 Thank you so much for being here today. My name is Eva Zerrit. I'm a public health specialist at Central Vermont Medical Center and the coordinator of the Central Vermont Prevention Coalition. You are at the fourth in a series of community forums on drugs and alcohol that the coalition is holding across Central Vermont. It's actually our last one of sort of the season and then we'll pick up the forums again in the fall and make sure that we hit all of the towns that are in Central out of every forum. Something really interesting has happened. We've been able to help stand up after school programming for kids, create new education programming for parents and caregivers, support schools and screening and thinking about safety in terms of prom and graduation. So everywhere we go, something comes out of these forums, which has been really pretty remarkable. Like I said, there's a sign sheet. We'd love your contact information. And if you're on Zoom, you can drop your information into the chat if you'd like to be kept informed. There's a few housekeeping things that we'd like to do for Zoom land. I'm like turning that way, but I should turn this way. If you've gotten through the pandemic so far without having to do all of this, congratulations. But what we would like is for you to please stay on mute unless you're speaking. The chat box is going to be monitored by Olivia, so you can put comments and questions and feedback in the chat. We have a Q&A session planned, but if you have a burning question in the moment or you didn't hear something, please let us know. You can raise your Zoom hand by pressing on the reactions button at the bottom of your screen. And we'd love to see your faces, but there's no obligation to keep your camera on. OK, we had a little tech. We had a Wi-Fi issue on this end, which I think if you live in Vermont, you're used to that. So thanks for bearing with us and hopefully it won't happen again. And everyone can still hear me in Zoom world. Good, thumbs up. OK, great. So the last thing I said, we'd love to see your faces, but there's no obligation. Again, completely understanding that bandwidth issues are a real thing in Vermont. We are going to be sharing a lot of resources with you tonight. And so we want to make sure that you leave with what you need. Are there printouts over there, Olivia? So on that table are also printouts of all of the resources that you'll be hearing about tonight. If you're on Zoom, we will be dropping resources into the chat for you or you can take a screenshot or a picture of what you're seeing on the screen to make sure that you have the information that you need. Lastly, I just want to take a moment to acknowledge that there are likely folks here who have been impacted by drug and alcohol use, whether it's their own experience or that of a loved one. And there are possibly people here tonight who have lost somebody to an overdose. And so we ask that you keep these things in mind tonight when you're asking questions and making comments. And we just want to say how grateful we are for everybody to everybody for being here tonight in the room. I'm just going to take a minute to show you the agenda for the evening. So we're going to do a quick poll. Then we're going to do an overview of drug and alcohol use in Vermont. We're going to talk about resources that are available in Central Vermont. You'll hear from panelists who are both in the room and on Zoom. We'll talk a little bit about drug and alcohol prevention and some ideas for preventing use in youth. Then we'll get to the open forum part of the evening and we'll have a final poll and then that will be the event. All right. So I'm going to have Olivia launch our poll now. So if you're in person these are the first few surveys that are on paper. If you're on Zoom we would love for you to take the poll that should be launching. So these first questions are titled federal questions. These are questions that we have to ask because we've received federal funding. I apologize that they don't offer completely inclusive options but please answer as you are able and comfortable. Olivia will you give me like a 10 second countdown or something. Okay. So just a couple more seconds and okay we're going to go ahead and close that poll. All right. And then I believe we have another. So this is our question. This is our poll about who's in the room tonight. So we asked the federal questions that are demographic questions. These are really about who's here this evening. What town are you from? How would you define your role in the community? And the final question is how did you learn about tonight's event that will just help us with our promotion? Right. A few more seconds for this one. Okay. All right. We're going to close that one and then we have one final poll I promise bear with us. This is only two questions. This is something that's going to help us understand if we're able to convey the information properly that we're here to convey. Oh yeah. Sure. Go ahead. So we can look at. So we have some folks here from Weitzfield, Duxbury, at least on Zoom. We have some from out of the area which is great and we're glad that you're here. Great. Okay. So let's do the final one. So this final one is just two questions like I said and this just helps us understand if we're getting the information across that we want to. So the first question is if someone I know was struggling with drugs or alcohol, I would know what resources to point them to for help. And you can strongly agree, agree, disagree, or strongly disagree. And the second question is there are actions I can take to make my community a healthier place for young people. And again, your options are strongly agree, agree, disagree, and strongly disagree. All right. Just the last few seconds. And good. Okay. Awesome. Thank you so much for taking these. These are really helpful for us for a variety of reasons. Okay. Okay. So we're going to get into the first part. So what we wanted to do is sort of step back and just sort of set the context of why we're here tonight. And so we're going to talk about drug and alcohol use among young people for the entire state of Vermont. So among 18 to 25 year-olds, Vermont as a state come in 2019 from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, ranks first in illicit drug use in the past month for this age group, first for marijuana use in the past month, and first for marijuana use in the past year, third for cocaine use in the past year, fourth for alcohol use in the past month, and fifth for binge alcohol use in the past month. So Vermont has really high substance use rates across all ranges. But in particular, this age group consistently year after year ranks very high in their use rates. And it would be, we just really couldn't have tonight's forum if we weren't talking about overdose deaths and the impact that the pandemic has had on overdose deaths. So what we see here is that from the year of March 19 until March 20, there were 114 fatal opioid-related overdoses in Vermont and March is right when the pandemic hit and then March 20, the following year until March 2021, there were 211 fatal overdoses. That's an increase of 85%, and that's actually the fastest increase in the entire country out of all states. And so this is why we're here tonight is because these are really concerning numbers and we as a substance use coalition with these amazing partners who are here tonight to talk to you feel like we have to come out into the community and bring awareness to the resources that are available and hear from the community about what you need and what we can offer. So that's what we'd like to do now is transition into what resources are available in Central Vermont to help with these kinds of issues. So first, I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Mark Detman who's here in the room with us today to talk a little bit about the coalition and the role of the emergency department. You can talk right here and this one will pick you up. Hi, I'm Mark Detman. I'm an ER doctor and doing this work for I worked for 20, almost 25 years in an urban center. And I've been here in Vermont for 15 years working in a rural community hospital. And substance use is a real focus of my work and frankly, of my department's work. If any of you know anybody who needs help in a crisis around... Oh, Mark, they see that they can't help. So our emergency department is open 24-7 and we're available to anybody who needs help with an alcohol or a drug crisis. We can initiate treatment. We can make hard connections at three in the morning with support staff who can help somebody navigate to recovery. Six years ago, our department didn't feel like we were doing a whole lot for people that came in in crisis and we started exploring our neighborhood and finding out that there was a hub and spoke model that was just that had just started to help people with opioid use disorder get them into treatment. But we also found that we had a lot of neighbors in our greater Washington County area working in the fields of recovery, harm reduction, prevention and then we started to meet people involved in the drug court and people involved in, you know, trying to bring people when they come into the community from the correction system or wherever they might be coming from, help them initiate care in the new community. And we began meeting all sorts of other partners and we all came together to form a coalition and that was originally called the Washington County Substance Abuse Regional, what? Partnership and we finally decided a year and a half ago to shorten that and we're now the Center Vermont Prevention Coalition but it does include all those things