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What's New?


Binge Drinking

Parenting Resources

The Ugly Truth of Smoking
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Suicide Prevention

​Mental Health

​Parent Resources for Back to School

​Teens and Alcoholism

​Teens and Marijuana

Taking Care of Our Senior Citizens

Eating Disorders and Smoking Increase

The Dangers of Marijuana Edibles​


KNOWLEDGE IS POWER 

​Look through this information to help our community live happier and healthier.

 

Parenting Resources

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Positive parenting leads to positive futures for generations to come. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are potentially traumatic events in a child’s life that can have negative and lasting effects on health and well-being. https://americanspcc.org/get-the-facts-adverse-childhood-experiences
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https://americanspcc.org/bullying
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What is considered child bullying and what behaviors mark it? https://americanspcc.org/bullying

The Ugly Truth About Smoking

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Suicide Prevention

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TAKE FIVE MINUTES to complete five action items developed by the National Council for Suicide Prevention (NCSP) for their Take 5 to Save Lives campaign: (1) learn the signs (2) do your part (3) practice self-care (4) reach out (5) spread the word. https://www.take5tosavelives.org/take-5-steps
Social isolation is a major risk factor for suicide. The feeling of not belonging or not feeling connected to other people can be detrimentally powerful. Frequently asked questions about suicide
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Where can you go to get help for someone struggling with suicidal thoughts? https://www.sprc.org/

Learn the warning signs.

Warning signs that someone may be at immediate risk for attempting suicide include:
  • Talking about wanting to die or wanting to kill themselves
  • Talking about feeling empty or hopeless or having no reason to live
  • Talking about feeling trapped or feeling that there are no solutions
  • Feeling unbearable emotional or physical pain
  • Talking about being a burden to others
  • Withdrawing from family and friends
  • Giving away important possessions
  • Saying goodbye to friends and family
  • Putting affairs in order, such as making a will
  • Taking great risks that could lead to death, such as driving extremely fast
  • Talking or thinking about death often
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Mental Health Awareness

45 Tools and Resources for Student Mental Health
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As a parent or caregiver, you want the best for your children or other dependents. You may be concerned or have questions about certain behaviors they exhibit and how to ensure they get help. https://www.mentalhealth.gov/talk/parents-caregivers
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Major depression is one of the most common mental illnesses, affecting 6.7% (more than 16 million) of American adults each year. Depression causes people to lose pleasure from daily life, can complicate other medical conditions, and can even be serious enough to lead to suicide. Depression can occur to anyone, at any age, and to people of any race or ethnic group. Depression is never a "normal" part of life, no matter what your age, gender or health situation. https://mhanational.org/conditions/depression
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Are you having trouble doing the things you like to do or need to do because of how you feel—like going to school, work or hanging out with friends? It's important that you talk to someone about it. Talk to your parents or a trusted adult if you experience any of these things:
  • Can't eat or sleep.
  • Can't perform daily tasks like going to school.
  • Don't want to hang out with your friends or family.
  • Don't want to do things you usually enjoy.
  • Fight a lot with family and friends.
  • Feel like you can't control your emotions.
  • Have low or no energy. Feel hopeless.
  • Feel numb or like nothing matters.
  • Can't stop thinking about certain things or memories.
  • Feel confused, forgetful, edgy, angry, upset, worried, or scared.
  • Want to harm yourself or others.
  • Have random aches and pains.
  • Smoke, drink, or use drugs. Hear voices. https://www.mentalhealth.gov/talk/young-people
 

 Parenting Resources

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Free Skills Test

To see how your parenting skills rate, visit Dr. Epstein’s free Parenting Skills Test. You will automatically receive your parenting skills summary based on the answers you provide to a series of 100 questions.
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Helpful Article for Back to School

Some kids' worries are rooted in a fear of the unknown, especially if they will be in a new building or a new school district. They also may be worried about making friends or have concerns about the workload and whether or not they have the skills needed to be successful. Read More
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What is a Healthy Meal?

Provide healthy lunch options for your kids, including breakfast. Students who eat breakfast are more alert during class than those who don’t. Plus, the right foods combined with adequate rest will help fight off infections.
 
