Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration – National Prevention Week

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prevention week

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Prevention Week (NPW) is a public education platform that promotes prevention year-round through providing ideas, capacity building, tools, and resources to help individuals and communities make substance use prevention happen every day. This year National Prevention Week is May 10 – 16, 2020.

What topics does NPW address?

Each year, NPW incorporates daily health themes to focus on pressing substance use topics. The 2020 daily health themes are:
• Monday, May 11: Preventing Prescription Drug and Opioid Misuse
• Tuesday, May 12: Preventing Underage Drinking and Alcohol Misuse
• Wednesday, May 13: Preventing Illicit Drug Use and Youth Marijuana Use
• Thursday, May 14: Preventing Youth Tobacco Use (E-cigarettes and Vaping)
• Friday, May 15: Preventing Suicide

NPW Prevention Challenge: #PreventionHappensHere

Take the Challenge in Three Easy Steps

  1. Download and fill out your #PreventionHappensHere sign.
  2. Take a selfie with your sign in the place where prevention happens in your life.
  3. Post your selfie on social media with the #PreventionHappensHere #NPW2020 hashtag and tag your location and your friends.

If you aren’t able to print the #PreventionHappenHere sign, that’s OK! Just follow steps two and three to share your prevention selfie and answer the sign questions below in your post caption.

PREVENTION HAPPENS IN ___________________
SHARE YOUR CITY, STATE, REGION, OR LOCATION
I’M PREVENTING ______________________
SHARE SPECIFIC SUBSTANCE MISUSE ISSUE(S) YOU’RE PREVENTING.

Prevention Happens Anywhere and Everywhere

Substance misuse prevention happens in a lot of places and communities. That’s why NPW is challenging you to take a selfie in the locations and environments where you are preventing substance misuse and suicide. Your selfie can be by yourself or with a group of people. Just show us where prevention happens in your life!

Need some ideas? Here’s some from NPW. Prevention happens:

  • When you decide to take your dog for a walk instead of going to a big party with illegal substance use
  • When two people discuss their mental health in their living room via FaceTime

For more information on NPW, check out their website here.

Looking for resources on Prescription drugs, Heroin, Marijuana, and Underage Drinking? Check out this course: http://www.georgiapreventionproject.org/resources/substance-abuse.php

Georgia HOPE is a supporter of SAMHSA National Prevention Week

We are here as a local resource in Georgia to help individuals, families and communities make substance use and suicide prevention happen every day. You don’t have to suffer alone. #HOPEisHere

If you’re interested in speaking to someone directly at Georgia HOPE about substance use recovery or mental health services, contact us today by clicking here.

Supporting our Children and Teens through Vicarious Trauma

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Photo Courtesy of dailymail.co.uk

            In the times that we live in with Social Media and the Internet providing what feels like immediate access to our favorite stars/sports players, our children feel more “connected” to them than ever. This may have been evident for many who felt the loss of famed Basketball Player, Kobe Bryant. Grief was felt around the globe for his sudden loss of life in such a tragic way. Internet, TV, and Social Media platforms give fans the opportunity to live alongside their Idols as well as find out quickly when tragedy happens. This type of sudden tragedy creates an effect often referred to as Vicarious Trauma.

Vicarious Trauma

        Vicarious trauma is described as traumatization experienced by secondhand exposure to an event. For example, learning of the tragic loss of a child/teen’s idol, whether it be musician, athlete, actor, or member of their community through a media platform or otherwise is an example of this type of trauma. This exposure can produce a range of emotions including grief, fear, and discomfort. A range of stress symptoms may also be noticed including numbing, re-experiencing finding out about the loss, heightened anxiety, increased tearfulness, troubles with focus and attention, etc.  With our children often finding out about events before we do, how can we support them in working through some of these hard feelings?

Photo courtesy of buzz-caribbean.com

Supporting our Children and Teens through these Hard Emotions

          Often a caregiver’s response to grief or discomfort in their child is to want to “fix”. This is natural and has its place but listed below are some tips on being with your child in the hard times and empowering self-awareness and healing rather than “fixing”.

  •  Often with hard emotions of this nature just simply listening is often sufficient and what is needed in the moment. This type of active listening can be healing in itself as children process through these hard emotions.
  • Encourage your child to talk about their feelings.  Do not be afraid to have these hard conversations. Ignoring and avoiding bringing up the grief does not produce healing.
  • Approach with curiosity. Seek to understand how they have been impacted.
  • Do not be afraid to share with them how you have been impacted as well as healthy ways you are coping (exercise, journaling, art, etc.)
  • Validate your child/teen’s feelings. “I understand this is really hard for you and how much you looked up to them.”

      Lastly, if stress symptoms start to feel overwhelming or as though they are impacting daily life it is important to seek out professional Mental Health support. At Georgia HOPE we specialize in providing Mental Health Services such as Individual and Family counseling as well as Community Support Services among other things! Please do not hesitate to reach out and let us know how we can help you and your child.  HOPE is here!

 Written by Jennifer Cooper MS, LPC, RPT, NCC