Radio - Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition

Nov

2022

WLEN Interview with Cradle to Career Director Tim Kelly

Woman’s Voice: This special program is brought to you by the Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition. Guests provide information about upcoming events, resources available, and the many ways to help reduce substance use and promote a healthy Lenawee.

Kathy Williams: This is Kathy Williams and with me on tonight’s program is Tim Kelly. And Tim and I are going to be talking about the results of the Drug Take-Back event that just happened a couple weeks ago, Tim.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. Out at Hickman Hospital, we had a 10:00 to 2:00 event, and had a number of people dropping stuff off to get rid of their old medicines.

Kathy Williams: Yep. You know, it was interesting that, let’s see, we started this a year ago. We had a April, October last year. We had a April this year, and now the October 30th this year for drug take-backs. And it, the amount of donations at all of them has really been eye opening.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. Yeah. It’s amazing to think that in one day, you can get over or close to 300 pounds of medication dropped off in just that short period of time.

Kathy Williams: So I think the word is finally getting out about safe disposal and getting these out of harm’s way basically because we are seeing more and more statistics that say that family members and, you know, possibly just acquaintances are misusing other people’s medications.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. I think that’s one of the biggest messages is that you know, kids are exposed or have the opportunity by going to somebody else’s medicine cabinet or drawer in a house someplace and obtaining these medicines that have been recognized as leading to people with addictions. So…

Kathy Williams: Yes.

Tim Kelly: So that’s really been the message for the last few years and it seems to be working.

Kathy Williams: Yeah, I think so too. And I know, you know, it’s been a tough message to get out there. People were used to just throwing things away in the trash cans or flushing them down the toilets, you know, and things like that. And, you know, getting them to say it’s just a little out of your way, maybe to do some storage or drop them off quicker at the different locations, pharmacies and such. But the drug take back events really brought this all to the surface better.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. Yeah. You mentioned it’s been the last couple years and that you know, obviously after COVID we weren’t doing much until then, but after COVID we had our first one and we had 471 pounds worth of things returned at that time.

Kathy Williams: Right.

Tim Kelly: And it’s, the number’s actually gone down a little bit each year since then, or each event since then. But I look at that as being a good thing. Just like you mentioned, the word is getting out there and people are taking stuff in throughout the year. As they recognize it, looks like they’re taking it to their local law enforcement agency or to the pharmacy and dropping things off. So it’s about messaging, but yeah, we like to have the big numbers of, you know, like this year we had 293 pounds worth of medications dropped off on that one day.

Kathy Williams: Yeah.

Tim Kelly: So it’s good in both regards, you know. We’re getting the message out and they’re taking it to the pharmacies, the hospital or to the local law enforcement, but there is that opportunity in April and October every year moving forward, we’ll be having one.

Kathy Williams: Exactly. It also, I think, is an opportunity to encourage people to learn more about drug abuse and the potential dangers that are involved in all of it.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. People need to understand that these are harmful medications. If you’re not prescribed them and you get access to them, they can interact with other meds people are on. So… and they become, when they are expired, they can become dangerous to somebody.

Kathy Williams: Right, right. Well, and because your medications change, maybe the new one you’re on, you shouldn’t be taking that old one you were on because the complications that can, you know, drug interaction complications. Tim Kelly: Yeah, and I know as you get older sometimes you can get confused about those things. So if you have a family member that’s a little bit older and maybe, you know, might have a series of medications…

Kathy Williams: Cognitive problems.

Tim Kelly: Yeah, if they’re not really clear on what they should be taking, it’s best just to get that stuff that’s old and counteractive to some other medication out of their house.

Kathy Williams: Yeah. Yep. Get it out of there. So, Tim, we talk about that they can go to DrugPreventionLenawee.com of course, and get additional information. A lot’s with the Lenawee Community Mental Health Authority, the Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition, of course, they’re, you know, big time involved in this.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. If you go to DrugFreeLenawee, that’s the website, just type in “Drug Free Lenawee”, you’ll find a list of all the places they can take certain medications, either it be pills or liquids, or even sharps, which is the needles that we seem to be getting a lot of those and that’s a good thing we get them out of there cuz they can be dangerous to have around. But yeah, if you go to those websites, they can pretty much tell you just about any place to take them to throughout the year.