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TEENS AND ALCOHOLISM - RECOGNIZING WITH SUBSTANCE ABUSE DISORDER
SUMMER'S EVENTS AND PARTIES HOST MORE DRINKING

HELPFUL ARTICLES:

Summer is the time to be safe about alcohol!  Summer is loaded with parties. Avoid binge drinking (4+ drinks for women, 5+ drinks for men at once) to avoid alcohol-related consequences such as car accidents, fights, sexual assaults, unsafe sex, injuries, etc. Drink a non-alcoholic beverage in-between alcoholic beverages, eat food with alcoholic beverages, have a designated friend to lookout for you and drive you home if intoxicated, and do not leave any drink unattended.

How Alcohol Affects Young People
Alcohol is the number one drug used by teens. It has an outsized influence and effect on young people. While youth aren’t legally able to buy or consume alcohol, they consume 11 percent of all alcohol in the U.S. They also drink more alcohol per drinking occasion than adults do.
Young people are also heavily affected by alcohol. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, alcohol is a factor in an average 4,358 annual deaths of young people under 21. Those deaths come in the form of car crashes, homicides, suicide, alcohol poisoning, falls, burns, and drowning. Additionally, SAMHSA found that 188,000 people under 21 visited the emergency room for alcohol-related injuries in 2011.
Young people who drink are also likely to have other problems. They’re more likely to carry out or be the victim of a physical or sexual assault after drinking, may have trouble in school or with the law, and have problems with alcohol later in life. Alcohol is also known to alter brain development and may cause cognitive or learning problems when people drink heavily and at a young age.

Emotional Effects of Binge Drinking: Verbal aggression, Physical aggression or violence, Sexual assault, Consensual but risky sexual behaviors, Broken relationships, Family problems, Job loss, Depression, Anxiety, Excessive shame and guilt, Anger, Frustration, Hopelessness. 

Alcohol use increases your chances of being injured or even killed. Alcohol is a factor, for example, in about 60 percent of fatal burn injuries, drownings, and homicides; 50 percent of severe trauma injuries and sexual assaults; and 40 percent of fatal motor vehicle crashes, suicides, and fatal falls. 
 

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MARIJUANA AWARENESS
Check out these resources to find out more about the science and effects of Marijuana use. It is not harmless!

A marijuana joint produces 3.5 times more secondhand smoke than a Marlboro Read Professor Glantz’s Blog here.

Marijuana Hurts
What you need to know about marijuana use in teens
Short-term effects of Marijuana
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Marijuana and School
Marijuana is linked to problems in school. Marijuana dulls your attention, memory, and learning skills. These effects can last for days and sometimes weeks, depending on how often you use marijuana. Compared with teens who don’t use, students who use marijuana are more likely not to finish high school or get a college degree.5 Marijuana also affects timing, movement, and coordination, which can harm athletic performance. 
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Did You Know?
  • More than 40 percent of teens try marijuana before they graduate from high school.
  • Many teens do not consider marijuana to be a harmful drug.
  • “The human brain does not fully mature until the early twenties. Among the last areas to develop are those that govern impulse control and planning. So what might that mean for teens? On one hand, they may be ore adventurous than adults, willing to take chances … on the other, this could involve risky behaviors, including drug use.”
(Source: National Institute of Drug Abuse)

  • Research shows that marijuana use can have permanent effects on the developing brain when use begins in adolescence, especially with regular or heavy use.
  • Frequent or long-term marijuana use is linked to school dropout and lower educational achievement
  • The amount of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in marijuana (i.e., marijuana potency) has increased over the past few decades. The higher the THC content, the stronger the effects on the brain. In addition, newly popular methods of using marijuana (e.g., dabbing, edibles) may deliver very high levels of THC to the user.
  • Eating foods or drinking beverages that contain marijuana have some different risks than smoking marijuana, including a greater risk of poisoning.
  • Long-term or frequent marijuana use has been linked to increased risk of psychosis or schizophrenia in some users.
(Source: Center for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC)

About Marijuana
  • Marijuana can be addictive
  • Marijuana is the second drug most often linked to car accidents, including those involving deaths
  • Marijuana is linked to school failure
  • Marijuana in high doses can cause psychosis or panic when used
THC, the main chemical in marijuana, content has been increasing over the past few decades according to the NIH, meaning today’s marijuana is stronger than it was 30 years ago.
Strong forms of cannabis or marijuana may include sinesemilla, hashish and hash oil.
Alternatives to marijuana such as K2/Spice are advertised to be a safe and legal alternative to the drug. According to the NIH, neither is true. The chemicals used in these drugs remain highly unknown and may have much different affects that the user expects.
(Source: National Institutes of Health)
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TEENS AND MARIJUANA - You Should Know
TEENAGE BRAINS ARE VULNERABLE
​​Nora Volkow, director, Wilson Compton, deputy director, and two other scientists at the National Institute on Drug Abuse conducted the first-ever study measuring the time between first use of an addictive drug and the onset of a substance use disorder among adolescents and young adults. Their findings are eye-opening.

