November 21, 2013

DRUG STRATEGY COMMUNITY

Committee has strategy to prevent drug abuse Renee Andor Record Staff The Community Drug Strategy Committee works to educate Comox Valley residents about substance use and promote the importance of making healthy choices.

According to chair Doug Hillian, the committee’s two primary focuses are organizing events to support National Addictions Awareness Week (Nov. 18 to 24 this year) and providing grants to schools and community organizations to promote substance prevention activities in the Valley.

“Apart from that, it is a spot where people from the community can come and raise issues of concern,” continues Hillian. “For example, we had a parent that came and met with us one time whose child had died through a drug overdose and was really concerned about young people in the community having access to information.

“So, we were not only able to give that person an opportunity to be heard, for their ideas to be brought forward, but to actually look

at, ‘Well, can we do some sort of a poster campaign in school? Or, is there something that we can do where this parent’s experience can be shared with others?’ So, it provides a bit of a vehicle for people to come forward.”

According to Hillian, who sits on Courtenay council, past Courtenay councillor Nooral Ahmed applied for funding from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities which enabled the committee to form in 2002. The City of Courtenay started funding the committee in 2003 and has provided the only ongoing funding the committee receives. The committee receives $15,000 per year from the City.

The Community Drug Strategy Committee typically uses some funding to organize various activities held during National Addictions Awareness Week, such as bringing guest speakers to the Valley.

Past guest speakers include Dr. Gabor Maté, author of In the Realm of Hungry Ghost: Close Encounters with Addiction, and Matt Bellace, a motivational speaker who

COMOX VALLEY MENTAL HEALTH and SUBSTANCE USE SERVICES 941C England Avenue, Courtenay 250-331-8524 Providing services to the Comox Valley, from Oyster River to Fanny Bay, including Denman and Hornby Islands Services are confidential, free of charge, and wheelchair accessible. We welcome all members of our diverse community.

Please phone or drop by the office Monday to Friday, 8:30 – 4:30 (Closed 12-1 for lunch)

THE COMMUNITY DRUG Strategy Committee includes Vicki Luckman, (left to right), Cindy Jesse, Ian Lidster, Doug Hillian, (committee chair), Sam Sommers and Karen Rushton. Missing from the photo are Nicole Hall, Anne House, Nicole McKeown, Craig Olson and Sarah Sullivan. discussed staying drug- and alcohol-free and learning about natural highs.

Meanwhile, the committee awards grants of up to $500 each year to various school and community organization substance use prevention projects. This past year saw 17 projects funded via its alcohol and drug prevention education fund.

Organizations and schools

Substance

can submit a project proposal by Jan. 10 to be considered. The projects vary and some past ones have included: bringing in guest speakers to discuss topics like crystal meth use, drinking and driving and sexual exploitation; peer mentorship programs; and art workshops and shows.

As well, the committee gives $500 financial aid

awards to two graduating Comox Valley students who have chosen to remain drugand alcohol-free during their secondary school experiences. To receive a Smart Choice Award, students must submit a one-page essay outlining their choice to Karen Rushton at drugstrategy@hotmail.com.

Once the project or event is complete, the school or

organization must submit a summary report, which is due in June for school projects, and November for community organization projects.

The committee is made up of members from various community organizations and agencies, which encourages networking.

“We’ve had people from the business community, from the RCMP, from human services, from the addictions and recovery community,” says Hillian.

“It provides a place for folk to come together with those backgrounds, have that conversation and also you can link their expertise to the different groups that are working out in the school and in the community.”

For more information, including a link to the Comox Valley Drug and Alcohol Services Directory, visit www.courtenay.ca/community/community-drugstrategy.aspx. For up to date information about coming events and projects, visit Community Drug Strategy Committee (Comox Valley) on Facebook.

writer@comoxvalleyrecord.com

Program in an Health integrated The Substance Use Program worksThe in anSubstance integratedUse fashion withworks all Mental teams fashion with all C.V. Mental Health Teams and our Use Services and our community partners. These partners include: community partners. Some of these partners include:

We provide assessment, treatment, Substance Abuse Intervention Program: treatment planning, and referrals for adults Assessment, intervention and referral for persons Substance Abuse Intervention Program: detox. 250-339-1573 who are concerned about their own or intervention and referralrequiring Assessment, for persons requiring detox. 250-339-1573 Alcohol & Drug Information & Referral Service: someone else’s use of alcohol or drugs.