Kathy Williams: There you go. Throughout the year. And if you do decide you want to find out more, definitely go to that website. There are some different things like Deterra bags that help with dissolving things, and I believe all the locations, a lot of the drop off locations are listed on there.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. Yep. Yep.

Kathy Williams: So, Tim, approximately 125 people, 293 pounds of goodies. So the lower participation, lots more product.

Tim Kelly: Yeah.

Kathy Williams: So we are getting that message out there.

Tim Kelly: Yep. I need to take a second just to thank all the people that helped with this because…

Kathy Williams: Sure.

Tim Kelly: You know, those pharmacy students that come up here from the University of Toledo, they work all day long sorting those meds and making sure they’re disposed of correctly. Our sheriff’s office, who has two deputies there, so they participate in it. We have a number of people like Hospice that puts together the goodie bags that we gave out. Let’s see, McDonald’s, it gives us things for those goodie bags and, you know, the Health Department and some of our local partners around the Veterans Administration. Matt Raad did a great job in providing us things and participating in this work. So we just want to say thanks to them for everything they’ve done.

Kathy Williams: Yeah. It just comes back to that it takes a village.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. It has been really rewarding to see how many people help out to get this done.

Kathy Williams: Exactly. Exactly. Well, thanks for all you do, Tim. We really appreciate you as well.

Tim Kelly: Oh, thank you.

Woman’s Voice: The Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition supported by funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration. Thank you for listening. New messages air on the second and fourth Monday each month at 6:15 PM. You can listen to this program as a podcast under the “on air audio” tab on WLEN.com and get more information at DrugPreventionLenawee.com.

Oct

2022

WLEN Interview with ProMedica CVH Hospital Lead Pharmacy Technician Jessica Dixon

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Kathy Williams: This is Kathy Williams and with me on tonight’s program is Jessica Dixon, and Jessica is with ProMedica Hospital. She is the lead pharmacy technician, and Jessica and I are going to talk about the upcoming Drug Take-Back event, which is happening on Saturday, October 29th.

Jessica Dixon: That’s right.

Kathy Williams: Yeah. Jessica, you’ve been involved in these Drug Take-Backs for quite a few years now.

Jessica Dixon: For a lot of years. Yeah, about 15 years I believe.

Kathy Williams: Now we were always surprised at the different kinds of medications that come into the Drug Take-Back event. Can you help our listeners understand better? What is acceptable?

Jessica Dixon: We take just about every medication that you have. Medications that are aerosol in aerosol containers, oral tablets, we take liquids, injectables, pet medications… we can take all of those.

Kathy Williams: Yeah, and even salves.

Jessica Dixon: Yes. The lotions, the creams, all of those. We will take those. We also are offering the sharps collection as well.

Kathy Williams: Yes.

Jessica Dixon: And so any needles you have, we can dispose of those.

Kathy Williams: The biggest thing though that we want to help our listeners understand too, is they can bring things in the original containers. They just, it’s nice if they wipe out their personal information, but you know, if they forget to do that, we’re going to do that at the take back event.

Jessica Dixon: Absolutely. Yep. Original containers are fine. We’re going to black off anything that doesn’t need to be seen, any of your personal information, but absolutely.

Kathy Williams: And then I love the fact that you have volunteers then that are helping you with sorting. Can you tell us a little about that?

Jessica Dixon: We have volunteers from the University of Toledo. They are pharmacy students. So they come in, we get about six of them every time we have this. And they will sort the products into the categories they go into and they get, you know, they get credit for credit hours, but they really enjoy coming and visiting with the community and being there for us.

Kathy Williams: Well, and the other thing that’s great too is that they, of course, they are, getting some knowledge on different products while they’re there, but then we also have great security guards that are watching to make sure nothing crazy is happening here.

Jessica Dixon: Absolutely. Our security there is present. We have Sheriff’s Deputy there as well, so it’s a very, very safe environment for this to take place.

Kathy Williams: So at the Drug Take-Back event itself again is Saturday the 29th, and it’s from 10 o’clock till two o’clock. This is a hard stop. Two o’clock.

Jessica Dixon: Two o’clock, we are done. We are collecting our signs and packing up for the day.

Kathy Williams: Yeah, it’s kind of a regulation type thing.

