Latest / Recovery Chronicles / Recovery Chronicles Ep. 186 - Tom V.

Transcript

Recovery Chronicles Ep. 186 - Tom V. · Recovery Chronicles

• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Recovery Chronicles. My name is Jennifer
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: and I'm with the Heartbew Foundation and we're going to
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: be doing a three part series about prevention for the
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: next few episodes. So I have Tom with me today. Tom,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: would you introduce yourself and tell me a little bit
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: about your role with the State of North Dakota.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: Sure, So my name is Tom Bulk and I'm a
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: prevention administrator with the North Dakota's Department of Health and
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: Human Services Behavior.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: Health Division, and one of my main.
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: Roles is to provide support to our local prevention providers
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: across the state and then to manage and oversee some
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: of our prevention programs.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Okay, so you've been saying the word prevention a lot,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: So what does that mean?
• 1:10
  Speaker 4: What are we talking about?
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: All right, Well, that's a good question and it took
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: me a long time to figure out. You know, what
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: is the simplest way to describe what prevention is? And
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: really it's just a proactive approach trying to stop something
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: before it happens.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: We're really working.
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: Upstream to keep people out of trouble, to keep them
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: from falling into the river of addiction and you know,
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: just a lot of different activities, and we're really trying
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: to focus on the environment when it comes to prevention,
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: trying to create a safe and healthy environment for you know,
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: our citizens to grow up in. That's really what prevention is,
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: and it's it's a good time to say that, you
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: know what, we're focusing on risk factors and protective factors
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: and what these really are. Like a risk factor is
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: anything that increases the likelihood that something bad could occur
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: some you know, bad problem behavior or something like that.
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: And a protective factor is anything that decreases the likelihood
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: of a problem behavior. So we want to really build
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: on protective factors and decrease those risk factors, you know,
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: really by change the environment.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: That's that's what prevention is awesome.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: So how tell me about how your role supports those
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: statewide prevention programs.
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so my main role is providing support and that's
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: really providing training and technical assistance to our local prevention.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: Providers and across the state.
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: We have public health units and tribes working on implementing
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: local prevention efforts. So I can come in and I
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: can provide training on you know, like what is effective prevention.
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: How do you implement these prevention efforts and things like that.
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: And I could even help with law enforcement. So law
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: enforcement will contact me and say, hey, you know, we
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: have a problem where we have an issue our community
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: with underage drinking. How do we how do we prevent this?
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: And I could come in and provide some training on
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: something like compliance checks or saturation patrols and things like that.
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: So my main role is providing that support to our
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: local prevention providers and then you know, administering funding so
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: that they can do some work locally to implement some
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: of these prevention efforts.
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: So what are you seeing?
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: What trends are you seeing in you substance in North Dakota.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: Good question.
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: So we are seeing some really good trends and positive
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: trends in prevention, but we're also seeing, you know, maybe
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: some concerning trends. So some of the positive trends that
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: we're seeing is that underage drinking overall is going down.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: So I have some data.
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: Here in front of me, and it is collected from
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: the Youth Risk Behavior Survey in North Dakota. This is
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: a survey that's done in all our middle schools and
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: high schools, well the majority of our middle schools and
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: high schools to give us an idea of what's.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: Really going on.
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: And what we're finding is that the underage drinking rates
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: are going down at you know, really significant levels. So
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: in twenty thirteen, you know, underage drinking with our middle
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: school students, those that have tried it in their lifetime went
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: from twenty five percent down to nineteen percent, so really
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: good reduction. It doesn't sound like a lot, but that's
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: thousands of kids in our middle schools that are not
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: choosing to drink alcohol. And then like in our high
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: school students, you know, the past thirty day alcohol use
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: this is like just you know, current consumption has gone
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: down from thirty five percent down to nineteen or less
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: than twenty percent, so that's a really good reduction. And
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: then binge drinking this is you know, drinking to get
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: drunk or drinking you know five of our more drinks
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: for males and four more drinks in a sitting for females.
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: And this has really gone down, so from twenty two
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: percent down to ten percent over the past ten years.