Alcohol & Drug Information & Referral Service:and referral services for people with any Information One-to-one treatment, including a daily drop-in kind substance abuse.

Information and referral services forofpeople with any kind of1-800-663-1441 substance abuse.

Early Recovery Program (ERP) and weekly Co-Ed Narcotics Anonymous: Alcoholics Anonymous: Co-Dependency Groups, are1-800-663-1441 available.

24-hour line 250-338-8042 24-hour line 1-800-379-6652 Alcoholics Anonymous: 24-hour line 250-338-8042 Crisis Line 1-888-494-3888 Narcotics Anonymous: Phone support is available between 8:30-924-hour line 1-800-379-6652

a.m. and 3:30-4 p.m. Monday-Friday.

Comox Valley Recovery Centre Lilli House

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COMMUNITY DRUG STRATEGY

Thursday, November 21, 2013 • COMOX VALLEY RECORD

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Projects funded by committee Doing good for one’s self describes aim of programs Renee Andor Record Staff Healthy Choices Day, youth art classes and parent workshops dealing with youth substance use are just a few examples of Comox Valley projects the Community Drug Strategy Committee helped make happen.

Over the past year, the committee funded 17 projects via its alcohol and drug prevention education fund.

Committee member and RCMP Const. Nicole Hall says the projects are successful, noting they go further than drug and alcohol prevention.

“More importantly it’s about helping our youth be the most educated and confident they can be through a variety of ways,” says Hall.

“Sometimes it’s not about ‘The Drugs’ but about ‘doing good for one’s self,’ which in turn can make the youth all that more productive and healthy in the end — which is what we all want.”

Thanks to grants from the committee the Hornby and Denman Community Health Care Society has been able engage island youth in a Bent Art program for the past two years.

Youth outreach and support worker Lanna Kroening says the project was so successful the first year that she applied for a grant again to do the program a second year.

Youth got together after school on Fridays; they cooked a meal together and created ‘bent art’ for a few hours. According to Kroening, a goal of the project was to avoid buying materials to make the art pieces, so youth

collected materials from the Island free stores, recycling bins, even using ‘garbage’ and materials from nature.

“The project has ended each year with a month-long art show that was held at the Kaffee Klatsch Bistro on Denman Island,” says Kroening.

She adds the participants really enjoyed the program each year, and participating in an activity is important when working with youth.

“We find we are most successful in working with youth when we are working on some kind of activity together versus staring at them from across a desk,” explains Kroening.

“We try to focus on building safe spaces for the youth to be — we draw on their strengths, plan activities to build confidence and selfesteem, and let them be creative,” continues Kroening.

“Our drug education focuses on prevention and we try to create an atmosphere where the youth do not feel judged.”

A grant from the Community Drug Strategy Committee also helped educate over 350 Grade 8 and 9 students at Mark R. Isfeld Secondary School about making healthy choices.

February’s Healthy Choices Day at Isfeld saw students learn about drug and alcohol use, and gain information to help them make healthy choices via a variety of platforms including lecture, open house and conversational settings.

Local organization representatives provided information about the services they offer, and gave chances for students to ask questions and discuss the themes raised during the workshops.

Organizer Shelley Robinson, who is now principal at Denman and Hornby Island schools, says students found

YOUTH CREATE ‘Bent Art’ as part of a Hornby and Denman Community Health Care Society program made possible thanks to a grant from the Community Drug Strategy Committee.

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We try to focus on building safe spaces for the youth to be – we draw on their strengths, plan activities to build confidence and self-esteem, and let them be creative. Our drug education focuses on prevention and we try to create an atmosphere where the youth do not feel judged.