Jessica Dixon: It is.

Kathy Williams: Because this is being done nationwide, correct?

Jessica Dixon: Correct, yes.

Kathy Williams: All over the place through the, is it…

Jessica Dixon: DEA.

Kathy Williams: The DEA. Is it Drug Enforcement…?

Jessica Dixon: Yep. Drug Enforcement Agency.

Kathy Williams: I’m like, I know it’s not environmental, so gotta get your acronyms correct.

Jessica Dixon: Yes.

Kathy Williams: Jessica, we also will take, you know, vitamins and things like that that are expired.

Jessica Dixon: Absolutely. Over the counter meds. Not only the prescription medications, but all over the counter medications, vitamins, supplements.

Kathy Williams: Yeah, we talked before, I don’t know how many times, you know, you’ve bought some kind of extra diet thing that’s going to miracle make you lose 20 pounds in 19 days and then you found out it didn’t work and you have half a bottle left and you’re like, what do I do with it?

Jessica Dixon: Yeah. We will gladly take it off your hands.

Kathy Williams: Exactly. And that all counts toward, you know, the end results of not putting it in the trash. Not flushing it down the toilet.

Jessica Dixon: Right.

Kathy Williams: And then, because you know, this is part of the Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition, we want to get drugs out of the way so that they’re not misused.

Jessica Dixon: Absolutely. And we provide that safe, convenient way to do it. We contract with a company that comes in and removes the medications and they incinerate it to make the meds un-retrievable.

Kathy Williams: Yes. And at the same time, you’ll also help dispose of the original packaging too, so that none of that’s, you know, laying around or accidentally available to anyone.

Jessica Dixon: Right. Yep. All private information is blacked out and disposed of all that trash.

Kathy Williams: Exactly. So, we want to of course, encourage people, you know, start looking now. This program’s of course, on October 24th, on a Monday, but you have all week to go looking for your products.

Jessica Dixon: Yes.

Kathy Williams: It’s amazing how many different places people stick stuff and then forget it’s there. And so this is a perfect time to go through those drawers and find “Oh yeah. I probably shouldn’t have those eardrops anymore.”

Jessica Dixon: Oh, right. Your medicine cabinet. Your little drawer at your desk. You know.

Kathy Williams: Yeah.

Jessica Dixon: It’s always little, little places that we leave things.

Kathy Williams: So everything is going to be, oh, there’s going to be new signage this year, I understand, in front of the ProMedica Hickman hospital that’s going to actually say “Drug Take-Back event”. And it’s going to have arrows pointing you to where everything is happening. It’s along the side of the emergency room, but back behind the hospital.

Jessica Dixon: Yep. Behind the, if you drive in closer to the emergency room, you will get it and follow your, follow the signs. They should be pointing you to the way.

Kathy Williams: Yeah.

Jessica Dixon: And we’ll be right behind the hospital.

Kathy Williams: Exactly. Well, we’re excited to have it happen and encourage people you know, if you have neighbors that can’t come, you know, you know, get with your family and friends and just do a big collection and you don’t even have to get out of your car. It’s a drive through event.

Jessica Dixon: It is a drive through. We’ll go right to your window and pick up your items.

Kathy Williams: There you go. Thanks so much, Jessica. We appreciate your being a part of the Drug Take-Back Day and, and everything you do.

Jessica Dixon: Well, thank you. Thanks for having me.

Kathy Williams: You’re welcome.

Oct

2022

WLEN Interview with Cradle to Career Director Tim Kelly

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Kathy Williams: This is Kathy Williams and with me on tonight’s program is Tim Kelly. Tim wears many hats. He is the director of Cradle to Career Partnership. He is also the Social and Emotional Learning Coordinator at LSID, and for tonight we’re going be talking about hat number three. He is the chair of the LSAPC subcommittee, which is Prevention and Education. Tim, thanks for taking time out of your day.

Tim Kelly: It’s great to be here.

Kathy Williams: So, we’re going to talk about the Prevention and Education subcommittee for the LSAPC. So one of the goals is to help educate our community, basically.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. That is the goal, really, isn’t it?

Kathy Williams: Yeah.

Tim Kelly: From school age all the way up to the elderly, we all can learn more about preventing substance abuse and things we can do to dispose of our medications.