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: So these are huge strides in North Dakota. These are
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: great successes, but you know, kind of a concerning trend
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: or a trend that really hasn't changed is.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: Our adult binge drinking or adult drinking, and that has
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: remained consistently. You know, high we are third in the
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: nation for binge drinking in our adults, which is not
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: a number year that we should be proud of. We
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: are seeing more adults consuming alcohol and then they're seeing
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: consequences from this drinking and consumption of the alcohol. So
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: like some consequences that we're seeing in the state are DUIs.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: We have a high number of DUIs in our state
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: and it's actually the equivalent of the entire city of
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: Valley City. We have over six thousand DUIs a year,
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: arrests a year, and this is really concerning because could
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: you imagine the entire city of Valley City getting drunk
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: and then driving on the roads. So it's not a
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: safe trend that we're seeing and we got to start
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: doing more to prevent, you know, the DUIs in North Dakota.
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: I just saw, you know, on the news that one
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: of our highway patrol just got hit for a second
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: time by drunk driver when he was making a traffic stop.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: So at what point are we going to start taking
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: alcohol more seriously and start implementing laws that are going
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: to make a difference to deter people, you know, from
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: drinking and driving.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: So another good news, you know, another good.
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: Fact that we have in North Dakota is that there's
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: a lot of support for prevention overall. So there's a
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: huge majority of community members that believe that, you know,
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: alcohol consumption is a problem, both in youth and adults,
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: and that they support law enforcement in schools and community
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: leaders to do more. They want to see more being done.
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: So that is really good news. But you know, we're
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: seeing some shifts in this data because of COVID. You know,
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: there was policies and laws in place for COVID and
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: some of these trends kind of went down. So we're
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: seeing less support for laws overall, a little bit less
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: support for public health, and we need to turn that
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: trend around because public health is doing everything they can
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: to you know.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: Create safe and healthy environments in prevention. So those are
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: just a couple of trends we see.
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: You know, also, tobacco uses going down overall, you know,
• 5:55
  Speaker 3: vaping went down for the first time in a while,
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: you know.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: But a concerning trend is now those zins you you know.
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: Those little pop pouches that the kids are using, some
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: kids are using and things like that, and you know,
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: just another thing that we just have to keep our
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: ears and eyes open on and do work to prevent it.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: So when you're talking about like use alcohol use going down,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: are are there any theories of why it's going down?
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: I think it's because, you know, we're doing a really
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: good job of creating safer environments. So now driver's license
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: are tied to you know, alcohol consumption. So I kids
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: get caught with alcohol when they're underage, they could lose
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: their driver's license. You know, we're doing better jobs of
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: training our retailer retailers on how to you know, spot
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: fake IDs and things like that, and how to prevent
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: kids from trying to purchase alcohol. Our law enforcement knows,
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: you know that if they do compliance checks consistently on
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: a consistent basis, you know, that will decrease the access
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: of alcohol for these kids, and then overall kids get
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: have a better better understanding of making positive choices. You know,
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: there's this huge trend you know for mocktails saying that
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: you don't we don't need alcohol, you know, we want
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: to be sober like where you know, there's this big push,
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: you know, for kids to be sober, and there's a
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: lot of you know, Facebook and you know, Instagram influencers
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: out there that are promoting you know, sobriety and things
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: like that. So I think a combination of all those
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: things happening is what's really decreasing our underage drinking in
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: North Dakota.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: I was going to mention, even just in the adult
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: space about the mocktails and the there is kind of
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: a trend, I mean, and hopefully a long term trend
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: about sobriety right now. I have a lot of friends
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: that maybe we're never struggling with addiction, but decided for
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: health reasons.
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: There is somebody I.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: Follow on social media who is a scientist, and she
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: came out and said that she was sober just because
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: of like long term like cancerorists and things like that.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: So I think that's a really promising thing for North
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: Dakota too, and more mocktails in the community other options.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: I've been out with friends and have chosen to have
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: a mocktail and steve a drink just you know, to
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: drive home safe and absolutely, yeah, I think that's awesome.