— Lanna Kroening

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the information useful.

“They completed surveys and indicated that they found the day very interesting and impactful,” says Robinson. “They were pleased to know that there were multiple ways that they could explore the topic of substance abuse in lecture, open forum, and dialogical settings.”

She adds pulling in stakeholders from the Valley, who taught students about substance use and its relationship to mental health, worked well.

“There is no one way to prevent students from doing drugs,” she continues. “Therefore, we have to be intentional about providing multiple opportunities to learn more about the harmful effects of substance abuse, especially when students are still developing physically, emotionally and mentally.”

A three-part workshop series for parents and caregivers recently wrapped up at the Comox Valley Boys and Girls Club location.

Comox Valley Boys and

Girls Club parent services co-ordinator Melanie Rockwell notes Navigating the Challenges of Youth Substance Use was offered in partnership with the John Howard Society.

The workshop series was free. Each session was 2.5 hours long, and topics discussed included information about substances, examining beliefs, values and attitudes around substance use, how to foster resiliency in children, mastering the art of awkward conversations, strategies for implementing boundaries and consequences and fostering hope and next steps, among other topics.

“Drug and alcohol use or potential experimentation, use and misuse is probably the biggest concern/fear for parents that we see in our programs,” says Rockwell, noting the workshop series

was tailored and facilitated by the John Howard Society’s Wendy Morin.

The series was designed to “offer an in-depth workshop focused on substance use that would help parents gain more knowledge, insights, understandings and confidence in their approach and conversations with their youth,” she adds.

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Schools and organizations can receive a grant of up to $500 via the Community Drug Strategy Committee’s alcohol and drug prevention education fund.

Proposals may be submitted until Jan. 10 at 4:30 p.m.

For more information or to submit a proposal, e-mail Community Drug Strategy Committee co-ordinator Karen Rushton at drugstrategy@hotmail.com or call her at 250-339-3603.

writer@comoxvalleyrecord.com

COMMUNITY DRUG STRATEGY

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COMOX VALLEY RECORD • Thursday, November 21, 2013

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COMOX VALLEY STUDENTS participate in the Summer Challenge program, which the John Howard Society’s Vicki Luckman says is an example of building strengths and resilience in youth, decreasing the likelihood of problematic substance use.

Drug prevention achieved using variety of methods Renee Andor Record Staff Although two Community Drug Strategy Committee members employ very different strategies for substance use prevention in their career fields, both stress its importance.

Vicki Luckman manages the programs operating out the Courtenay office of John Howard Society of North Island, which provides services to youth, children, adults and families. She says JHSNI focuses on developing resiliency in kids to minimize their involvement with substances.

“We’re looking at increasing those protective factors like connection to school, connection to adults, connection to healthy activities, and minimizing the risk factors, which often are around poverty, disconnection from school, lack of healthy activities for the individual,” says Luckman.

JHSNI’s KidStart mentoring program is an example of a program which develops resiliency through connection, according to Luckman.

Similar to Big Brothers Big Sisters, KidStart matches kids aged eight to preteen with an adult mentor, (girls with women/boys with men). The youth mentors

spend three hours per week doing fun activities.

“That really is a prevention program because it’s based on supporting the youth, giving the youth new experiences to draw on, to help them in the future to make decisions about themselves,” says Luckman, adding the program develops positive self-esteem for youths, too.

“The mentors help them to get connected in recreational activities, or just participate in community events. So, the mentorship

and on the school grounds,” she adds.

The Summer Challenge program, offered to youth this past summer in partnership with the Comox Valley School District, is another example of building resiliency in youth, says Luckman.

Students between ages 14 and 16 participated in the month-long program which featured a blended learning model through Navigate powered by NIDES (North Island Distance Education School) and plenty of time

I don’t think anybody grows up ❝ aspiring to become addicted. There are many

different trails that lead to that end but the bottom line is most people who end up in that situation are self-shaming, and society shames.