Kathy Williams: Yes.

Tim Kelly: That’s really what some of our focus is about.

Kathy Williams: By educating all the different age demographics and people of different walks of life, we’re helping them learn more about different kinds of substance abuse, but also about the different partnerships that we have within the community for necessary help.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. We have, you know, a very diverse group that’s addressing substance abuse. We have people who are in recovery bring a great deal of information and help in addressing it. We have obviously CMH, Parkside, the hospital, ProMedica, also provides support there, as does the ISD and just a number of community partners that, frankly, whenever you just say, “we need a hand with this,” and they step right up and want to address the issue with us.

Kathy Williams: Someone is always there to help no matter, you know, what kind of situation you’re in. So, we want to talk tonight too about the upcoming Drug Take-Back event that’s happening at the end of the month, and we can’t get the word out too early really about that…

Tim Kelly: No.

Kathy Williams: Because we want people to take time to go through their cupboards and drawers and everything and put together their donations.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. We’re, yeah. We need people to get rid of their medications that they’re no longer using, that are expired. You know, it’s a great opportunity on October 29th, between 10:00 and 2:00 PM to come out to ProMedica hospital right around the backside there and drop stuff off. There’ll be signs directing you and picking up something in the way of a little goody bag that will say “thank you” just a little bit for making our community just a little bit safer.

Kathy Williams: Exactly. Used to be back in the day that you’d flush things down the toilet or just throw them in the regular trash. And, you know, they really are trying to be a little bit more environmentally concerned by disposing of things properly. And so twice a year this event happens.

Tim Kelly: Yep, yep. I’ve been involved the last two years, so this is going on my third year, so to speak. And, it’s been a very good turnout. We’ve typically had over 300 people involved and it really is an opportunity to get rid of things, including sharps, I should have mentioned that. Sharps are something that people seem to have a hard time getting rid of, and obviously we don’t want those things in the trash. We don’t want things flushed down toilets because they can… Maybe you’re aware they can check the chemicals in our wastewater treatment and they know what’s out there in our, into our water systems.

Kathy Williams: Right.

Tim Kelly: So, we really need to keep that stuff out of the old ways we used to get rid of it.

Kathy Williams: Exactly. And this is a national event. It’s put on by the Drug Enforcement Administration. And so everything that’s done on Saturday, October 29th atthe Drug Take-Back event, there are precautions being made. The Sheriff’s Department is there present and it’s pretty tight as far as how everything happens that day.

Tim Kelly: Yeah, yeah. There’s a lot of rules and regulations as it requires law enforcement to handle the substances that are disposed of and they, you know, along with some pharmacists from the hospital that help sort them, so that we can kind of tell what’s been disposed of. But yeah, they have a very strict requirements about where things can be disposed of. They have to end at two o’clock. It’s very, very strict.

Kathy Williams: It’s hard and fast. Yes, it is.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. So they, you know, not only on that day, I should mention that they have their red boxes at a number of law enforcement agencies around the county that if you can’t make it on the 29th, you can take them there. And we really need people to take them whenever they can to law enforcement.

Kathy Williams: So Tim, again, we want to remind people that it is Saturday, October 29th. It is at the ProMedica Hickman Hospital. You just follow the signs that say COVID testing, basically to take them around the back and they can get more information about the event and you know, garner some information in general at DrugPreventionLenawee.com. So thanks so much, Tim.

Tim Kelly: Right, thanks Kathy.

Sep

2022

WLEN Interview with Ann Arbor Veterans Administration Community Engagement Coordinator Matt Raad

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Woman’s Voice: The Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition is a diverse group of dedicated community members united around the goal of reducing substance use in Lenawee County. LSAPC members work collaboratively to engage and educate the community in order to promote a healthy Lenawee.

Kathy Williams: This is Kathy Williams. And with me on tonight’s program is Matt Raad. He is the community engagement and partnership coordinator out of the Ann Arbor VA. Matt, welcome to the program.

Matt Raad: Thank you, Kathy. It’s a pleasure to be here. Thank you so much for having me.

Kathy Williams: So, tell our listeners a little bit about what your job entails. How connected are you with Lenawee County and our surrounding area here?