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And then we're also knowing that we know that
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: parents are becoming more educated and aware of you know,
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: what they should be watching for in their kids. And
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: we know that, you know, alcohol is having huge consequences
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: in our youth, you know, specifically in brain development. Our
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: kids' brains don't stop developing until the age of twenty five,
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: and having a high risky you know, drinking in that
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: age can actually impair the brain development and it actually
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: causes you know, severe damage to the brain. And I
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: think parents are getting it. You know, alcohol is a
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: drug just like any other drug, and our kids just
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: need to stay away from it. So, you know, it's
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: really good to see, you know, these trends going in
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: the right direction and the support that we're getting in
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: prevention awesome.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: So what substances should be a priority for North Dakota
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: to work?
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: I'm preventing.
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So in North Dakota, our Behavior Health Division has
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: identified three priority areas that we're really focusing our efforts on,
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: and that is underage drink, adult bingch drinking, and then
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: opioid misuse. And that's because the data tells us that's
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: the biggest problems in North Dakota. Like, for example, did
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: you know that underage drinking in North Dakota cost US
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: over three hundred and eighty million dollars. This is things
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: like traffic crashes, injuries, fatalities, things like that, and it's
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: a huge problem. And the consequences for alcohol are greater
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: than all illegal drugs combined. So, I mean, alcohol is
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: definitely a priority because of all the consequences that we're
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: seeing with it.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: Opioid misuse is another one.
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: You know, we saw overdose desks increasing and even doubling
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: some years and this year, this last year was the
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: first time it actually went down. So we're doing a
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: good job of raising awareness, getting the lock zone or
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: narcan into the hands of the people that need it,
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: you know, but it's still a problem. You know, we're
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: still seeing you know, substance misuse there when it comes
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: to opioids. So those are our three problem areas. Not
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: to say that there's others and other people working in
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: other priority areas, like our tobacco control for example, are
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: their program is working on decreasing cigarette use, tobacco use,
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: vaping and all that stuff. So those are all priority
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: areas and North Dakota and again we're following the data,
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: so in North Dakota, our youth are saying that, you know,
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: we hear a lot of scary stories about math and
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: we heroin and all this stuff. But you actually look
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: at the data, you can see that our kids are aren't,
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: you know, doing that because less than one percent.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: Of our kids.
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: So we need to focus our areas into our focus
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: our efforts into areas that are going to make a difference.
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: If you prevent alcohol use, you're going to prevent a
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: lot of the listed drug use because you know, kids
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: aren't sitting out a party one days, you know, just
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: you know sober saying hey, I'm gonna take a hit
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: of math. No, they're at a party and they're intoxicated,
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: and then they start using other substances. So do a
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: good job of preventing alcohol, you'll do a good job
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: of preventing the other substances.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: I talk to a lot of clients at Harview and
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: there's a lot who are on this podcast to sharing
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: their stories, and it usually starts with I was young.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: Some are really young, nine years old or something, and
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: they start drinking or they start smoking or smoking marijuana,
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: and then it seems to like escalate over time. So
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: I definitely see that prevention pieces being really important if
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: you can prevent that younger child from accessing alcohol, and
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: there's signs behind that too that the younger people start
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: using substances, the more likely they are to be addicted.
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, if we can just keep our kids from trying
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: these substances up to the age of twenty one, it's
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: in the ninety percent less likely chance that they're going
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: to be having a substance use disorder later in life.
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: And you're right about the young age. Kids are trying
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: it very young. You know, they're seeing it in their
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: environment and they try it and that can lead to consequences.
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: And you would not be wrong to say that you
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: should be talking to your kids at the age of
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: nine years old, even in North Dakota about these different substances,
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: because that's when we're seeing some of our rates increasing
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: with some of the consumption.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I think that's part of why I thought
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: this series was really important, partially for selfish reasons. I'm
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: a parent and it's hard for parents, I feel like,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: to know how to talk to their kids and what
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: to say, So I think that the work you guys are.
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: Doing in this space is really important.