Adolescents (ages 12-17)
Within 12 months of starting to use:
  • marijuana, 10.7 percent of adolescents had developed a substance use disorder (SUD),
  • cigarettes, 6.6 percent had developed an SUD, and
  • alcohol, 5.6 percent had developed an SUD. 
At more than 36 months of starting to use:
  • marijuana, 20.1 percent of adolescents had developed an SUD,
  • cigarettes, 11.7 percent had developed an SUD, and
  • alcohol, 9.1 percent had developed an SUD. 
Young Adults (ages 18-25)
Within 12 months of starting to use:
  • marijuana, 6.4 percent of young adults had developed an SUD,
  • cigarettes, 6.4 percent had developed an SUD, and
  • alcohol, 5.1 percent had developed an SUD. 
At more than 36 months of starting to use:
  • marijuana, 10.9 percent of young adults had developed an SUD,
  • cigarettes, 22.2 percent had developed an SUD, and
  • alcohol, 14.2 percent had developed an SUD. 
The fact that three years after they initiate marijuana use twice as many teens as young adults have become addicted to marijuana reveals how vulnerable their brains are to addictive drugs.
 Dr. Volkow said that as states implement new marijuana policies, they should work on measures to protect adolescents. Pediatricians and dentists should screen young patients for drug use and parents should not dismiss adolescent marijuana use as harmless. Marijuana that was available when today’s parents were teenagers is vastly different from today’s marijuana. “The content of THC is much higher, and the higher the THC content, the greater the risk of adverse effects,” she said.

Facts For Teens
Did you know…
  • When asked, only about 1 in 14 teens say they used marijuana in the past month.1 So, if you were thinking everyone uses marijuana, they don’t.
  • Some think marijuana is okay to use because it's "natural." But not all natural plants are good for you—take tobacco, for example.
  • Some teens believe marijuana can't be that harmful if states are legalizing it. Legal or not, one real risk is addiction.
  • In 2016, around 4 million people ages 12 and older had a marijuana use disorder. The most severe form also is known as an addiction.1
  • Research also shows that marijuana can harm the developing teen brain​.
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Our seniors are everyone's responsibility!

Be Kind! Seniors are valuable members of the community, and it falls on everyone to make them feel as such. It doesn’t take up too much time and effort to check in! Here are some resources you can use to help.

Malnutrition Is on the Rise in Older Adults – How to Spot the Signs
Essential Foods for Seniors with Diabetes
14 Exercises for Seniors to Improve Strength and Balance
A Home Fall Prevention Checklist for Older Adults
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https://www.ncoa.org/article/6-falls-prevention-steps-to-help-your-older-loved-ones
Light Housekeeping: Cleaning Help for Seniors
Determine if a Senior Can Continue Living at Home
Selling Their Home Could Finance Downsizing
4 Early Warning Signs of Mental Illness to Watch for in Older Adults
10 Ways to Help Seniors Deal with Isolation and Depression
How to Reduce Loneliness in Old Age
Connecting to Seniors Through Community Outreach
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It's a concerning trend during the pandemic, as experts say there's been a Sharp Rise in Eating Disorders in both teens and adults.

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Read more here.

How to help someone with an eating disorder.


Number of Smokers Soars
to 1.1 Billion Worldwide 


​2/3 of Global Smokers are in 10 countries, including the USA

​https://www.foxnews.com/health/number-smokers-1b-worldwide-study
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The Dangers of Marijuana Edibles

Despite their ordinary appearance, a single cannabis cookie or candy bar can contain several times the recommended adult dose of THC. Take extra care to keep these away from children.  Read More

Serious Negative Side Effects

The symptoms associated with eating highly potent edibles are often much more severe than the symptoms experienced after smoking marijuana. According to Dr. Nora Volkow, the current director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, edibles are now being associated with “medical complications that we never knew were associated with marijuana”.8 Some of the more adverse effects associated with the consumption of edibles include:
Drowsiness.
Confusion.
Vomiting.
Anxiety and panic attacks.
Agitation.
Psychotic episodes.
Hallucinations.
Paranoia.
Impaired motor ability.
Respiratory depression.
Heart problems (ranging from irregular heartbeat to heart attack).

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