we talked about primary prevention which we're going to focus on a lot tonight I hope. Treatment recovery and harm reduction. But you know, my passion really is getting out into the community and getting into the towns. There's so many little towns here where they really aren't touched by information and opportunities to make a difference and what I really care about is changing the onset of substance use if possible in our communities and that's a focus on 14 to 25 year olds and I'll be really interested to see where we can find some discussion points this evening. So I'll leave it at that and put this down. Great. Thank you, Mark. All right. As I mentioned, I am at Eva Zeret. I'm a public health specialist at CVMC and we also have Olivia Leclerc here who has done an excellent job organizing all of these forums and is serving with us as a community organizer through AmeriCorps this year. So we're sorry to see her go soon but really thankful for all of her help. All right. Next slide. So I'm going to pass it over to Martina Anderson from Vermont Cares who is on Zoom. Hi, everyone. Thanks for being here and I'm so sorry. I was really excited to be in person with everyone but I'm so appreciative of this hybrid model and I was joking with Eva because last time it went so smoothly and I was kind of jealous because I've tried to do hybrids and it didn't go so well and so I was like felt a little bit better that something went a little bit off today. But my name is Martina Anderson and I'm the harm reduction program manager at Vermont Cares and Vermont Cares is an AIDS HIV service organization that started back in the 80s as a grassroots organization out of the living room of a couple of people who were really passionate in Burlington at the height of the AIDS epidemic. And so since then we have grown and into the harm reduction organization we are today and we have three brick and mortar offices and the closest one to you all is in Berry, Vermont. You can see here at 51 Church Street. We are co-located with the People's Health and Wellness Clinic. We serve though almost the whole state. So as I mentioned we are the largest syringe service program in Vermont and so we serve actually through 11 counties. So we also have an office in St. John'sbury and we have another one in Rutland but then we also serve the rest of our communities via mobile veins. We have two mobile veins and our individual personal vehicles of course. So what do we offer on the road where we literally meet people where they are at? We take that quite seriously as well as in our brick and mortar locations. So as the name says, we offer a syringe service program offers sterile syringes but then lots of other things to other safer injection safer smoking and safer snorting tools for people who are in active drug use and we want to keep them safe and whenever they are ready to take a different step support them along that way but we cannot recover. I think Javid always said you can't recover if you're six feet under and so we really want to ensure to not just meet but accept people where they are at and offer them all the tools to keep them safer in the life. So we of course also have Narcan which is an opiate antagonist medication. So if somebody is experiencing an accidental drug poisoning this medication can be administered and the person can be brought back to life. We give that out to community members as well. Fendinal test strips of course as an AIDS service organization we offer HIV and Hepatitis C screening tests. We also offer HIV case management and safer sharps disposal. So we teach everyone we want you know community members to bring sharps back to us but then also teach them how to safely dispose of them if that is not possible. And then to the wider community we offer training. So we offer trainings around harm reduction and also opioid overdose prevention. Thanks Eva. Go back to the previous one. Just ask Matina to clarify how someone reaches that. Is that a Barry phone number or is that a statewide organization? Sure Matina can you talk a little bit about that phone number? Does that connect somebody with your Barry office or with my phone number? So that is actually my phone number and as the program manager that's perfectly fine and you know I can get you into the direction that you need but I would be you know the best contact person for Washington County as I personally live actually in Washington County but so that is a perfectly fine phone number. We also have a syringe service program phone number I'll be dropping in the chat momentarily where then people you know can choose the area that they want to be connected with in for the aid service side of things we also have like you know just a Vermont CARES phone number so I'll drop all of those in the chat in just a moment but I mean I'm really excited that you just pointed this out because maybe I should share that we're really excited that we are actually going to be launching a mobile app and we've been saying this for like a long time but we are going to fingers crossed I'm probably going to jinx it right now but we are hoping to launch it June 1st and so that will be like a super easy way to get in contact with us and even more anonymous than a phone number would provide you to do so Great Thank you so much Okay I'm going to turn it over to Evan Smith who's in the room today so Evan come on up Yep come on up and just sort of this is your tiny microphone that you're going to speak into Hi everybody My name is Evan Smith I'm a licensed clinical social worker who works at Central Vermont Medical Center I'm the main manager of behavioral health services one of my jobs there is to oversee the Spokes services and the staffing of Spokes for opioid treatment here in Central Vermont so we have a team of seven folks who work on our math team and we're embedded in both private substance abuse practices throughout the county but also in primary care practices What I want to say to you guys today is first and foremost for those folks who are struggling with substance use issues help is available There you can get access to treatment for substance abuse relatively easily without significant barriers to getting into treatment We can't necessarily say that that is the case for mental health services we know about the crisis going on in terms of accessing psychiatry and psychiatric beds but getting access and getting into intensive outpatient programs or into residential care is something that people can get into and you can get into outpatient services or in the math services relatively easily Locally the number if you do need to get into or interested in learning more about opioid care services is the number on the screen there at Central Vermont Medical Center that is the math line for medication assisted treatment any of our staff will be there answering that phone or taking your message and getting back to you within 24-hour period at the latest Also in existence in the state of Vermont is what's known as the Vermont Help Link This is a telephone number in service that the Vermont Department of Health has put together and contracted with a provider that basically helps people get linked up to substance abuse services across the state whatever level of care that individual needs and they will also help them schedule their first appointment in terms of getting into those services and that number here is 802-565-Link and you can also check out their website has a lot of excellent resources on there in terms of information about accessing services in Vermont One of the things that I want to kind of emphasize you saw some of the numbers about overdose numbers climbing up 85% since the epidemic started Another number that is really jumped that is very troubling for me as well is the number of alcohol related deaths since the start of COVID The number of alcohol related deaths across the country went up 25% year over from the year 2019 to 2020 It had never gone up that much in any given year since they started tracking these numbers The highest where the average it had ever ever gone up was 2.3% So to go up 25% is a you know you know very significant and so you know this pandemic its impact on not only you know people utilizing and trying to find ways to deal with their stress and their anxiety through substances opioids It's real and it's hitting us harder than it ever has and so it's more important for us to have these conversations and these kind of community dialogues to talk about how do we help people and what avenues are there for folks So I'll leave it at that if you folks have questions during this evening here to answer any kind of questions that folks have I know there are other folks here We're in Waterbury can you just comment Sure I know we have a couple of the providers here from Waterbury Yeah So What's available to people here? So here in Waterbury through our primary care practice Waterbury primary care we have three MAP providers who are providing services in the MAP team They provide services and see patients who are on buprenorphine through primary care practices We also have counselors that are available through the primary care practices that can get referred through primary care providers as well as embedded Washington County mental health counselors at the primary care practice here We also do a lot of collaborations with Hanna's house in terms of trying to make people connected to services down in Weitzfield through our Mad River practice and so forth So we're always trying to make sure that people can get access to help often knowing that sometimes it's not coming in in a timely fashion when it comes to behavioral services but realizing that you know if