— Sam Sommers

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relationship helps connect them to community.”

Luckman notes the program has been up and running for about five years and JHSNI has collected feedback from the kids and mentors since it was started.

“What we have found is that school often becomes a more positive experience for the kids; they attend more regularly, they’re doing better, they get along better in their relationships at home

spent participating in outdoor activities.

A couple of important ways parents can help their kids avoid substance use are keeping the lines of communication open and seeing the strengths their kids possess, according to Luckman.

Meanwhile, Sam Sommers co-ordinates the adult substance use recovery team at Comox Valley Mental Health and Addictions, where she says prevention

means relapse prevention.

Offered via Island Health, (formerly Vancouver Island Health Authority), the adult substance use recovery services include an early recovery program, and one-on-one sessions.

The early recovery program features drop-in morning and afternoon groups.

Attendees must be 24 hours clean so they are not a trigger to others in the group sessions, notes Sommers.

As well, confidential oneon-one sessions are offered to people struggling with addiction.

“We try and get that message out there that recovery is absolutely possible, that as long as somebody’s still alive, it’s still possible, which is why we also embrace harm reduction under the umbrella of prevention,” she says, noting harm reduction services can include services like safe injection sites and

offering clean needles to decrease the spread of disease.

Sommers notes stigma surrounds harm reduction services, and addiction in general.

“I don’t think anybody grows up aspiring to become addicted,” says Sommers.

“There are many different trails that lead to that end but the bottom line is most people who end up in that situation are self-shaming, and society shames.”

She adds many people have trouble understanding addiction and recovery, pointing to how hard it can be for someone struggling with addiction to seek help.

“I don’t think people really realize the kind of courage it takes to make a decision to walk through the door of an agency like the one I work in, walk through that door with the ‘Mental Health and Addictions’ sign,”

she says.

“Many people have said they’ve circled this building for weeks and months and sometimes even longer trying to work up the courage to come in because it is a big thing.”

She adds recovery takes plenty of courage, support and diligence to work, but, she stresses, it is possible.

The Addiction Client Advisory Committee is a group of people who have gone through the Comox Valley Mental Health and Addictions service and want to give back to the community.

For more information about Comox Valley Mental Health and Addiction services, call 250-331-8524 or visit www.viha.ca. For more information about John Howard Society North Island, call 250-338-7341 or visit www. jhsni.bc.ca.

writer@comoxvalleyrecord.com

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Thursday, November 21, 2013 • COMOX VALLEY RECORD

COMMUNITY DRUG STRATEGY

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Awards for smart choices

The Community Drug it comes to drinking or using drugs, kids (and adults, too) Strategy Committee gives have got to learn to think $500 financial aid Smart Choice Awards to two gradu- for themselves. Luckily, I’ve ating Comox Valley students always been a very independent person and don’t let who have chosen to remain others influence my choices, drug- and alcohol-free durgood or bad. I have friends ing their secondary school that do smoke or drink and experiences. Students must submit a one-page essay out- I have friends that don’t. If anyone offers me anything, lining their choice to Karen I say no and usually advise Rushton at drugstrategy@ them to do the same. I don’t hotmail.com. Contact Karen think ‘peer pressure’ is a for more information. good enough Anonymous excuse for getstudent essay: Drinking or ting involved “I don’t using drugs will in illegal subunderstand stances. why anyone affect your behavYou always would choose iour and your have a choice. to do drugs.” actions, as well as And doesn’t This is how anyone think I began my your thinking. Is DARE essay that not a recipe for about what drugs or in the sixth disaster? drinking does grade and the to the body? statement It doesn’t seem to be on the holds true today. I can’t typical teenager’s mind, but wrap my head around it. it certainly would be in my Why would you intencase. I have had lifelong tionally put yourself in a health issues. vulnerable position, unable If I drink alcohol or to think clearly, unaware of smoke it may render me your actions, all the while unqualified for a transplant damaging your body? I’ve should the time come. It never used drugs or alcohol would be incredibly stupid and don’t intend to. It just to cause myself permanent doesn’t compute with me. harm all for a ‘high’ or a Drinking or using drugs night I wouldn’t remember. will affect your behaviour Transplant eligibility aside, and your actions, as well as depositing soot and chemiyour thinking. Is that not a cals all the way down your recipe for disaster? airways is not only disgustYou have no idea how ing, but much more harmful you’re going to come out than any 16-year-old seems of an experience like that. capable of envisioning.