Matt Raad: Yeah, so, as a community partnership and engagement coordinator out of the Ann Arbor, VA, we cover about 15 to 19 counties, depending on the day.

Kathy Williams: Okay.

Matt Raad: But we are part of the suicide prevention team.

Kathy Williams: Okay.

Matt Raad: And we’re part of what’s called the Community-Based Intervention for Suicide Prevention. So we’re part of the suicide prevention program that works very closely in the communities that we work in or that we cover. And in Lenawee County, we’ve developed the Lenawee Counties Veterans Coalition. Lenawee County Veterans Coalition. And the whole, the whole goal of this is to try to take an upstream approach to suicide prevention. So, the idea behind this is that if we can help to enrich the lives of the veterans on the local level, where they live with local solutions, the idea is hopefully we can hopefully prevent a suicide from happening if we can get someone connected to things that could help.

Kathy Williams: So, so many times we hear that, that veterans have a hard time reaching out to begin with. How are you making that effort? How are you, are you going where they’re more likely to be? How are you making that relationship happen?

Matt Raad: Yeah, that’s one of the, one of the biggest challenges I think. You know that really anyone working with veterans has, is how to encourage somebody to reach out. And that is one of the biggest things that we are trying to accomplish is of course doing that. And on the flip side is also equipping the community to be there and to know sort of how to also reach out and provide support if they notice some things that may be going on with someone, whether it be a friend or family member or someone at the store. You know, the idea is not only just for, you know, our group to know what to do, how to approach somebody, but we also want to help to do whatever we can in the community through different types of education, awareness, reducing stigma. But to answer your question, you know, we’re working with a lot of the local veteran service organizations. We’re really trying to get veterans involved in this group.

Kathy Williams: Okay.

Matt Raad: And the idea behind that is pretty obvious, you know, we want veterans to be helping other veterans out, but anybody can be a part of this coalition.

Kathy Williams: How would they find out about the coalition if they wanted to get involved?

Matt Raad: Yeah, they can reach directly out to myself, or, Austin See who is the leader of the group. My email I could provide…

Kathy Williams: Okay, go ahead.

Matt Raad: matthew.raad@va.gov. Or my phone number (734) 968-9318. And I’m certainly, you know, always open to people coming, calling. Anyone’s welcome to come be a supporter, whether they’re veteran or not, family, friends. So this is a group that’s here to serve not only veterans in Lenawee County, but also any active military, guard reserves, anything along those lines. So there’s kind of this no wrong door philosophy we kind of have in here.

Kathy Williams: Oh, okay. Do they have a social media presence? That’s easy to pop in to yet?

Matt Raad: Soon to come.

Kathy Williams: Okay. Soon to come.

Matt Raad: Soon to come. So we’ve been around for just about five months or so.

Kathy Williams: Oh, okay.

Matt Raad: Just building the foundation of the group and yeah. So all of the, you know, typical like social media presence, yeah. We are…

Kathy Williams: Still building that.

Matt Raad: We’re building it and it’ll be there. It’ll come.

Kathy Williams: Okay. Okay. Well, Matt, a lot of, I know the program is sponsored by the Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition and so there’s a lot of substance abuse, probably that goes on, we believe, you know, in all kinds of suicides. Are you finding that’s a fact with veterans as well?

Matt Raad: Sure. Yeah, definitely. You know, and working with the Lenawee County Substance Abuse Coalition, the Prevention Coalition in particular, you know, the work there is definitely focused around that. We know that veterans or anybody who has a substance use disorder is at a higher risk for suicide, especially opioid use disorder. And now we’re seeing opioid use disorder deaths, overdose deaths skyrocket right now, along with stimulant related overdose deaths as well for many different reasons. But yeah, so, that’s definitely something that we take really seriously and we want to be able to provide anybody with support that finds them self in that situation and looking for help or just to equip even families, cause it is not just a single person’s issue. It’s generally something that impacts the entire family.

Kathy Williams: Yes.

Matt Raad: So working with the Prevention Coalition has been great. We, you know, it’s kind of, the work kind of goes hand in hand. You know, anybody who’s at risk of a potential overdose or anyone who has a substance use disorder is at a higher risk for suicide as well. So we know that if we can have an impact in one area, inadvertently overflows.

Kathy Williams: Overflows.