people are absolutely in crisis you know the emergency department is the place to go and you know as Dr. Deppman had mentioned earlier being able to you know utilize the emergency room if you're in a crisis situation and really need that level of help those services are there to help people Okay, sure Can you back down the question? Yeah, go right in In Weitzfield you have MAP services there as well do they know transportation? It is a big trick No, it is a big issue and one of the things that we've done was to get one of our MAP providers at Waterbury Allison Hobart who once we have a few more people who are able to be seen down there we do have a number of people who live in the Mad River Valley who are MAP services who do get their primary care down there and our goal really is to link people up with their primary care practice and have MAP providers in every primary care practice so they're not in the situation of what you're saying of like living all the way down and facing her you know, lower war and having to get all the way up to Waterbury or for that matter out to Berlin so yeah we're working directly on that issue I'm glad you brought that up and it's really good feedback for you all to validate the need in the Mad River Valley south of Waterbury because it is a small practice and it's a challenge for us to be able to bring those services there but I think it's great that Laurie and Peter are here to hear that I also just want to reconnect Matt, of course many of you most people know Matt stands for it has different couple of different meanings but I think of it as medication assisted treatment and we are answering the call with the alcohol crisis we're doing a pilot right now in the emergency room where we've got a medical model for MAT for alcohol use and a connection to psychotherapy based treatment and we're hoping in the next couple of years to really strengthen that into primary care alcohol use is already treated in primary care pretty darn well but we're looking to bring some more connections a little more specialty consultative ability for primary care providers to have dealing with that very difficult problem Great and I think we can definitely dive into this a little bit more during the Q&A so hold on to that thought but thank you for both for answering Matina I see that your hand is up I'd love to give you a chance to talk I am so sorry Eva but just listening you know to evident mark and also being thankfully reminded by Alice who is in the audience and soon today I totally forgot to also mention that we are also offering you know at Vermont cares at the syringe service programs immediate super low barrier access to a suboxone to bubrenorphin in a total harm reduction fashion because we are collaborating with Alice's organization which is better life partners and so we also when people are ready and want to you know seek out treatment we can immediately like they call we get them in immediately and 40 minutes later they pick up their script at the at the pharmacy and this is all over zoom people can do it in our office but they can do it from home if they you know struggle with with Wi-Fi or accessing a tablet we can come to them and support them in that and that goes of course that's in the Medgar Valley as well. Hey, great. Thank you. Okay, so we've talked about treatment sort of more on the adult side but I'm going to turn it over to Burt now from Washington County Youth Services Bureau and keep this moving along so that we have time for the Community Forum part of the Community Forum. All right, Burt take it away. All right. Thanks Eva. So my name is Burt Clavin's the director of the Healthy Youth Program or HIPP which is a program of the Washington County Youth Service Bureau which is now located in Berlin, Vermont. The Healthy Youth Program provides outpatient substance use education and treatment that is geared specifically to the needs of adolescents and young adults which we consider to be AIDS 12 to 25. HIPP utilizes a holistic approach to treatment that emphasizes relationship building draws in a variety of treatment approaches to address needs and is flexible to the unique challenges of young people seeking treatment. Washington County Youth Service Bureau also provides a range of other programs for young people such as mental health counseling, transitional housing services and we have our basement teen center which is in Montpelier for people that's relevant for. All our services are easy to access by calling the number on the slide and talking to our central intake staff. And just as another note if you do think that your child might be using drugs or alcohol the best thing you can do is reach out for some help and guidance. It doesn't have to be a big problem to justify doing that. Your doctors substance use counselors school or mental health counselors all can be helpful. And at the health of youth program we're always happy to hear from you and try to answer any questions you might have. Thanks a lot. Thanks Bert and could you just speak for a moment about access for the area that we're in now Waterbury Mad River Valley? Yeah, absolutely. So, you know two things there is we do we do do remote services through you know digital you know we use Zoom. What do you call that? We use Zoom so we can fly for people where distance is an issue. We do have that available. We you know it depends on the different schools we actually try to as much as possible locate our services in the communities that are being served and we work with different schools to to do that. You know COVID has made things more complicated with people coming into buildings and so on. But we're willing you know we're willing to go out it and you know be people down in the communities as much as we can so but otherwise like I said if you call our if you call our just start that number of the slide it's a central intake number and they'll connect you with one of our counselors not right away but we'll get back to you and yeah and try to work out the best way to help you get services. Great thank you so much. Now going to pass it on to Bob Purvis from the Turning Point Center of Central Vermont to talk about recovery. Sure I'm the director of the Turning Point Recovery Center we're located in Barry but we serve all of Central Vermont. All of our services are free of charge to anyone. We're a peer Recovery Center which means that everyone who works here has a personal history of an alcohol or other drug addiction and recovery from it. That's true for me I've been in recovery for just about 18 years now. Because we peers have been there quote unquote we are able to relate to people who are struggling with substances in a way that others can't. Our job is to help each person find their own pathway to recovery and there are many pathways to recovery. A recovery center is a place where a person can go to receive individual or group support. We provide a wide range of programs that can help people regain their health and enrich their lives. It's also a place for people who are doing the same thing. I learned to once again have fun and play games while sober. The most important service we provide is recovery coaching. Recovery coaches are highly trained peers who connect with folks who are embarking on recovery or maybe exploring what recovery might mean to them. The coach helps the person think through what their goals are and what steps they wish to take to reach them. Along the way the coach will connect the person with resources that can help them overcome barriers the end result is a healthier and more fulfilling life. As I said there are many pathways to recovery. Our job is to help a person find the path that is right for them. Our recovery coaches work in a variety of settings in addition to meeting people who come to the center. We have coaches working in the CV CVM C emergency department as it says up on the screen and also with the Montpelier Police Department. They can meet in person by phone or video conferencing to support both individuals and families. And I'd like to say that you know if you not sure what you want or where you want to go or where you need to go you can give us a call because we can talk to you and help you work out what it is you want to do. Now I'd like to turn you over to Lucy a woman who has worked hard on her recovery and who we always look forward to seeing at turning point. Hi Lucy I didn't start drinking until I was in my 20s and it did everything for me all the anxiety all the doubt and and and trauma was gone and and I ran that for the last 30 years it it it totally totally ruined my life. I lost a child I I lost my mother I got a divorce in a year and I it was all over alcohol I didn't lose my mother for alcohol but it was all over alcohol and I don't know who's in this room but but this is this is beautiful I this is my third community meeting and just to see everybody in here you know either wanting to help or wanting to share and have have our backs have our support you know and making me stronger in turn I want to I want to make you stronger it's a I want to turn it into a win win in my life now I I didn't want to live I never was like that I never wanted to commit suicide I never wanted to give up and that's where I was and so when I'm sorry Martina mentioned people meeting you where you are that's what turning point did for me they they met me exactly where I was and I I'd run and then you know I just remember them they just kept nagging me you know because I knew that if I couldn't go anywhere else I could go there and nobody was going to be like you know I lose it come on get it together or something like that you know they just have a big smile you know some coffee