EvidenceBased Substance Abuse Prevention Strategies for GLBT Populations

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Evidence-Based Substance Abuse Prevention
Strategies for GLBT Populations
Presented by Lauri Turkovsky EdD [phone]
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• Workshop Goal
• Present an overview of general substance abuse
  prevention strategies for GLBT Youth
• AGENDA
• Overview of GBLT definitions
• General risk factors
• GLBT specific risk factors

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Who Are You?
Who has worked worked with the GLBT community in
the past
Who is currently working with the GLBT community?
Who has been to a homophobia or heterosexism
workshop?
Who is here because you plan to do substance
abuse prevention in the future
Who is here because nothing else looked good for
this time slot
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GLBT Community Basics
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Disclaimer The next few slides are not meant to
be all you need to know about the GLBT community.
People intending to work with the GLBT community
should seek more extensive training on GLBT
culture, the community, homophobia, heterosexism
and identity and oppression issues within the
GLBT community
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GLBT Community Basics
What does GLBT mean? Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual -
Sexual, Emotional, Social Queer - Oy,
labels Transgender - Biological Sex vs.
Gender vs. gender role Gender Queer - Oy,
more labels Transsexual - The reconciliation
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GLBT Community Basics

• Myths About the GLBT Community
• Being GLBT is an urban phenomena
• Being GLBT is a white thing
• Being GLBT is a rich thing
• Bisexuals are confused or passing through a phase
  and will eventually have a solid gay, lesbian or
  heterosexual identity
• Gay mean wish they were women, lesbians wish they
  were men
• Most gay men are HIV positive

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GLBT Community Basics

• Concerns About the GLBT Community
• GLBT youth seem to be more likely to experience
  suicidal ideology and suicide attempts and
  logically actual suicide
• GLBT people appear to have a higher rate of
  chemical dependency and substance abuse than the
  general population

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GLBT Youth have some of the same risks as
straight teens
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• Availability of Drugs
• Community Laws and Norms Favorable toward Drug
  Use, Firearms, and Crime
• Transitions and Mobility
• Low Neighborhood Attachment and Community
  Disorganization
• Extreme Economic Deprivation

Risk Factors
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School
Risk Factors

• Academic Failure Beginning in Late Elementary
  School
• Lack of Commitment to School

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Family

• Family History of Problem Behavior
• Family Management Problems
• Family Conflict
• Favorable Parental Attitudes and Involvement in
  the Problem Behavior

Risk Factors
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Peer and Individual

• Early and Persistent Antisocial Behavior
• Rebelliousness
• Friends Who Engage in the Problem Behavior
• Favorable Attitudes Toward the Problem Behavior
• Early Initiation of the Problem Behavior
• Constitutional Factors

Risk Factors
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Special Issues for GLBT Youth
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Specific GLBT Youth Concerns

• Same adolescent identity issues
• Same underlying family dysfunction and dynamics
• Same oppression issues (racism, sexism,
  anti-Semitism, xenophobia, ableism
• PLUS
• GLBT identity issues (coming out
  process)
• Fears of discovery
• Fears of or actual rejection by family, school,
  community and peers
• Finding a GLBT community

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Bridging the Substance Abuse Prevention Gap for
GLBT Youth
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GLBT

• Availability of Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs
• Community Laws and Norms Favorable to Substance
  Use
• Access to alcohol from GLBTs who may think
  theyre being welcoming and helpful
• GLBT adult social life can revolve around a bar
  culture - the reliable place to find a GLBT
  community throughout the world and in urban and
  rural areas
• The GLBT community is heavily marketed to by the
  alcohol industry in the form of ads in GLBT
  publications and community event sponsorship

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GLBT

• Transitions and Mobility
• Youth maybe forced to leave home for safety or to
  seek a sense of community
• Poverty
• Poverty is similar familial issue for GLBT and
  straight youth AND too many GLBT youth are forced
  to leave their homes at young ages to escape
  abuse, rejection and/or to find support

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School
Risk Factors

• Lack of Commitment to School
• School climate and safety issues may cause GLBT
  youth to disengage from school

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Family

• Family Conflict
• Coming out issues may cause conflict and rupture
  of family bonds

Risk Factors
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Peer and Individual

• Friends Who Engage in the Problem Behavior
• Early Initiation of the Problem Behavior
• Attachment to adults or older youth in the GLBT
  community may contribute to both risk factors to
  develop

Risk Factors
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Create Solutions
by Building Bridges
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This may be an issue best solved from within the
GLBT community
The Gay community came together to deal with its
HIV/AIDS crisis and has made great strides with
rights and homophobia reduction We can handle
this one too!
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• Work with members of the GLBT community to
  address youth substance abuse through
• Social marketing campaigns appealing to the adult
  GLBT community to raise and protect our youth
• Gay media advocacy to earn regular coverage of
  GLBT teen underage prevention stories
• Reduce GLBT youth alcohol access by working with
  bar owners and other adults in the GLBT community
• Reduce alcohol industry advertising and event
  sponsorship

GLBT Community
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• Work with members of the GLBT community to
  address youth substance abuse through
• Increasing the number of community events that
  offer and model substance-free entertainment
• Provide GLBT sensitivity training to community
  youth resource providers
• Use multi-media approaches to reduce homophobia
  in the general community

Community
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• Help schools reduce homophobia

• Qualitative research indicates teachers may
  either be conveyors and enables of homophobia
• The presence of a Gay-Straight Alliance or other
  GLBT support structures improve academic
  performance, school/family/social relationships,
  comfort with sexual orientation, sense of safety
  and more
• Investigate student attitudes toward GLB youth,
  the results may be better than anyone expects

School
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• Support PFLAG chapters

• PFLAG is an existing resource to parents of GLBT
  youth. Help to advertise their presence in
  schools and the community
• Make GLBT youth aware that there are parents in
  the community who support their gay children to
  help youth understand the problem is lack of
  parental acceptance not the young person
• Work to add GLBT training to foster care training
  programs

Family
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• Support Services

• Ensure that there is some kind of support for
  youth who are coming out
• Publicized availability of GLBT-friendly or out
  teacher or counselor in the school or community
• Availability of coming-out support group in the
  school or community
• Social activities that provide an alternative to
  substance use
• Provide healthy GLBT adult role models

Peer
Individual
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What are your ideas for preventing substance
abuse among GLBT Teens?
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Lauri Turkovsky [phone] LTurkovsky_at_yahoo.co
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Thank you!
Trivia What gay tourist destination is this?