It’s terrifying to think that I may never understand for an hour or two, you can why people choose to get escape all rational thinking. involved in drugs or alcoAny and every decision will hol. I’ll certainly never do be impaired — this could it myself — I don’t want lead to consequences as simmy judgment impaired, any ple as embarrassing Face‘drunk accidents,’ or liver book pictures to something damage. Peer pressure? potentially fatal like getting Grow up and hold yourself into a drunken friend’s car. accountable for your choices.

As for ‘peer pressure?’ I don’t want to be so bold as to You’re the one who has to say I’m unaffected, but when live with them.

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THE WACHIAY FRIENDSHIP Centre in Courtenay is one of many agencies that is listed in the Comox Valley Drug and Alcohol Services directory on the City of Courtenay website at www.courtenay.ca.

Agencies fight substance abuse

AIDS Vancouver Island (AVI) Phone: 250-338-7400 355-6th Street, Courtenay, BC, V9N 1M2 Alano Club Phone: 250-338-0041 Website: www.alanoclub.comoxvalley.com E-mail: crtnyalanoclub@shaw.ca 543-6th Street, Courtenay, V9N 1M5 Al-Anon/Alateen 1-888-4AL-ANON (1-888-425-2666) Toll Free, Monday through Friday, 5:00 AM to 3:00 PM, PST. Website: www.bcyukon-al-anon.org Alcoholics Anonymous Public Information: 250-338-8042 Website: www.bcyukonaa.org The Bees’ Nest Lise Carignan or Rod Braun Phone: 250-871-0384; Cell: 250-218-1602 E-mail: liselight@shaw.ca Website: www.beesnest.ca Comox Valley Recovery Centre Phone: 250-338-7144, 1-866-708-2872 (toll free) 641 Menzies Avenue, Courtenay, V9N 3C3

Comox Valley Transition Society Business Phone: 250-897-0511 24 Hour Crisis Line: 250-338-1227 Website: www.cvts.ca E-mail: cvts@shaw.ca Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) Const. Nicole Hall, Community Policing/ Media Liaison Phone: 250-334-5918 E-mail: nicole.hall @rcmp-grc.gc.ca John Howard Society of North Island - Youth & Family Substance Use Services 1455 Cliffe Avenue, Courtenay, BC V9N 2K6 Phone: 250-338-7341 Mental Health & Addiction Services (VIHA) 941C England Avenue, Courtenay, BC, V9N 2N7 250-331-8524 Nar-Anon (Family Group) 1-800-477-6291 (Toll Free) Rene at 250-334-2392 Sharon at 250-339-7906 Website: www.nar-anon.org

Narcotics Anonymous (Vancouver Island North and Powell River Area) 1-877-379-6652 (Toll Free). Website: www.bcrna.bc.ca School District No. 71 (Comox Valley) 250-334-5500 (School Board Office) 607 Cumberland Road Courtenay, BC, V9N 7G5 Stepping Stones House for Women 250-897-0360 – Between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 3 p.m.

Website: www.steppingstonesrecoveryhouse.ca E-mail: steppingstoneshouse@telus.net Substance Abuse Intervention Program (St. Joseph’s General Hospital) 250-339-1573 – Denise Ingram or Christine Knights 2137 Comox Avenue, Comox, BC, V9M 1P2 E-mail: Substance.Intervention@sjghcomox. ca Wachiay Friendship Centre 250-338-7793 1625B McPhee Avenue (P.O. Box 3204), Courtenay, BC, V9N 5N4