or you want you know and it just it it means everything you know when you destroy your life you you you don't have any but you don't have yourself and to go in there and be supported and get the help I needed and the encouragement each and every time meant everything to me I'm currently now in school because I want to be a contributor to to this community this community has been very good to me and it just means a lot that you all even just asked me to do this so I really appreciate everyone being here and really just trying to help us you know and we'll be there for you I promise we will thank you Lucy thank you I every time you share your story at these forums it's so passionate and real gift to everybody here so thank you for being here sharing your experience and Lucy will also be available during the open forum part to answer questions and along with the rest of us okay I'm going to turn it over at this point to Anne Gilbert from Central Vermont New Directions Coalition to talk about primary prevention thank you Eva hi I'm Anne Gilbert I'm the director of Central Vermont New Directions we focus on healthy communities and working with partners to prevent youth substance use we're based in Montpelier we've been around since 1998 we're funded primarily through grants from the Vermont Department of Health to address tobacco use underage drinking prescription drugs and really to prevent youth cannabis use now too which is the newer legal term for marijuana and you know we're trying to stop something before it starts and this really does take a village it's so important to have multiple partners on board to help make a difference we really appreciate and need parents youth schools select boards businesses and policymakers and we provide information and education about substances because we really understand that kids are at great risk of drug problems and mental health problems and addiction when they start using at an early age you know before the age of 13 can really have a dramatic effect on their dependence and addiction later on in life and even if it's nicotine through smoking or vaping their brains are just not fully developed until they are at least 25 years old so we're currently presenting to health classes in middle and high schools about substances we know now that vaping is a pediatric health crisis especially during the pandemic there have been problems with alcohol and prescription drug use as you've heard and new directions as a resource for how kids can get help quitting we do parent education presentations we follow the bills to inform our legislators about pertinent topics like the risks of flavored tobacco products and how they're harmful to our kids and we do help out in Waterbury area and the Mad River Valley in fact our prevention coordinator Will Roberts is on today and he's been going out to classes at the Harwood middle school to talk about vaping and substance use so thank you Eva you know I I guess I should also mention that we work so closely with Vermont Department of Health and Matt Whelan who could not be on tonight he's on paternity leave congratulations but he is the prevention consultant for our our health district which is called the Berry district but it really includes all of Washington County and school districts which are in our area and he is a wealth of information and can really link parents and community members up with resources as well so he and I work very closely together and it's good to know about the Vermont Department of Health being an incredible resource. Great thank you Anne and for introducing Matt so these are the resources that are available there are more resources but these are really the key resources that are available first substance use primary prevention harm reduction treatment and recovery and all of these folks will be available in just a few minutes when we get to the community forum part of the evening and you are welcome to ask them questions at that point are there any questions about what you just saw do you need to see a phone number again no sounds good okay so what I'd like to do at this point is we're going to transition to more specific information about primary prevention because if we can really stop you know the problem before it becomes a problem that's ultimately everybody's goal so I'd like to turn it back over to and now who's going to walk us through what primary prevention is and some data great thanks Eva so let's start with just taking a look at this Vermont stream you know right in the spring time it's really rushing so join me in picturing this imagine a large river with a high waterfall and at the bottom of this waterfall hundreds of people are working frantically trying to save those who have fallen into the river and have fallen down the waterfall many of them are drowning and as the people along the shore are trying to rescue as many as possible one individual looks up and sees a seemingly never ending stream of people falling down the waterfall and begins to run upstream well one of the other rescuers yells where are you going there's so many people that need help right here to which this woman replies ongoing upstream to find out why so many people are falling into the river so as she heads she notices bridges in various states of disrepair along the river some are strong made of sturdy components others are weak and debilitated with missing boards or flimsy railings it doesn't surprise her that most of the people falling in the river are crossing these poorly made bridges and those individuals that live near or travel across the strong bridges are protected of course all of the bridges could use more reinforcement but it's easy to see which bridges need the most attention so in this stream parable if you will we know that there are certain groups of people that are more likely to fall in the river than others they do not fall in because of individual weaknesses or intrinsic flaws but rather we do know that some people are privileged to live in communities with strong bridges usually made of high-quality materials that could use more reinforcement but there are materials that protect them from falling in the river and promoting their safe passage across next slide so there are key points that we really want to mention tonight and Harwood Union has higher use rates for most substances when we compare them to the rest of the state of Vermont we also know that Vermont as a whole the young people are among the highest users in the country for most substances but the good news is there are things that we can do to control this and make some changes next slide so the middle school and high school students at all the schools many most of the schools in Vermont take the youth risk behavior survey every two years at school and so this is called the YRBS and this is data from 2019 so when we look at this the Harwood high school I'm showing you just the high school numbers not middle school tonight but you can see that Harwood students report 65% of Harwood students report that they have ever had alcohol compared to Vermont 55% so that's statistically higher with alcohol and here on this slide the it's statistically higher with marijuana use as well 55% of Harwood students ever used marijuana or cannabis compared to 40% in the state when it comes to prescription pain medicine use misuse actually Harwood students were at 12% compared to 9% overall in Vermont and for stimulant use prescription stimulants Harwood students using the rate of 11% rather than compared to Vermont at 7% so this survey the wire BS also shows that fewer students believe that it is wrong for someone their age to drink alcohol or to smoke marijuana these are specific questions on the survey and and so for the Harwood students to have statistically lower numbers in this is a concern fewer students believe their parents would think it was wrong or very wrong for them to use alcohol or marijuana and more students have access to marijuana and alcohol and students in the rest of the state that we do know that Harwood has high numbers compared to the state and when we look at Washington County as an average usually pulls little bit higher than the whole state but Harwood it has higher numbers next slide so we also can look at Vermont youth this is from NISDA the National Survey on drugs and on health and this is 12 to 17 year olds 11 percent used marijuana in the past 30 days compared to 7 percent in the United States so just as Eva was showing you the data from the young adults 18 to 25 year olds in the beginning we're also concerned about the 12 to 17 year olds for Vermont as a whole next slide 12 percent using alcohol in the past 30 days compared to 9 percent using alcohol in the United States next alcohol use in the past month 27 percent in Vermont compared to the 17 percent in the U.S. and when we talk about binge alcohol use in the past month Vermonters ages 12 to 20 are much higher at 17 percent compared to 10 percent and we we see this in the numbers at the high school age as well which is very concerning because binge drinking is four to five alcoholic drinks within a short period of time which might be you know under two hours and when you think about the risk of that amount of alcohol to the teen brain and so many other parts of the human body and you know driving or risky sexual behavior violence drownings binge drinking is a real concern so there are things that we can do some things that contribute to the youth use and number one is the availability of substances we really in prevention we talk a lot about access and availability of substances and what does that look like are they in the home I mean especially during the pandemic this has