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: So what are some of the main statewide prevention programs
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: in place right now?
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so you talked about parents, and that's one of
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: our priority areas. Like we know that you know, parents
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: need the ability and the education and the knowledge to
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: talk to their kids about you know, alcohol and other drugs.
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: So Parents Lead is one of our programs that we
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: promote at the state that we've developed in collaboration with
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: a bunch of different agencies, and really it's a hub
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: of resources for parents, you know, to talk about like conversations,
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: because our conversations with our kids should be ongoing. It
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: should never just be a one and done, like we
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: should always be looking for those opportunities to talk with
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: our kids and tell them where our stance is. You know,
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: be a good role model for your kids, you know,
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: monitor where they're at and who they're with. And the
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: other thing is like, you know, have them be in
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: that pro social involvement, like be there for your kids,
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: you know, get involved with them and things like that.
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: So that's the Parents Lead program is all about. If
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: you're interested in that, it's parents Lead dot org and
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: it has a whole wealth of information there for parents
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: to help them with the kids because it's difficult.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: I'm a parent too.
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: I have a nine and eleven year old at home,
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: and we're already having conversations. My kid is very interested
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: in electronics, so he saw a vape product the.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: Other day and he's like, oh, Dad, what is that.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: That looks like, you know, a power bank.
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: It's like, oh, no, here, yeah, So I had a
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: whole conversation about what vaping is, and I'm like, why,
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: you know, at eleven years old, you know these these
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: companies are targeting our kids because it just peaked his
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: interests and they're all colorful and they have different flavors,
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: and it's like, Dave, we got to stop this. We
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: got to stop this now. But Parently gives you those,
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: you know, resources to talk to your kids about those
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: kinds of things, even has resources on what the laws are.
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: In North Dakota and North Dakota. It's illegal to provide
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: alcohol to anyone under the age of twenty one, no
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: matter what it's for. So if you're having a Thanksgiving meal,
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: you are not allowed to provide your kid alcohol at
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: that meal. So just be aware of like some of
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: those laws and things like that. In the program Parents
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: Lead does have those resources out there, you know. Another
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: one is our Speaks Volumes Campaign Speakvolumes. It really came
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: about to kind of educate adults on what binge drinking
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: is and how much alcohol really is in your drink.
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: And it came about because someone I knew got a dui.
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: They got pulled over and they said, but Officer, I
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: can't be drunk. I only had two drinks, you know,
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: and what his drinks were were two brutuses at Applebee's.
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: And a brutus, of course, is over thirty two ounces,
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: So in fact, he had almost five drinks of alcohol
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: in just one setting. And that's really where that program
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: came about, was because we found that many North Dakotas
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: don't realize what a standard drink is and how that
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: impacts them. If they drink two or three of these
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: drinks in a setting, for example, a long ion iced tea.
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: You know, you think that's one drink, but no, that's
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: actually four to five shots of alcohol.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: In that one drink.
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: You drink that in thirty minutes, you're going to be
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: intoxicated by the time you get into your vehicle.
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: So that's speak volumes, you know, it's.
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: Just kind of that education and awareness for our adults saying,
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: you know, be aware of what's in your drink and
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: then don't make a poor choice when it comes to
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: driving home. We have the Opioids Take Care, Be Aware program.
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: This is like an aware this campaign again where we're
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: talking about opioid misuse and and you know, just being
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: aware that these drugs, if misused, are not you know,
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: are very addictive.
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: And they do have consequences saying things like that, and
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: then you know, just to.
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: Carry a nar can and getting arcan and locks them
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: into the hands of people that need it.
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: But we have many, many.
• 15:16
  Speaker 3: More programs, So like Endie Tip, you know, that's a
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: program that is really an anonymous texting tip line, you know,
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: for for people to report like a party that gets
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: out of control, for example. And we know that kids
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: are most likely going to talk text law enforcement. They're
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: not going to call law enforcement anymore. They are whole
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: communications based on text messaging for the most part. So
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: if we make it easier for kids to actually report
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: so you know, unsafe situations, they're going to do so.
