Aims & Objectives

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

2. Overview of Areas • Effects • Harms • Protective Factors • Types of Users • Reasons for Abuse • Possible Interventions

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

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

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

6. Types of Users • Experimental, Social, Dependent, Chaotic • Come from all groups (Aboriginal, Non-Aboriginal, rich, poor) • Some groups more visible • Some have underlying problemssome don’t • Mostly aged 12 - 16Some younger & older users

7. Reasons for Abuse • Same as why adults use alcohol: • fun, socialise, effect, available • To challenge adults • To copy adults (intoxication) • Feelings of failure (lack of success) • Cover up bad feelings • Show they don’t care about themselves • Show they are hurting & to get attention • A form of self-harm • Be successful at being bad &/or sad • Join with other ‘outcasts’

8. Interventions - Overview • Retailer Interventions • Youth Support • Family Support • Managing Intoxication • Agency Support & Agency Resources • Media Management • What Not to Do • Community Action

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

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

11. Interventions • Family Support • Parent support groups • Parent drug education • Teach Emotional Support & Monitoring • PDIS • “Family Fun Day” • Respite care • Management of parent alcohol and other drug use

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

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

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

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

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

17. Community Action • Link up with others • Identify key stake-holders • 1:1, small and large group meetings • Acknowledge any distress • hear & reflect back emotional content • mobilise energy into action • What’s happening? • How much abuse • What actually is the problem • who’s doing what, what’s helped & hindered

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

19. Community Action (Cont) • How to maintain action • Complex problems require short and long-term solutions • DO spend time to identify all the positive thing which have happened • DO make public success via media or through personal rewards • DO plan to meet regularly • Expect energy to drop off - revive with imaginative mini projects • DON’T gossip or fight - there always room for different approaches. Everyone doesn’t have to agree on everything.

20. Support & Monitoring September 1995 Parents Can Help Prevent Teen Alcohol, Drug UseSupport, Monitoring Key to Prevention, Study Finds • Parents can help prevent teenage alcohol and drug use and other problem behaviors by being emotionally supportive of their children and by closely monitoring them, according to a multi- year study in progress at the Research Institute on Addictions. • Interim data from the study of 699 adolescents and their families in the Buffalo, New York, metropolitan area reveals that adolescents whose parents supervise their friendships and activities are less likely to engage in problem behaviors, including drinking and illegal drug use. This protective factor is enhanced by a family climate of support and nurturance, the study shows. • Associations between these parental behaviors and low levels of problem behaviors in teenagers were found among boys as well as girls, blacks as well as whites, and higher-income as well as lower-income teens. • What works"Monitoring is the key factor," said the study's director, sociologist Grace M. Barnes, Ph.D., a senior research scientist at RIA. "Monitoring means knowing where your kids are, who their friends are, when they are coming in, and so on. We found that it's important for all adolescents and especially for the older kids. Parents might think that when the kids get older they don't need as much supervision, but they do." • Monitoring was found to be more common in supportive families, Dr. Barnes said. She explained that a "supportive" family is one in which parents openly show affection, give their children praise and encouragement, maintain open communications, and do things with their children which both parents and kids enjoy. "A supportive environment makes the kids more receptive to monitoring, but it has to come earlier in the developmental span for it to have an effect." • What doesn't workAttempting to control teenagers through physical discipline is not effective, the study indicated. "Coercive control, such as slapping and hitting, is associated with more problem behaviors, but we can't say whether it causes the problem behaviors or whether the problem behaviors tend to bring out this kind of response from the parents," Dr. Barnes said. • She added that the study also debunked the value of trying to influence adolescent behaviors only by reasoning with them, a parenting style known as inductive control. "This approach was popular in the 60s and 70s. It's where the parent sits down with the teenager and uses rational, logical explanations for why he or she should or should not do something. We found that this has no effect on adolescent behaviors per se. Clear, concrete guidelines seem to work best." • Differences between whites and blacks, boys and girlsOf the 699 adolescents originally enrolled, 489 are white and 210 are black, closely mirroring the population of the Buffalo area. The study found that black adolescents have lower rates of alcohol and illegal drug use and other problem behaviors, despite having lower incomes and higher rates of single-parent families. "Being a member of a religion that preaches against alcohol use may help protect some black youngsters," Dr. Barnes observed. • In addition, the study confirmed that males are more likely than females to drink, use drugs, or engage in crime. "Males have more problem behaviors, but they are monitored less," Dr. Barnes explained. "So it's especially important for parents to monitor boys." • Future directionsDr. Barnes began the federally-funded study in 1989 with a sample of 13 to 16 year olds representative of the general population. Each year since, her research team has interviewed the teenagers, their parents, and adolescent siblings to gather information that sheds light on how families and peers influence teenage substance use and other problem behaviors. • By the time the participants were 15 to 18 years old, 71 percent were occasionally using alcohol and 10 percent were heavy drinkers, defined as drinking at least once a week and having five or more drinks in a single sitting. About 30 percent reported using one or more illegal drugs in the past year, and close to one third had engaged in three or more instances of major delinquency, such as theft, assault, credit card fraud, or check forgery. • Dr. Barnes has received additional federal funds to follow the participants into early adulthood, tracing the changes in drinking and drug use that occur during later adolescence and the young adult years. The research is supported by a grant from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. The Research Institute on Addictions is part of the New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services. • Dr. Barnes was assisted by co-investigator Michael Farrell, Ph.D., project administrator Lois Uhteg, research scientists Barbara Dintcheff and Alan Reifman, Ph.D., and post-doctoral fellow George Thomas, Ph.D. Interviewers and research assistants were Brian Greene, Michael Sacilowski, Robin Jann, Cindy Tworek, Sandra Leifer, Michael Stokes, Mary Walawander, Kim Jackson, and Jorge Antonetti. _____________________________________ • For more information, contact: • Grace M. Barnes, Ph.D.The Research Institute on Addictions1021 Main StreetBuffalo, New York 14203-1016E-mail: barnes@ria.org. • New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse ServicesJean Somers Miller, Commissioner New York StateGeorge E. Pataki, Governor • Questions / Comments to webmaster@ria.org • This file contains the text of the September 1995 issue of Research in Brief (ISSN 1047-8418), a newsletter published six times a year by the Research Institute on Addictions, a component of the New York State Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services. Permission to reproduce this material is granted with the condition that users identify the Research Institute on Addictions as the source. For more information, contact: RIA Public Communications, 1021 Main Street, Buffalo , N.Y. 14203-1016. http://www.ria.org/summaries/rib/rib955.html INSTRUCTIONS For this article on the Web if you have internet access, click on the above Icon or address while in Slide Show (View menu then Slide Show) Alternatively, read the article by clicking on the text box below in Slide View (View menu then Slide)