEO of Odyssey House. “We had to find innovative ways to work with these populations,” he told ADAW.
Innovations are critical, said Provet, noting that treatment programs need to always be on the lookout for new ways to treat patients. “We cannot just create factories and stamp out the same product,” he said. “There’s always a tendency to do that as an industry matures — to codify, simplify and mass-produce.” Innovations also play a role in obtaining grants such as the OASAS grant, he said.
The Bronx grant is meant to prevent ongoing drug abuse by “targeting kids where they are,” said Provet. Many prevention programs did not take this comprehensive approach in the past, he said. “You would go to a school and give lectures; you had D.A.R.E.,” he said. But the didactic approach isn’t as effective as “engaging kids on various fronts. This grant affords us the ability to go into the kids’ homes, get to know their families, go into their schools, to work with them individually, within family therapy constructs, help them keep journals, and reflect,” he said.
Work with families
The program is based on a successful model from a recently ended SAMHSA grant that Odyssey House kept going after the funding expired, explained Gary Harmon, Ph.D., Odyssey House vice president and the director of research. After an initial assessment in the clinic, counselors will work with teens ages 12 to 17 on the continued engagement with treatment over six months. “The counselors will go into the home, meet with guidance counselors at the school, do journaling, be assessed by the GAIN,” Harmon told ADAW (GAIN is an assessment tool). “We’ll be doing outreach to the schools.” Assessments will be done at six months, with a follow-up six months later.
The grant is in the South Bronx, which is the poorest congressional district in the country, said Harmon.
“When you bring high-quality evidence-based practices to these teens, it really makes an impact,” Harmon said. More than half of the teens in the program are involved in multiple systems, including juvenile justice. By looking at the patient — not just as a patient, but as a client of multiple systems all funded by the state — the impact is multiplied as well, said Provet. “We are at the matrix of criminality, substance abuse, education — all of these issues are impacting our children,” Provet said. “That’s why we’ve gotten these grants.”
The program is “labor-intensive,” said Provet, noting that it takes a lot of time and energy to reach teens and their families. “OASAS was able to get from SAMHSA enough money to support two of these grants,” he said. “I hope there will be a lot more. We have a huge teen drug problem, and we need more than two grants to address it.” •
Odyssey House wins grant to expand adolescent outpatient services
The Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS) announced Odyssey House as the downstate recipient of a three-year, federally funded grant to expand adolescent services. Odyssey House President Dr. Peter Provet said: “We are proud to fulfill our mission of treating vulnerable populations of adolescents with substance use disorders and their families by expanding our Bronx-based outpatient programs, and are grateful to NYS OASAS and SAMHSA for their support in helping to meet the needs of a community we are dedicated to serving.”
In selecting Odyssey House, Commissioner Gonzalez-Sanchez, commented on the high needs of the adolescents in our Bronx outpatient program and their involvement in “multiple systems that include juvenile justice, child welfare, or mental health.”
For more information, please read the OASAS press release here.
Monitoring the Future survey shows rates stable or down for most drugs
Rates of drug use among teenagers have decreased for most drugs, the 2012 Monitoring the Future* (MTF) survey found. The survey also revealed an alarming decline in the perceived risks of substance abuse, which can lead to future increases in use.
Despite some increases in drug use over the past several years, rates of drug use among young people today are far lower than they were in the late 1970s. This year’s MTF survey also shows several declines between 2011 and 2012, and rates for some of these drugs in some grades are at their lowest levels since the 1990s.
Aggressive prevention efforts and effective treatment programs have been essential in the reduction of drug use among youth but this weakening of attitudes demonstrates the continued need for education, prevention and guidance toward effective treatment. Adult influencers, such as parents, doctors and coaches, and institutions such as treatment programs and schools, have a critical role to play in helping young people understand the dangers of drug use and encouraging them to make healthy decisions.
* The Monitoring the Future (MTF) study is an annual survey of 8th, 10th, and 12th graders in the United States. The study is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse with a grant to the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research. Visit the MTF website to see the full survey result or download a fact sheet from the Office of National Drug Control Policy here(pdf).
Bringing music and theater to the Leadership Center
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| Juilliard dance major Ashley teaches Edward a few moves. |
Residents at the Odyssey House Leadership Center were treated to a special performance by Juilliard students this past weekend. Four students – a dancer, two drama majors and a jazz musician – performed a variety of musical numbers and a scene from Henrik Ibsen play Peer Gynt, and even gave the residents some dance lessons.
It was more than a recital, though. The students interacted with the residents, talking to them about their musical interests, introducing them to famous composers and performing more contemporary songs. After talking about how music can be a creative outlet as well as a way of having a conversation with others, they led the residents in a sing along to Jeff Buckley’s “Hallelujah.”
The residents have responded very well to the performances, connecting with the musicians and asking questions about their instruments and training. Some of the residents are amateur musicians as well, and are particularly interested in the Juilliard students’ stories of how they became interested in their respective disciplines.
Juilliard students have been performing at the Leadership Center regularly since 2009 as part of the Gluck Community ServiceFellowship (GCSF), a program that provides for more than 450 performances at 47 New York City health care facilities each year. Each visit has brought a different group of students, exposing residents to a variety of disciplines. The Juilliard students’ experiences in GCSF inform their performing careers and support the development of a personal commitment to community service.
Shalawn Barry, a social worker at the Leadership Center, brought the program to Odyssey House to help keep residents engaged in treatment and expose them to different genres of music and performances that they would not normally come across. “I think it’s important to expose our teens to new experiences to enhance their educational and social experiences while at Odyssey House,” said Ms. Barry.
Residents bring Thanksgiving to the Rockaways
This Thanksgiving, 13 young men from the Odyssey House LeadershipCenter joined Occupy Sandy and the Red Cross to bring some holiday cheer to Rockaway families who were devastated by the hurricane. Led by program director Brendan Kavanaugh, the young men set up tables and chairs, cleared debris, and unloaded foodstuffs to put on a Thanksgiving meal for displaced families.
The project gave the residents the opportunity to be of service to others and learn coping mechanisms for negative feelings or stress. Mr. Kavanaugh said, “Giving back to the community helped them deal with being separated from their loved ones during the holidays. After seeing the devastation in Far Rockaway, residents had newfound gratitude for their current life circumstances.”
The feedback from the residents was overwhelmingly positive. Gerrell M., echoing the response of many residents, said, “Helping people out always makes me feel good. I’m glad that I can make a big difference by doing something small.” Steven S. was impressed by the number of volunteers who showed up to help, noting that it made the work easier and more enjoyable. He added, “It was a good bonding moment between my peers and the Leadership Center staff as well.”
Marijuana use on the rise among teens
A new report by the Partnership at Drugfree.org found marijuana use increasing among teenagers. According to the survey, nearly 1 in 10 are smoking pot 20 or more times a month, increasing from 5 percent in 2008 to 9 percent in 2011.
“These findings are deeply disturbing as the increases we’re seeing in heavy, regular marijuana use among high school students can spell real trouble for these teens later on,” said Steve Pasierb, President and CEO of The Partnership at Drugfree.org. “Heavy use of marijuana – particularly beginning in adolescence – brings the risk of serious problems and our data show it is linked to involvement with alcohol and other drugs as well. Kids who begin using drugs or alcohol as teenagers are more likely to struggle with substance use disorders when compared to those who start using after the teenage years.”
To read the Associated Press article about the research findings, click here. The full survey results can be found on Drugfree.org.
Odyssey House operates two gender-specific facilities for young adults with substance use disorders. If you or someone you care about is struggling with substance abuse, contact our Admissions Department at (212) 987-5100.