Free curriculum offers parents, youth ministers tool to prevent drug abuse_120604

Posted: 12/03/04

Free curriculum offers parents, youth
ministers tool to prevent drug abuse

By George Henson

Staff Writer

Parents and youth ministers have a new tool to use in their efforts to fight drug use among teens. And it's free.

“This is a gift” from the Baptist General Convention of Texas Christian Life Commission to address substance abuse by kids, said Carrie Beaird, developer of the Pathways to Prevention curriculum.

Beaird highlighted the material at a seminar during the BGCT annual session in San Antonio and again at a workshop for youth ministers sponsored by Dallas Baptist Association at Lakeside Baptist Church in Dallas.

“It takes away 'I don't know what to say' and 'I don't know how to say it,'” she said, citing common excuses given by parents and youth workers for not addressing the drug abuse problem.

The curriculum, which can be found at www.christianlifecommission.org, offers a number of approaches to drug prevention in teens. Some material is aimed at junior high students, some for high school students, some for junior high and high school students, some at parents and youth leaders, and some geared to be used by youth and adults together.

The curriculum is not available in Spanish yet, but Beaird hopes to find someone who will translate it.

Topics include facts about drugs, alternatives to drug use, ways to say no, how to be a friend, laws concerning alcohol and drug use and biblical perspectives on substance abuse.

“These are stand-alone lessons,” Beaird said. “They don't build on each other.” That allows youth ministers to pick and choose what they feel is most important for their group without feeling compelled to make drug abuse the focus of their ministry for weeks at a time.

“Most chur-ches look at the issue and say: 'Too big. Too hard.' And, 'Don't know where to start.' So they do nothing,” she said.

Youth ministers at least should focus on the issue around homecoming, prom night and graduation–three key times when teens tend to experiment with drugs and alcohol, Beaird said.

“I hear kids say over and over that homecoming, prom and graduation are the three hardest days to stay sober,” she said. “At least go to the website and get three lessons.”

Drug and alcohol abuse needs to become a more openly discussed topic in churches, she asserted.

“Studies show that if a pastor will preach a sermon once a year on the realities of drug and alcohol abuse that it makes it real for the congregation and OK to talk about,” she said.

A recent survey showed 87 percent of the teenagers responding said they had at least tried alcohol in the past year, she noted.

“We don't want any kid to drink, but if 87 percent of them are, it probably includes some of our Baptist kids,” she said.

Parents also need to be more involved and aware, she said. Begin by checking grades, she suggested.

“If they go from being an A-B student to being a C-D student, something is going on, and there's a pretty good chance that something is drugs or alcohol.”

Surveys show that 10.8 percent of children ages 12 to 17 are current drug users, she noted.

Prescription pill parties present a growing danger, she said. Party-going teens rob their medicine cabinets of prescription medications, bring them to party and put them in a bag.

“Everybody just grabs something out of the bag and takes it. They don't have a clue as to what they are taking, in what dosage or what combination. This is really dangerous,” she said.

Alcohol and drug education may not keep teens from using the substances, but even delaying their starting is important, Beaird said.

A teen with a genetic predisposition toward alcoholism who takes his or her first drink at 13 has a 57 percent chance of becoming an alcoholic. A teen with a genetic predisposition toward alcoholism who waits until 18 has only a 22 percent chance of becoming an alcoholic. Waiting until the legal age of 21 drops that figure to 16 percent.

“I don't want any kid to drink ever, but can't we help them to at least obey the law?” she asked.

One of the best ways for parents to help teens is to make it harder to obtain by not having it in the household. She said that while most don't want to admit it, some Baptists drink and keep alcohol in their homes.

“When we send mixed signals, we hurt our kids,” she said. “They think: 'Why do I have to obey your rules? You drink.' If you are telling your kids not to drink but you drink yourself, that is a far bigger influence on your children drinking than peer pressure.”

The Pathways to Prevention curriculum offers parents the tools they need to be proactive, she said. “Parents need to be aware and need to get involved in drug prevention, education and detection.”

That includes snooping in rooms. She also suggests a urinalysis the day after homecoming. She said a hair follicle test will reveal drug use for six to nine months.

“Parents don't want to believe that their kids drink or that their kids use drugs–and we hope they don't–but it's better to know than to wait for it to get progressively worse and something bad happens,” she said.

Conversations about drugs and alcohol can help kids reinforce their beliefs, she added.

“One thing I want to get this curriculum to do is to get people talking–kids talking to parents, parents talking to youth ministers and most of all kids talking about what it is like to be them walking down the hall at school, so that kid that has said 'no' 89 times but is beginning to waver can talk about that.

“This is a decision that a kid doesn't get to make just one time but has to make every day.”