been a challenging time with kids at home and parents at home and stress and access to alcohol and you know with retail cannabis on the you know coming up this fall there's been a lot more use with that and prescription drugs hanging around in people's medicine cabinets because people think oh they might you know need to use that again sometime or they just haven't bothered to get rid of it number two the amount that young people know about the impacts that substances have on their bodies in their brains really do need more information and that could happen at school but it also needs to happen in the home parents are a huge influence getting regular checkups so doctors can talk to their patients about this discussing it when you see social media or movies number three the amount of protective factors that young people have in their lives now this is really important when you think about what does that look like you know all young people caring adult or a teacher at their school that they can go to if there's a problem I really makes a difference who they're hanging out with do they have a healthy peer group it's important that they have a family that communicates or maybe sits down for a meal at least four times a week that these kids are involved in activities you know healthy risk taking and then number four the community norms around alcohol and other drugs so what what do kids see I mean are they seeing lots of signs when on their way to school for you know cheap beer or the best I craft beer in the United States are they seeing alcohol at family friendly events you know is there regular vaping and cannabis use out in the open or or are there pretty strict rules or guidelines or protective factors around what that looks like in the community next slide so the Vermont prevention model really is a diagram that kind of shows that it does take a village it takes so many different partners to really make a difference in curbing that youth substance use and we start with the policies and systems which is really this surrounding area now these are the local and state and federal policies these are the laws that really help provide a framework and the media and when I think back about growing up when there were tobacco commercials on TV all the time and on the radio and you could open an airplane and in bars and restaurants and how how much smoking was decreased because of the overall policies and laws that came into place prohibiting a lot of that smoking and media and even in the community what does your cultural environment look like for organizations you know are your faith-based organizations or your schools or your worksites are they smoke free are their policies that everyone understands and consequences also and relationships your family your friends and then it really comes down to the individual what do they know what's their knowledge what is their attitudes and beliefs and so we can't depend on just educating the one individual they need to be able to live in a world where it's supportive of prevention next slide so at home we protect our children and families from lead and asbestos radon chemicals bed drinking water so maybe it's time to really add all the substances to that list look around your home do a survey is alcohol readily available is cannabis are there tobacco products and vaping products what about the prescription medications sort of taking a survey of all of that and realizing that all of those can be harmful to kids you know whether they're toddlers and you're locking them up to elementary middle high school and until there you know 21 we're older really to help prevent misuse and poisonings or addiction slide so the perception of harm is a real concern you know do do do kids really not think that this would be harmful to them or they don't think their parents would really think it would be harmful to them and what we know is that for you know in the hardwood union school district there's a low perception of harm and so how do we raise the alarm about that and you know parents talking to other parents about it parents talking to their their teens about it would be really helpful slide so what can we do to make a change continue to monitor the availability of substances to young people talk to them talk to kids in your life about the impacts of substances on their bodies and brains talk early when they're young and talk often and get more used to it so that you're desensitized a little bit you know we say it's not about having one 60 minute conversation but think about having 60 one minute conversation you can focus on bolstering those protective factors in young people's lives maintain strong school policies and procedures you know do the kids know what the consequences are if they violate that at school or at home and promote the screening of students so that they can get referred to treatment so some of the resources that are available through the Vermont Department of Health this parent up Vermont you can go to the to parent up VT dot org it's on the Vermont Department of Health website and this really gives parents facts and resources that they might need in order to talk to their kids about it whether they're just needing some factual information whether they think there might be a problem or whether they know their kids are using there's a lot of information is central Vermont New Directions Coalition you can go to cvndc dot org and or you could reach out to myself and Gilbert or our prevention coordinator will Roberts who's been doing some of the education in the in the middle school and working with some of the teen groups at the high school as well and so this is just a quick snapshot of what you would see if you go to the parent up VT dot org website that yes parenting can be tough and so we need these tools we need a script we need information in order to help us navigate this and there's plenty of information there including how to find some treatment services if you feel like that so one way to get the prescription medications out of your house is to really take a look in those drawers or medicine cabinets where are they if they're old and expired or you're not using them anymore we have the prescription drug take that day coming up this Saturday on April 30th it's from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and you can drop above that any of the six collection sites in Washington County and this is organized by local law enforcement and the Washington County Sheriff's Department you could go to the the Montpelier Police Department or the Barry Police there used to be a drop box at the kiosk at the the right aid pharmacy in Waitesfield but that's no longer there so you can lock things up and if you're in person in the room there you might be able to pick up a lock box you know there are bags available or new directions even has locking bins with a combination lock on there or a medicine box that you could lock your prescription medications up in so they're safe around the house you could drop them off at any of the kiosks at the police any of the police stations in Washington County or at some like the Kenny's in Waterbury has a a drop box and they are one of the locations for the drug take back day on Saturday or you can nail them back we have prescription drug nail back envelopes and you just put the medications right in an envelope you seal it up and you drop it right in the mailbox and they get sent off to be incinerated and that's totally free their postage prepaid those and those are envelopes those envelopes are available at your local library town offices senior center and at the medical central about medical center so I encourage you to that would be one place to start especially with spring cleaning coming up is to get the meds out of the house and lock up your other substances as well thank you great and that was so informative thank you so much for all of the data the information and all of the things that we can do so those bags and boxes are in the back if you're here in person you should feel free to take one of them with you and some pizza okay so we are at the community forum part of this time so I'd like to open it up both in person and zoom you have all of these experts here today you have people from your community here we'd love to take your questions comments and sort of start a conversation is there anyone that has a question or a comment that they'd like to make this is Phyllis I have one if I may please Phyllis go ahead okay I forget the woman's name that was speaking that had gone with the alcohol issue I can't remember her name but I would if is she available to ask a question of Lucy yes Lucy is here Lucy yes that's sorry if you got your name Lucy what made was there anything any of your family or friends could have done that would have propelled you to seek help sooner I have a family member who's got a fairly heavy-duty drug problem that doesn't acknowledge it and I don't you know we we know that all the stuff is there but is there anything that you that would have made you seek help sooner I Phyllis thank you um no I of course my family for many years decades begged me to quit and I didn't think I had a problem it was divine intervention and I know it sounds odd but it it came from my kitty I had a new kitty and that low moment I had enough alcohol and and the in the room that I had locked myself in to just to just kill myself and it was me and my cat and I looked down there and she was sleeping just so peaceful like everything was great and you know we're safe and um I said I told myself I I gotta do better I would have been sober a long time ago if it was left up to anyone else but just keep loving him and encouraging