Aims

1
Aims Objectives

• Aims
• Reduce solvent abuse by young people
• Reduce associated problems
• Objective(s)
• Reduce availability
• Support youth families
• Improve case management
• Re-integrate youth
• Manage problems such as intoxication on the
  street, anti-social behaviour
• Mobilise community action
• Maintain community action

2
Overview of Areas

• Effects
• Harms
• Protective Factors
• Types of Users
• Reasons for Abuse
• Possible Interventions

3
Effects - Short Term

• Similar to alcohol but quick
• Differences depending upondrug, individual,
  environment
• Intoxication in 1-5 minutes, wears off in 3-40
  minutes (unless topped-up)
• About half have visual illusions
• Possibly, red eyes, runny nose, nausea, headache

4
Harms

• Accidents when intoxicated
• Anti-social behaviour (disruption, stealing,
  vandalism, etc)
• May affect short-term memory impulsivity
  (mostly reversible)
• Brain damage mostly from petrol sniffing -
  generally rare from other substances
• Sudden Sniffing Death (Butane Aerosols) - rare
• Suffocation from plastic over head, spray
  directly into mouth, inhale vomit - rare
• Weight loss (long-term use)

5
Protective Factors

• Most young people dont use (positive peer
  pressure)
• Seen as gutter drug by most youth
• Unpleasant smell after effects
• Generally, easy detected
• Used in public
• Feared by most youth as harmful
• Not advertised or glamorised
• Short-term intoxication
• Most grow out of use with no harm

6
Types of Users

• Experimental, Social, Dependent, Chaotic
• Come from all groups (Aboriginal,
  Non-Aboriginal, rich, poor)
• Some groups more visible
• Some have underlying problemssome dont
• Mostly aged 12 - 16Some younger older users

7
Reasons for Abuse

• Same as why adults use alcohol
• fun, socialise, effect, available
• To challenge adults
• To copy adults (intoxication)
• Feelings of failure (lack of success)
• Cover up bad feelings
• Show they dont care about themselves
• Show they are hurting to get attention
• A form of self-harm
• Be successful at being bad /or sad
• Join with other outcasts

8
Interventions - Overview

• Retailer Interventions
• Youth Support
• Family Support
• Managing Intoxication
• Agency Support Agency Resources
• Media Management
• What Not to Do
• Community Action

9
Interventions

• Retailer Interventions
• Retailers Acting Against Solvent Use Kit
• Point of sale restrictions
• Use of signs
• Staff training
• Display placement of products
• Protocols between retailers, police, youth
  workers, other welfare workers
• Advantages for retailers

10
Interventions

• Youth Support
• Aim to reintegrate back into the community
• Emotional Support Monitoring click here for
  more info
• Inter-agency case management for long-term users
  with multiple issues
• Generic youth activities
• Recreation, Sport, Youth Centre, Dances... eg
  Community Construction Playground
• School Drug Education Project
• Curriculum, Policy, Truancy, School Services
  Staff
• Pause Prompt Praise Program
• Peer support programs

11
Interventions

• Family Support
• Parent support groups
• Parent drug education
• Teach Emotional Support Monitoring
• PDIS
• Family Fun Day
• Respite care
• Management of parent alcohol and other drug use

12
Interventions

• Managing Intoxication
• Police use of 138B of Child Welfare Act
• Community Patrol
• Safe House to sober up and to assist Police and
  Community Patrol
• Do not chase or scare intoxicated person
• Remove solvents

13
Interventions

• Health Welfare Agency Support
• Solvent abuse training
• Inter-agency protocols re shared case management
  youth drug use
• Drug management web site supportClick here for
  DrugNet if internet accessClick here for Info on
  Volatile Substances from CEIDA
• CDST consultancy support
• ADIS consultancy support

14
Interventions

• Agencies Resources
• Local Drug Action Group
• Community Drug Service Team
• ADIS PDIS telephone supports
• Education, AMS, FCS, Police, MoJ, Sport Rec,
  Local Council
• Youth accommodation services
• Other youth services
• Other general services organisations
• Service groups

15
Interventions

• Media Management
• Provide good news stories about youth
• Develop a relationship with media
• Request limit sensational solvents stories, no
  naming of products or methods of use
• Provide local contact point ADIS number
• Use local notice board to post good news stories,
  photographs youth project updates

16
Interventions

• What Not to Do (Remember Protective Factors)
• Dont advertise solvents to others who otherwise
  might not be interested
• Dont have special solvents lessons in schools
• Dont use solvent abuse as the criteria for
  special attention - may reinforce the solvent
  abuse
• Dont physically punish solvent abusers
• Dont chase or scare solvent abusers

17
Community Action

• Link up with others
• Identify key stake-holders
• 11, small and large group meetings
• Acknowledge any distress
• hear reflect back emotional content
• mobilise energy into action
• Whats happening?
• How much abuse
• What actually is the problem
• whos doing what, whats helped hindered

18
Community Action (Cont)

• Make a plan
• S.M.A.R.T. Goals (Specific, Meaningful,
  Realistic, Assessable, Time-Bound)
• How would it look if the problem was fixed?
• Who, What, How, By When
• Identify supports
• Make a start
• Small steps
• Review action
• Use telephone, e-mail face to face
• What happened, what was learned, what next?