Matt Raad: It impacts the other. Yeah.

Kathy Williams: Well, and I think you’re doing a great job too with, by connecting to all the different organizations, cause you’re not really duplicating services, you’re just trying to link better to reach more people with a consistent message I guess.

Matt Raad: Yes, exactly. Yeah, definitely collaborative, not competitive.

Kathy Williams: Correct.

Matt Raad: We, we’re literally a group of people coming together with no other purpose other than to help serve and help veterans in the community here, so definitely not competing for anything. And in fact, we’ve really collaborated with a lot of the local agencies and social service agencies and community members too.

Kathy Williams: Right.

Matt Raad: So, it’s been great and Lenawee definitely knows how to connect and collaborate really well, which has been a blessing.

Kathy Williams: It’s a unique, a very unique group, you know, logistically and such, that just really has a huge hearts for helping people.

Matt Raad: It… that has been very apparent. Yeah. And, and it’s so refreshing. It is truly refreshing and it kind of goes into our philosophy that, you know, a lot of times when people think about suicide prevention, we think it’s something for a counselor to work out or a psychiatrist or something. But the truth is, you know, we can’t do it on our own, you know, it really does take a community and to have the resources there and people willing to assist and then truly that’s our philosophy. Suicide prevention is everyone’s business.

Kathy Williams: Yes.

Matt Raad: And, you know, hopefully if we can provide some trainings and some education and some support and awareness in our communities and let people know that we’re here and we’re able to help in any way we can, I think that could go a long way.

Kathy Williams: I agree. I agree. Well, Matt, we want to thank you for stepping in and talking with us and wish you all the best in the future.

Matt Raad: Thank you, Kathy. Appreciate it.

Kathy Williams: You’re welcome.

Woman’s Voice: Thank you for listening. This information has been provided by the Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition. Supported by funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration. New messages air on the first and third Monday of each month at 6:15 p.m. You can listen to this program as a podcast under the audio tab on WLEN.com and listen and gather more information at DrugPreventionLenawee.com.

Sep

2022

WLEN Interview with Cradle to Career Director Tim Kelly

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Kathy Williams: This is Kathy Williams. And with me on tonight’s program is Tim Kelly. Tim works at the Lenawee Intermediate School District, LISD. He is also the chair of the Prevention and Education committee for the Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition. Tim, lots of acronyms there.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. Yeah. Sorry about that. That’s, we know who we are.

Kathy Williams: We know who we are. There we go. So we want to talk a little bit tonight about a, is it a statistical evaluation that they do for kids? The back to school MiPHY?

Tim Kelly: Yeah. The MiPHY

Kathy Williams: Yes.

Tim Kelly: Is a survey that’s done each year with students. It’s voluntary. It’s done with seventh, ninth and 11th graders.

Kathy Williams: Okay.

Tim Kelly: And it kind of focuses all over the place of attitudes about things like substance use, how they feel about their community, their family, school, sexual behaviors, violence, and just general health too. So it’s a very broad- based set of questions. There’s many questions by the way. But this past year we had 700 plus middle schoolers take it.

Kathy Williams: Okay.

Tim Kelly: And over 1200 ninth and 11th graders took it.

Kathy Williams: Now, is this just in Lenawee County? Is this a whole state?

Tim Kelly: The numbers I’ll be talking about are just Lenawee County.

Kathy Williams: Okay. That’s good.

Tim Kelly: Yeah, but the, it is offered at any school throughout the state.

Kathy Williams: So because the Lenawee Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition is, you know, and our task is to find out what’s in the mind of our students and how are they being exposed so that we can gear our prevention and our education more direct to them basically, you know. So, what kind of information did they find out by the latest survey then?

Tim Kelly: Yeah. Well, let me, let me start with middle schoolers because I found that most interesting that a lot of things that maybe in the past might have been something that was significant for high schoolers has now seemed to move down to middle schoolers. So, it is encouraging though, because the attitudes that are reflected in all the statistics kind of show that kids are not thinking about using substances like they used to.

Kathy Williams: Okay. So maybe some of the education is working.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. They seem to be, I don’t want to say smarter about it, but they they’re wiser and they understand it. They know that, you know, what is good and bad. But you know, they understand that marijuana is now legal and they do view that a little bit different than what they did in the past surveys. But you know, the attitudes now are that, you know, we are going choose not to use, you know, our friends don’t use, my family may not be using, people I’m around may not be using, so I’m not going to use.