him along but I you know I try not to be accusatory because this has been going on for 20 years now and um I don't want to miss anything that I could tell him that might influence him that way but um I I sort of thought it has to be something you do on your own because no matter what don't stop loving thank you Lucy thank you thank you Phyllis Bob I'd like to also open it up to you to see if you um have anything you'd like to share well there's truth in what Lucy said that there has to be something inside of you that that decides that there's a click that says I'm going I've got to do something but um you know it's you can be open to signs that the person is thinking that they might have a problem and you don't want to label them or or jump to a conclusion is that you are this or you are that which never helps but you can encourage conversation about how their life is going what's what's going on in their life and and if there if you if you can see visible signs that there their life has been adversely affected by their use then you could maybe get into a conversation about that and at a certain point well what do you think is the problem is and you listen and and you just you do the best you can in that regard but as Lucy said you can't you can't get them you telling them they need help only first causes them to back up on their heels more but you need to be the loving person in their life that you are at the same time so don't ever don't ever give up on that Bob could you also talk about supports that are available to family members groups in the community that that are there to support families there are times when you need to decide not to enable their continued use and but you might not always know where to draw the line so if you enable them to continue using of course then that further delays there's doing dealing with it but but but you want to be sure that the things you're you're trying to do are not punitive that you're not going to punish them into it that doesn't work is that you can you may know in your heart that you should not take them someplace or you should not give them money they're thinking you should not do this because you know it's just going to enable them to keep using more and at that point it helps to have people who have been there and done that and who can give you the encouragement and support you need to be tough in some cases you know there are times when you just simply have to say no or you have to draw a line and it's hard because they're your family and if you're in a group of people who have been through that they can support you and give you tips on how to do it we have we have two groups that meet here at turning point one is called family's anonymous and it's to support family members of anyone who's struggling with a substance of any kind and then we also have an Alanon group here both are very welcoming and open they're not you know hardcore anything and if you're in person and say we're there with you we support you we know what's going on in your life and and tell us what's tell us what's happening specifically maybe we can give you a few pointers on how you can deal with it so that's not the best I can offer yeah Bob thanks so much I wonder if you would be or Olivia maybe would be able to drop turning points phone number contact information into the chat for anyone who's interested in learning more about those services and Bob your meetings are hybrid is that right actually those those the Alanon meeting is but the family's honest meeting is not and I should say that you can always call here if you have a question and you're not sure what to do call here and I'm always here and I'll be happy to talk with you I've been here for like over 11 years now who to thunk that and I've talked to a lot of family members their spouse about their kids and the one thing that that people who are family members don't know they feel isolated and alone and they don't know that they help too because the the illness affects everybody in the family and I've had people just start crying on the phone when I tell them you know you need support too you need help too just as much as the person your life is using so take please even if you just want to ventilate a little bit and I'd be happy to connect you with some other resources if I can and there there's there are a lot of people around here who are willing to support you and that's the turning point number I'm not seeing it right now yes yes that number right there you can call you can call me anytime that's over here for Bob and Lucy thanks so much for helping with you know I'll probably follow up it's just getting to a point that it's becoming really problematic and I just really don't want to die but he's that's the way he's going right at the moment so all right thank you thank you so much all right any other anything else that we can answer yes presenting in a health class I don't know if that's part of this model you know I'm 27 my least thing is initiatives about young professionals that don't talk with young professionals so I just don't know if that's part of this work so the question is what for an engagement with young people has happened beyond maybe education am I hitting that correctly sure so I'll probably turn this back over to Anne although I'd love and maybe you could also mention as an organization that would be good to know about you're right good thanks yeah so there is an organization called up for learning and there are groups in the schools that get together with an advisor and take a look at the youth risk behavior survey data from their school and learn how to analyze it so that they can be aware of where the maybe some problem areas and what they're doing really well at in their school and what what's it what are challenges and then develop some action steps for how they might make some changes in the school but up for learning also offers restorative practices training and youth and school conversations so they're a good resource to and and but I do I do feel that you know we're so concerned about the young adult population right now and if we haven't caught them as elementary school kids or middle school or high school and now they're between the ages of 18 to 25 which is just such and continued high risk time we're we're new directions is really hoping to talk to more employers about what businesses that are hiring this age group can really do in terms of having a wellness program or having conversations or having allowing people to be able to go out and get treatment that would help with their recovery if they needed it or having just having an awareness of what are all the social events that you have going on for your business or for your employees do they all involve alcohol or partying or can there be other things that are fun that could be substance free as well so that you're kind of sending that sort of message we there there are groups in a number of the schools that are already formed because they care about social justice issues or maybe the lgbtq groups or and so Will Roberts our prevention coordinator is reaching out to a number of those student groups to connect and you know I a lot of times it's it's having another adult just around as sort of a good role model if you will and you know the youth service bureau has the basement teen center which is in Montpelier but you know what are the places in the community in the Mad River Valley or in the in Waterbury where where teens can go and it can be a safe environment you know skiing and snowboarding is a great sport but you know sometimes that's that might be you know you know kind of a risky place at the mountain as well so was there something else specific that you were you know that you're trying to get at that maybe one of us could answer question a bit to wonder I'm going to reflect this back to the community and I don't know how many of you are parents with children in this audience but do you are you frustrated that there does not seem to be any interest among parents in the school district around these issues I mean there's been so much focus around COVID and so many other things to distract us but where where does this land do you feel like there just isn't a unifying force around doing something I grew up in the culture of drinking and drugging being cool and part of the scene is very real it has been since I was young and I think I have two children at Harwood right now my 10th grader recently said to me you know you and so-and-so's parents are really lucky you're the only parents at Harwood who have kids that don't do drugs and she's in 10th grade and you know that warms my heart makes me happy but it makes me really sad for her community I'm really glad here that will is in the will it's Liza Cain I know you I'm really glad to know you're in the middle school at Harwood because we have to start there they're all using and vaping and there's drug deals going on in the bathrooms and I feel like there is a blind eye I thought I was on the cross team a couple of years ago and during her teammates were in the bathroom vaping and Harwood claims to have a zero tolerance policy and everyone knows these kids are using and not doing anything so Anne talked about the sort of having protocols and follow-through that are realistic and and that there's accountability there is not there is nothing turn their eyes because the teams are really good and they don't want to ruin their their teams so yes I'm on fire can you tell so would you say there's like there's just not a critical mass of parents that care enough that this is of all the things going on in the world this isn't I think the parents are part of the problem I'm sorry to say and