19
Community Action (Cont)

• How to maintain action
• Complex problems require short and long-term
  solutions
• DO spend time to identify all the positive thing
  which have happened
• DO make public success via media or through
  personal rewards
• DO plan to meet regularly
• Expect energy to drop off - revive with
  imaginative mini projects
• DONT gossip or fight - there always room for
  different approaches. Everyone doesnt have to
  agree on everything.

20
Support Monitoring
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• September 1995
• Parents Can Help Prevent Teen Alcohol, Drug
  UseSupport, Monitoring Key to Prevention, Study
  Finds
• Parents can help prevent teenage alcohol and drug
  use and other problem behaviors by being
  emotionally supportive of their children and by
  closely monitoring them, according to a multi-
  year study in progress at the Research Institute
  on Addictions.
• Interim data from the study of 699 adolescents
  and their families in the Buffalo, New York,
  metropolitan area reveals that adolescents whose
  parents supervise their friendships and
  activities are less likely to engage in problem
  behaviors, including drinking and illegal drug
  use. This protective factor is enhanced by a
  family climate of support and nurturance, the
  study shows.
• Associations between these parental behaviors and
  low levels of problem behaviors in teenagers were
  found among boys as well as girls, blacks as well
  as whites, and higher-income as well as
  lower-income teens.
• What works"Monitoring is the key factor," said
  the study's director, sociologist Grace M.
  Barnes, Ph.D., a senior research scientist at
  RIA. "Monitoring means knowing where your kids
  are, who their friends are, when they are coming
  in, and so on. We found that it's important for
  all adolescents and especially for the older
  kids. Parents might think that when the kids get
  older they don't need as much supervision, but
  they do."
• Monitoring was found to be more common in
  supportive families, Dr. Barnes said. She
  explained that a "supportive" family is one in
  which parents openly show affection, give their
  children praise and encouragement, maintain open
  communications, and do things with their children
  which both parents and kids enjoy. "A supportive
  environment makes the kids more receptive to
  monitoring, but it has to come earlier in the
  developmental span for it to have an effect."
• What doesn't work Attempting to control
  teenagers through physical discipline is not
  effective, the study indicated. "Coercive
  control, such as slapping and hitting, is
  associated with more problem behaviors, but we
  can't say whether it causes the problem behaviors
  or whether the problem behaviors tend to bring
  out this kind of response from the parents," Dr.
  Barnes said.
• She added that the study also debunked the value
  of trying to influence adolescent behaviors only
  by reasoning with them, a parenting style known
  as inductive control. "This approach was popular
  in the 60s and 70s. It's where the parent sits
  down with the teenager and uses rational, logical
  explanations for why he or she should or should
  not do something. We found that this has no
  effect on adolescent behaviors per se. Clear,
  concrete guidelines seem to work best."
• Differences between whites and blacks, boys and
  girlsOf the 699 adolescents originally enrolled,
  489 are white and 210 are black, closely
  mirroring the population of the Buffalo area. The
  study found that black adolescents have lower
  rates of alcohol and illegal drug use and other
  problem behaviors, despite having lower incomes
  and higher rates of single-parent families.
  "Being a member of a religion that preaches
  against alcohol use may help protect some black
  youngsters," Dr. Barnes observed.
• In addition, the study confirmed that males are
  more likely than females to drink, use drugs, or
  engage in crime. "Males have more problem
  behaviors, but they are monitored less," Dr.
  Barnes explained. "So it's especially important
  for parents to monitor boys."
• Future directionsDr. Barnes began the
  federally-funded study in 1989 with a sample of
  13 to 16 year olds representative of the general
  population. Each year since, her research team
  has interviewed the teenagers, their parents, and
  adolescent siblings to gather information that
  sheds light on how families and peers influence
  teenage substance use and other problem
  behaviors.
• By the time the participants were 15 to 18 years
  old, 71 percent were occasionally using alcohol
  and 10 percent were heavy drinkers, defined as
  drinking at least once a week and having five or
  more drinks in a single sitting. About 30 percent
  reported using one or more illegal drugs in the
  past year, and close to one third had engaged in
  three or more instances of major delinquency,
  such as theft, assault, credit card fraud, or
  check forgery.
• Dr. Barnes has received additional federal funds
  to follow the participants into early adulthood,
  tracing the changes in drinking and drug use that
  occur during later adolescence and the young
  adult years. The research is supported by a grant
  from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and
  Alcoholism. The Research Institute on Addictions
  is part of the New York State Office of
  Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services.
• Dr. Barnes was assisted by co-investigator
  Michael Farrell, Ph.D., project administrator
  Lois Uhteg, research scientists Barbara Dintcheff
  and Alan Reifman, Ph.D., and post-doctoral fellow
  George Thomas, Ph.D. Interviewers and research
  assistants were Brian Greene, Michael Sacilowski,
  Robin Jann, Cindy Tworek, Sandra Leifer, Michael
  Stokes, Mary Walawander, Kim Jackson, and Jorge
  Antonetti.
• _____________________________________
• For more information, contact
• Grace M. Barnes, Ph.D.The Research Institute on
  Addictions1021 Main StreetBuffalo, New York
  14203-1016E-mail barnes_at_ria.org.
• New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance
  Abuse ServicesJean Somers Miller,
  Commissioner New York StateGeorge E. Pataki,
  Governor