Southington & Plainville Citizen | southingtoncitizen.com
Friday, May 27, 2022
From A1
Questions are designed to find out whether youth are engaging in risky behaviors, whether they have support from parents and other adults and how they feel about their lives.
“What’s encouraging is that although we know COVID was going to affect numbers around mental health, suicide, even past 30 day drug use, we know our prevention is working,” Albanese said. Albanese and STEPS have been working with the Police Department on a curriculum that will be a successor to D.A.R.E. in the upcoming school year. In addition to educating fifth-graders on the dangers of drugs, alcohol and tobacco, the new program will include age-appropriate mental health support. Deputy Police Chief William Palmieri said the previous goals for prevention now encompass more than just convincing kids to stay away from drugs. The new curriculum, under development, will reflect that. “Prevention has grown tremendously,” he said. “We need as a community to adjust our methods and our strategies to address that.”
Rise in reported suicide attempts among 11th graders STEPS released a summary of a portion of the data collected by the Search Institute. Among those results was a slight rise in self-reported suicide attempts. Two years ago, 13 percent of respondents in all grades
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Results of an anonymous survey of more than 1,300 Southington students in 7th, 9th and 11th grade. The last time the survey was conducted was 2020. n Attempted suicide once or more 2020: 13 percent 2022 14 percent n Perception of risk for abuse of prescription drugs 2020: 92 percent 2022: 94 percent n Reported having positive self esteem 2020: 45 2022: 36
said they’d attempted suicide one or more times. That number rose to 14 percent in the recent survey. Questions relating to self-esteem showed that Southington youth thought less of themselves this year than in 2020. While 45 percent of students two years felt they had positive self-esteem, only 36 percent felt similarly this year. Slightly more students reported feeling sad or depressed in the past month in this year’s survey. “What we are concerned about are some of the mental health issues we’re seeing from our youth,” Albanese said. Palmieri said police have responded to suicide attempts for youth as young as 11 years old over the past few years. None have resulted in death. “We haven’t had a child take their life by suicide,” he said.
More risk, except for marijuana STEPS started conducting youth surveys in 2009. This year’s is the fourteenth study. Local youth have been feeling that alcohol, prescription drugs and tobacco are more and more risky over recent youth surveys. Executive VP & Publisher — Liz White Notarangelo News Editor — Nick Carroll Assistant News Editor — Olivia Lawrence News reporter — Nicole Zappone Senior VP and Editor — Ralph Tomaselli Vice President of Advertising — Jim Mizener Creative Director — Erik Allison
An exception is cannabis. Youth perception of risk in using cannabis has dropped from 83 percent in 2010 to 66 percent in the most recent study. The legalization of marijuana helped change youth perceptions. “We can see that really affects the trend,” Albanese said. “Our kids are not thinking that cannabis is harmful at all.” She said all substance use below the age of 25 is detrimental to brain development.
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Megan Albanese, the town’s Youth Prevention Coordinator and a STEPS staff worker, said the results were mixed. A decline in mental health among youth from two years ago wasn’t a surprise.
Survey results
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“That all ties in to mental health,” Albanese said.
New prevention curriculum Concerns about youth mental health prompted Albanese and other coalition members to develop a curriculum for youth that address substance abuse as well as mental health. After the curriculum is developed, officers from Southington and New Britain will be trained to teach it. Palmieri said the effort was supported by Police Chief Jack Daly, the Board of Police Commissioners, town leaders and the Board of Education. R251711
A2
See Survey, A3
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Southington/Plainville Citizen (ISSN 1559-0526 USPS 023-115) is published weekly by the Record-Journal, 500 S. Broad Street, Meriden, CT 06450. Periodicals postage paid at Meriden, CT and at additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: send address changes to: Southington/Plainville Citizen 500 S. Broad Street, Meriden, CT 06450.