and we have a cultural problem you know Lucy your access thank you for sharing to alcohol it's it's I think our problem is that we revere alcohol I don't think you have a problem because you had trouble with alcohol I think alcohol is altering and we have to change our our whole mindset and the isolation you know we've all been talking about small towns and the further you get from Waterbury down into the valley the smaller the towns are and the less access people have to think so I'm very grateful to hear that there's more treatment coming to the the clinic here and and in Watesfield I think Alanon groups and AA groups in the valley are hard because it's a small community and there is so much stigma around getting help because of course you have to admit there's a problem and then everyone is afraid the people in the community are going to know that they have a problem and like let's celebrate them they're getting help yeah yeah yeah you know for us as as you know leaders in this coalition this is so sobering to hear just because we know we've we've always known it's the case I mean the further you get into the smaller towns you get away from Barry and Montpelier and Berlin where all the services are located you get into these smaller towns and there's just it's just harder to connect with people it's harder to get your message across and we want to work really hard at trying to help you all solve that but it does it's real community action a critical mass of people to stand up to your school board and and we can't do that but we can help and I think Anne and Will and Bob are really you know you've heard their voices around this and they're there to help to out of a degree we can and maybe in the future we'll be able to help even more but so much of that has to do with individual school boards and select boards and how they want to spend money and to revitalize in the arts program and the theater program and what sports and keeping kids just give them things to do and be busy build a maker lab in your town and have a mentor run it I mean there's just it just takes that level of creativity and commitment from a critical mass of people so I really this building the library but teens don't want to come here no now every time I hear so much right every time I hear someone by we just need a team center by yeah it's but it's true there isn't anywhere for kids to go to do stuff no when they're distances they have to drive drive so that's a car to drive yeah it's tough it's a challenge yeah yeah that's why networks caring parents can make a difference knowing your knowing your kids friends knowing what they're doing having curfews agreeing on curfews agreeing on rules when kids go to each other's homes but that's what you sort of want right well I can tell you I was I was at Harwood today actually all day I taught class around vaping use in four of their core classes today so basically all day and I can tell you they were not I brought up the YRBS data and they were not surprised in the slightest they knew that they were high numbers and they knew that it was above state averages and they also knew that it was a relatively easy to get vapes and and e-liquids and it was rel either they and they all shared this with me either it was easy from family members or it was easy to just go to the store and give a couple extra dollars and they could buy themselves so you know so there's a lot you know it's not exactly exactly happy news but but they the the kids are very aware of of of the issue what the problem is and they also said to me when I when I asked you know well what you know what happens if you get caught nothing nothing happens and so so there's a lot what they said in this 40 minute class but I had several these 40 minute classes there's a lot of levels to this you know I think school response is lacking it sounds like to me parental and community responses kind of lacking it sounds like to me and the kids are they are I don't know it's not that they don't care but they are sort of complacent I guess yeah thanks really important question we I want to let you know that the school board was invited tonight they're unfortunately had to move their school board meeting to the same time that this community forum is but thanks to orca we are able to record this meeting and it will be available to the school board to review later so thank you orca I should have thanked you all in the beginning for for helping us tonight when we when you did you present some of that data to the school board we didn't present the data to the to them I'm just saying if there's enough of you that can get yourselves and some of us in front of your school board we're happy to do yes the statement from Dr. Deppman was that we'd be really happy to help speak to school boards anytime and help present information thank you yeah Elliot you've already mentioned you're in Harwood Middle are you at Cross A Brook Middle Will can you hear that question? Okay No so today and next week I'm just at Harwood I would love to be a Cross A Brook though so far no so I mean it has been historically in the last two years COVID of course is getting back into school so that's been that's been a thing so but but things are loosening up lately and so we've been able to get into more schools which is great so yeah Cross A Brook I would be happy to reach out and if you have connections there I would gladly take them and talk to them Mill has visited Harwood Mill that's an issue of Cross A Brook though but it just seems to make sense to start early Well are you are you going to be discussing those things at Harwood? Well I didn't hear there was a question for me I couldn't hear it the other question is are you just discussing vaping at Harwood or other substances on they asked me to come in for just vaping but but we've got presentations on all substances so so that that's easy to do so would it help Will Well would it help for this audience to understand how you get into these schools you know it do you have to kind of make the case or be asked if that doesn't happen it doesn't happen that's basically it yeah so so I reach out to schools and you know give them samples of a presentation kind of thing and they they will either ask me or or they won't sometimes I just did a series in Cabot and they actually reached out to us which was great and so then I went in and did a four week series in a health class and but I had reached out to to Harwood myself so and I was bird I was going to ask you if does your organization reach into schools around the county especially in the smaller towns or is that not to sort of the level of your programming know where where we're available to do that we you know like we go in our area we see clients and Barry at Spalding High School at Williamstown you know schools differ on whether and how much they want other people and also sometimes it's an issue of space like if we're actually going to do counseling practices counseling sessions there so we're happy to go if if it works for the schools and they can you know provide a place for us to do that and then you know we also we also do so you know available to do some presentations and trainings you know it's we're available to do it it's it often is a question of being asked invited so does it come down to like the school nurse or somebody of the health specialist at the school to make these invitations or to seek outside support will do you know I've looked into the health classes so I think health is health class health teachers that's that's a good avenue there's also at Harwood as well as Spalding there's also a group called OVX which stands for our voices exposed and so that's a great group and so it's a coordinated effort with teens and so there's like a coordinator there's an OVX coordinator in these places Harwood has one Spalding has one and so you could that's a good avenue in as well because those folks are are working with mainly tobacco but those folks that's a great avenue in so so audience because I think as we get out of COVID I think we may as a coalition may have opportunities to work with an annual meeting of all the health allied nurses or whatever those people are in the counties I think they do get together on on some basis if not annual I think Anna's met with them Alice I see you've got a hand raised still sorry that's okay I just did I just raised it I do have a question for if you have a sense of it can you just explain if you've seen a difference in the rates of vaping in the middle schools and high schools pre and the the exiting of us exiting the pandemic pre-pandemic and now yes so it was a problem before COVID I mean when when when vaping first started it was out of control and a lot of kids did not realize there was nicotine in there and parents didn't either we did a lot of education at that time but right now across the board we're connected with all the coalitions throughout the state of Vermont and everyone is sort of in this panic that vaping is a real problem in many many of the schools so I would say yes it so yeah it is a problem and so I think that's where some schools are trying to work with getting trained in restorative justice and also in programs to help kids quit 802 quits it you know is good for adults but they also have some texting and apps and ways for youth to stop vaping to and yeah you know I think it really comes down to the school consequences the sports teams everybody really being on the same page and holding kids accountable for their behavior and the violations but I also want to say that we have funding essential Vermont prevention coalition and new directions we have funding to support schools in a universal screening so