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: So that's another, you know, really good program that we
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: have in the state. But there's many more, many more.
• 15:44
  Speaker 4: I also have.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: I have an eight year old and unfortunately have to
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: She's very interested when she sees people smoking outside and
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: very loudly always asks me about smoking and why they
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: do that. And it's always that the most awkward time.
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, and then that's the way they are.
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: But that's a good learning app or you know, a
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: good education opportunity with your kids that we have to
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: do that all the time. And you know, our kids
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: are going to be our prevention advocates, you know, growing up.
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: You know, I don't even put my like if I
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: don't put my seatbelt on when I'm just going down
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: the driveway, my kids will yell at mere prevention advocates.
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: They're a future, you know. So it's good that you're
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: doing those conversations with them.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: I definitely have one of those real following them till treat.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: That's kind of calm me out. So is there anything
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: new happening with prevention in the state.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: Oh? Absolutely.
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: We're always looking for new and innovative ways, you know,
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: to implement prevention. And one of those things is what
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: we call the forensic identification scanners. So as you know,
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: we have a problem in North Coata fake id's around
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: thirty to sixty percent of our young adults have a
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: fake idea and they're using them to consume alcohol and
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: get into retail establishments, you know. So it's not a
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: big deal like the you know, I've heard some people say, well,
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: I know a friend that has a fake idea is
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: not a big deal, or my kid has a fake idea,
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: it's not a big deal. But now we know that
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: there's higher consequences for these kids that have fake ideas.
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: They're consuming at higher level, they're getting you know, substance
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: use disorders, they're having consequences such fatal crashes, eers, you know, visits,
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: all these different things at a higher rate than somebody
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: that does not have a fake ID. So it is
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: a big deal get these fake IDs. But what this
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: scanner does is it does a forty to fifty point
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: inspection on an ID and then it's about ninety eight
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: percent effective and detecting that as a fake ID, and
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: then the retailer will confiscate it. So we have a
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: lot of prevention providers at a local level implementing these
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: forensic scanners in partnership with their retailers and law enforcement,
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: and we're getting hundreds.
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: Of fake ideas off the streets.
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: So that is one innovative thing that our state is
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: doing that no other state in the nation is doing
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: right now.
• 17:35
  Speaker 4: That is a crazy number of fake ideas.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: I used to be a server in college, and I
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: don't think I ever I mean those machines, yeah, because
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: I would have no idea.
• 17:46
  Speaker 4: What a fake idea?
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, And they're getting they're so good, they're so
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: legit looking. I too as a bartender, you know, in
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: my college years, and I would not have cut one
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: of these fake ideas.
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: They're so legit, like unbelievably realistic.
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: And you know, these kids are paying like fifty to
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: two hundred dollars for these IDs. They get two or
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: three of them at a time, so if they get
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: caught and they get some one confiscated, they just use
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: their next one. So, yeah, we got to do more
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: to prevent this. And there was just a story out
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: of Fargo actually where a kid was manufacturing these in
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: his apartment and he had what I think it was
• 18:16
  Speaker 3: like twenty thirty thousand dollars on hand from making these IDs.
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: He had hundreds IDs in his possession that he was
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: making for these kids and selling to these kids. So
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: it is a problem in North Dakota and Grand Forks
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: alone in three to four months are the Grand Forks
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: Police Department had four hundred fake ideas in just three
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: to four months. So, yeah, it is happening here. And
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: that is one of innovative programs is these forensic scanters.
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: I'm catching them.
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: So those those kids making those IDs have a bright
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: future in front of them if they will just turn
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: to the good.
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, turn to the good. Bug.
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: Sounds like they have the business mind.
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: That's true.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: So Okay, I grew up, you know, nineties, early two thousands,
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: so I grew up with like the DARE programs and
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: things like that. So I think when we talked about prevention,
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: that's automatically what comes into my mind. So how has
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: prevention changed since you know the DARE Like these drugs
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: will kill you. This is you on meth and your.
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: Brain, that's your brain on drugs.