Kathy Williams: Okay. Well, that’s definitely a turn in the right direction. Especially with so much going on with overdoses.

Tim Kelly: Yeah.

Kathy Williams: And maybe the future education should be pinpointed even to grade school kids.

Tim Kelly: Yeah.

Kathy Williams: To help them make that determination before they even get to the middle school age. What did you find out then?

Tim Kelly: Yeah. Well. they, as I said, they view marijuana as differently as what they did in the past. Something that’s unique, but it’s kind of backwards to what we think, but there’s less parents talking to their kids about drugs.

Kathy Williams: Oh.

Tim Kelly: So their education may be coming from different sources.

Kathy Williams: Okay.

Tim Kelly: They don’t really talk amongst their peers; cause there’s a question about “how many of you have you had a best friend that’s committed not to use drugs in the last year?” and that number’s gone down since the last survey was done. So you know, and that just means kids are educating themselves and they’re finding the resources. What I feel is probably the most thing, most important thing, and you even mentioned it with the younger kids, is we need to prevent this. You know, it’s one thing to say “we’re going to stop kids from using drugs” once they start using them, we can identify that. We want to prevent it.

Kathy Williams: Right.

Tim Kelly: So what do you do? We recognize that, you know, the more parental involvement, the parents need to talk to their kids about using drugs. Even people in a neighborhood, an adult that they connect to, somebody they have a relationship with is telling them “you know, this isn’t good for you”.

Kathy Williams: Right.

Tim Kelly: And those peers, if their peers are saying, “you know, we’re not going to do these things,” including vaping.

Kathy Williams: Right.

Tim Kelly: Which is something that’s been big lately. That number even seems to be going down in Lenawee County, so.

Kathy Williams: Well, and do you feel like the choice, consequences is coming in at all? I mean, are we teaching our kids that all the choices you make have consequences and are you prepared to pay the consequence for bad decisions? And maybe we need to go back to the fried egg commercial where your brain on drugs or whatever.

Tim Kelly: Well, I think they’re, you know, again, they are learning that. You know, they’re learning that they don’t want to use drugs. Maybe they’re seeing it in the news. They see, obviously see on social media…

Kathy Williams: Oh, for sure.

Tim Kelly: A great deal. So, messaging’s working.

Kathy Williams: Okay. Was there any other big revelations that came out of the latest survey?

Tim Kelly: I’m trying to think. I would, kind of an aside to a couple of these things, I think the most difficult things that’s come out of both the surveys for the middle schoolers and the high schoolers, is that with middle schoolers, there’s a lot more online, I’ll call it online bullying, but is things like spreading rumors and making threats, that number has just doubled.

Kathy Williams: Skyrocketed.

Tim Kelly: In the last couple years. Maybe a product of them being at home more. But it is a drastic increase of that with middle schoolers. So parents need to, you know, pay attention to that. Within with high school, this is not surprising. There has been more mental health issues. You know, we have more than 25% of our kids reporting that they are depressed. And that’s not a number we want to have of our kids.

Kathy Williams: Right. Tim, if our listeners want to find out more about the survey and the results, is there a resource they can go to for that?

Tim Kelly: Drug Free Lenawee…

Tim Kelly: Is our website and pretty much you can link from there to just about any type of resource you’re looking for.

Kathy Williams: Okay.

Tim Kelly: So, I would, I direct most people there because it, it is just a good starting point and something you can come back to locally whenever you need to.

Kathy Williams: Well, and I think, you know, if they’re leading a group or anything, if they’re interested in guest speakers to come in and talk there, there’s plenty of people out in the community that would be more than willing to come in and help: you know, go over some of these issues in a classroom setting.

Tim Kelly: Yeah. I, you know, we recently had the Day of HOPE and there was a number of speakers there. Again, you can ask through the LSAPC, you can find on our website through Drug Free Lenawee, you can find many people that would be willing to speak everything from someone in recovery to a doctor or somebody that would come in and talk about what those drugs can do to somebody.

Kathy Williams: Thanks so much, Tim. We appreciate the information and encourage our listeners to find out more.