this could be set up for heart cross at Brooke or for Harwood you know maybe early in the fall that all kids would get screened for their mental health and their vaping use or their alcohol use and we can you know then the counselors would really be able to see how many kids are really at risk and is everybody getting the treatment they need and there's there's this youth screening and brief intervention and referral to treatment survey the kids do which is very informative so that they get information while they're taking and it's different than the risk behavior survey and so I think we'd like to talk to the school board about you know where the administration about getting that so that maybe there could be a wrap around plan of better school policies and the screening and more education to all the coaches and maybe a parent group yeah but I just want to mention Alice that that was a little bit anecdotal that we hear that vaping has gotten worse post-pandemic the wire bs survey is done every two years and so we don't have results yet of the next iteration but that will be coming sometime 2020 yes the data we shared was 2019 the survey has been taken in 2021 and then Vermont Department of Health needs time to process that I think in coordination with the CDC and then we'll get the more most updated information so there's a significant lag time and we use that data over a couple of years to be making decisions the difference with the white expert that Anne is talking about is that that's real time it's not anonymous and a student could be flags if they were if they had high risky behavior and a counselor would be able to say are you okay what do you need you know depending on how a school functions and what's available so those are the differences between those two programs and Bert let me come to you yeah just two things one thing it's really important to recognize about vaping is it's actually allowing nicotine to be an emotional management tool for young people in a very different way you know cigarettes they had a lot of limitations on especially for young people about how often you could do it revaping because it's so easy to do and in terms of it's not it doesn't smell it's not creating smoke all these things one of the some of the stuff we see is kids using it just you know nicotine doesn't have a long term wasn't that doesn't the effects of it are short term you know very pretty short you get a lot of cravings to use it and in this form it's easy for kids to use it throughout the day to kind of regulate you know there you know regulate low moods and other things so it's really it's just really really important aspect of how this changes the way nicotine is being used and I just also you know just another thing that's really important now like a big a big aspect of what we do and we're doing substance use counseling for young people is really talking to them about giving them guides on on how to handle their emotional and cognitive life because in addition to all these other risk factors which are you know significant it's one of the real hazards of substance use it's both a risk factor and an effect of early onset substance use that young people don't learn the skills for how they deal with their emotional world and that is a critical skill and so just to know that when when people do end up going to treatment that's a big part of what we look at with them when we try to talk to them about is you know what's bother them and what is an alternative ways of addressing it besides using substances thanks thanks for I know that we're just a little over time and we did lose some time to the Wi-Fi but I'd like to sort of open it up to any last questions I want to make sure that you're all heard from and we talked quite a bit in the beginning yes Kathleen yes hi I'll introduce myself I'm actually a Worcester elementary parent and I'm joining this form because I wasn't aware of the previous one at the U 32 school system but it just I've I've enjoyed the presentation so far thank you but first just reminded me of something that I just read the other day and I was discussing with a teacher yesterday and unfortunately I don't know where I read that this article this past week but it had something to do with the Florida legislation and all the review of education material that they were doing and across the nation and it talked specifically about that social emotional learning and they were eliminating or working to eliminate a lot of that learning that has been put in and they referenced the Harvard School of education and that has then implemented I don't know however across however many last years within our textbooks you know even with math math equations was the example that the article used I think it was in the Washington post that I was reading and they were talking about how social emotional learning even at the elementary level is embedded right now in our textbooks or our worksheets and they were even referencing some math equations but there's an effort nationwide to take those pieces out so I know that gets a little political but it goes to what Burt was just referencing and it's alarming to me so I just wanted to bring that up or share thank you yeah thanks so much for sharing I also read that article and was dumb founded and it's definitely disturbing I don't think that you would consider that to be a political issue that's contentious that social emotional learning is important um for students um but anyone want to respond to that mark I read the same article and I was thinking about the fact that one of the arguments is that this really all belongs at home this needs to be at home you shouldn't be getting this at school it should be happening at home with your parents and it just struck me how woefully unprepared so many parents are to really deal with the psychological the cognitive and then all the social pressures raising a child in the 21st century it's tough and um you know I think you need a community to do it I'm sorry if you take away some part of the community then you're really left with a lot of support systems that are weak yeah I mean I'll just echo that I mean I have one child a six year old and I struggle enough oh look at that the vibe up here yeah nice you can do a background yeah but um anyway I don't know why I said six I think I was talking the first grade I was talking to a first grade and my child is an older first grader he's a seven but he's a first grader and I think that's when this mix up like we we understand you know how I love this that's important at that age yeah um I I did I just I um now I don't even remember what I was saying oh that I do struggle social emotional teaching here you know and so it's it's it's nice but for me that it's embedded in our math creations but anyway I just wanted to echo what she said thank you thanks Kathleen Bert did you want to respond to any of that no I mean I well no I think right I'm talking um so I guess yes I mean um yeah obviously there's a lot of stuff you know in terms what's going on the country right now which is you know what it is I think I think I think it's really important when we're talking about substance use specifically to um help more people understand this these connections that you know at its heart you know for all the different reasons that that people might get exposed to them or things that that can help and be protective factors and its heart what substances do is they give you a certain apparent control over what your internal experience is like and for young people you know they don't understand the price that they pay for that you know they just are looking at the short term and it could be effective in the short term but there's a high price to be paid for that on a number of fronts and so I think part of the thing is I think is the importance of educating not just young people but parents to how vital these skills are to kind of making young people more resistant to developing substance use issues as adolescents or later in life and so I think that's that's some of the work to be done and it's obviously there's a lot of work to be done around that area so thanks for so I have to say that is closing soon we have to wrap it up so I want to thank everyone so much for participants for listening for participating for sharing today you know ultimately we really feel like starting conversations is so important and that's exactly what we're doing here tonight we encourage the conversation to continue in your own lives with your families with us please reach out to us if you have an idea we have so many people at the table and help make it happen so please don't hesitate to reach out we would like to launch one more poll it's the two question poll it's very quick and easy same questions and you have it as well on paper it's the post survey so again if someone I know is struggling with drug or alcohol use I would know resources to point them to for help is the first question and then the second question Alice and for everyone here this is our last community forum of this sort of season we decided to halt them over the summer but we will be picking them back up in the fall to touch some of the towns that we haven't been to yet that would include sort of the twin field area very city and some other places so we will be back up and running in the fall and back in touch with you if you'd like to attend them poll good Olivia okay great so we're going to close that poll I just want to again thank everyone so much for being here if you're in the room again please take some pizza on zoom thank you all for bearing with us through the technical issues we really look forward to continuing these conversations thank you