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I was a nineties kid too, you know,
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: I graduated in the nineties. So DARE was just you know,
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: developed for my younger siblings. So my younger siblings had DARE.
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: The other things that we.
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: Grew up with.
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: Prevention when I was younger was like the one time
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: speaking engagements. Remember they'd have a lyceum and they bring
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: in this guy that would talk about you know, his
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: his his road to recovery and all this stuff. And
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: then there would also be those mock car crashes where
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: they'd bring in like a fake car crash and they say, oh,
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: your friends just died. You know what we know now
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: is that none of those programs were effective.
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: None of them.
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: The old DARE program was not effective. Mock car crash
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: has just created more trauma. The one time speaking speaker
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: that came into the school was was really not changing behavior.
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: You know, the kids that were going to actually stay
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: away from alcohol and drugs stayed away from alcohol and drugs.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: Those that still used it still use it. So it
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: just was not effective.
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: And what we've learned in prevention is that you've got
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: to do more about changing the environment. We really have
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: to work on environmental strategies that are proven effective, and
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: there's a whole list of them that are proven effective.
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: And a good analogy that we use in prevention is
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: let's just relate it to food. Right, So you go
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: to the doctor and the doctor says, hey, you know
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: you have an issue. You know you're overweight and you
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: need to start eating better, taking care better care of
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: your body. And you go home and you lookt your
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: kitchen and the whole environment is not set up to
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: make good choices. You have cookies on the counter, you
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: have potato chips in the cabin, you have sugary drinks
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: in the fridge, all not for making a good choice.
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: But what prevention does is changes that environment. So we
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: replace all those bad food choices with better food choices.
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: Like you take out the chips and put in apples
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: and fresh fruit and vegetables, you know, take out the
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: sugary drinks and add just water and iced tea into
• 20:50
  Speaker 3: your refrigerator. Now, when you walk into your kitchen, you
• 20:52
  Speaker 3: really don't have the opportunity to make that bad choice.
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: You look around and all you have is good choices
• 20:57
  Speaker 3: in front of you. And that's what prevention is really
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: working on, folks seeing on their efforts, is to make
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: that environment better for making positive choices and the healthier lifestyles.
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: So that's what we're really getting to with prevention. We
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: know a lot more now than we did before. You know,
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: we have to follow strict standards of evaluating our programs
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: implementing things that are already proven to be effective, so
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: that type of thing. So yeah, we definitely come a
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: long way from DARE, but I do want to shout
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: out to DARE. You know, DARE does have a new
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: program it's called Keeping It Real, and that has been
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: proven now to be effective. So you know, if you're
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: in that new DARE program, it is effective and we're
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: seeing really good results from it.
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: So they've changed.
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: They have changed the evaluation, not the.
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: Not the a the crack, eg, this is your brain,
• 21:39
  Speaker 4: this is your brain on drugs.
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a scare tactic.
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: We now know that that doesn't work either, So now
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: we're doing more of that positive social norming. When you're
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: talking to the kids, for example, you want to talk
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: to them in the form of, like, you are in
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: the majority if you choose not to drink, because they
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: are like if they choose not to drink, make them
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: feel that they're part of the majority by saying no.
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: That is more effective than telling them you know, you're
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: going to hurt yourself if you consume alcohol.
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: You're gonna get to a traffic crash. You know.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: So well, when you're talking about those statistics, really the
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: kids who aren't doing those are in the majority. It
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: sounds like any of those statistics sound so scary, But
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: a majority of kids are not choosing those behaviors, which is.
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: A huge majority hip.
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: So make your kids know that they are the majority
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: and that it's okay to say no.
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: And that's why.
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: Sure, Sure, that makes a lot of sense.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: So are there any prevention programs that are unique to
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: the tribal nations in North Dakota.
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: Well, they are implementing a lot of the same environmental
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: you know, strategies that we're implementing in North Dakota.
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: One unique thing that.
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: We do with our tribes, or that we've helped with
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: our tribes or collaborated with them on is collecting data.
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: So a lot of tribes in North Dakota don't collect
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: their own data and specifically don't allow states to help
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: them collect the data because you know, there was wrongs
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: in the past. But we have such a good collaboration
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: in North Dakota that we assisted all of our tribes
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: in collecting data to help better, you know, implement their
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: prevention programs at a local effort. This has never been
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: done anywhere in the state or in the country, and
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: We've even had to present at a national level on
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: how we've done this with our tribes to help collaborate
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: and get this data to help them guide their programs.
• 23:12
  Speaker 3: And it's been a huge success for them because now
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: they can actually show outcomes, you know, like we are
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: implementing strategies and we are making changes in the community.
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: It is a huge success for our tribes.
• 23:23
  Speaker 4: Awesome.
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: So what can the average person do, whether they're parents
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: or just a community member to support prevention efforts in
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: their communities.
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So the first thing I would do as a
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: parent is I would visit our Parents' Lead website. You know,
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: there's a lot of resources on there. You know, parents
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: are the number one influence in their child's life all
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: the way up into adulthood, you know, so having that conversation,
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: knowing you know what you're doing to influence your child's
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: life and the choices that they make is the number
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: one thing I would do as a parent. I would
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: find out, you know, how to role model good behavior
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: and what kind of environment do I want to create
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: for my kids.
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: The other main thing that you know, communities should do.
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: Like specifically talk about communities they should be looking at
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: policies to pass. I was a city leader at one point,
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: I was on the city council. I was passing policies
• 24:07
  Speaker 3: like mandatory server training. He was saying that all of
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: our retailers have to be trained and what the North
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: Dakota state laws are on serving alcohol, what are the
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: liabilities and all these things, And we made it a
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: requirement that these retailers had to be trained in that
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: so that they made better choices when it came to
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: serving and selling alcohol because they have a responsibility. You know,
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: they're selling a drug and they have a responsibility of
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: selling it, you know, responsibly.
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: So that's another thing.
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: The other thing that the community members in general or
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: even people should do is really be knowledgeable what the
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: true problems are and what the true solutions are going
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: to be, because so often we just threw our finger
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: up in there and say, you know that when it's
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: going this way, I think this is what the problem is.
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: And it's based on a perception, not on an actual fact.
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: So know what's truly going on in your community. You know,
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: we hear all those scary things like math and heroin, right,
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: but when you truly dive into the data, it is
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: a small percentage of our state that has ever even
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: tried those drugs in their lifetime, So why would we
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: put so much effort in there. Really our focus should
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: be on, you know, those those drugs that are being consumed.
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: At higher rates, like alcohol for example, like we talked about,
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: you know, so that's some some things.
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: You know, there's coalitions out there, there's public health units.
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: You know, people should just get involved, you know, talk
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: to their city leaders, talk to the school boards.
• 25:16
  Speaker 2: You know, let them know what they what they support.
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: You know, because the majority of us support you know,
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: policies and laws that are supportive of healthy environments, but
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: our community leaders don't hear from them, and they.
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: Think that it's the opposite, you know.
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: So really, you know, get out there and talk to
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: your leaders and let them know where your support lies.
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: Is really what it comes down to.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: So at the community level, the best place for listeners
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: to go learn and find more would that be local
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: health units.
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: Yes, your local public health units.
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: They are our local prevention providers and they know what's
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: going on in the communities.
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: They know it's worked, what works.
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: We are funding them to implement prevention efforts, so they
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: have a strategic plan. So you could review that strategic
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: plan and say hey, I could help out here, or
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: if you're trying to do this, I know somebody I
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: can get involved here, you know, like I'll talk to them.
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: So that would be where i'd start. That's where i'd
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: start to with those local public health units and things
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: like that, because they are your prevention providers and they
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: are doing work so awesome.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: Well, thank you Tom for joining us, and thank you
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: to all of our listeners. We will have a few
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: more of these and we'll be talking to parents, Lead
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: and some other organizations in the state.
• 26:22
  Speaker 4: So thank you for joining me today.
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: Absolutely thanks for having me. I appreciate it.