WE NEED DRUG DATA, SHARE OFFICIAL SAYS

The executive director of a local social service agency says it needs
more information about what decisions teens are making about their
health to design services for them.

Joanne Granek, executive director of Share Family and Community
Services, said she hopes School District 43 trustees will agree to
allow Grades 7 to 12 students to participate in the McCreary
Adolescent Health Survey next year.

Share and other health and social services agencies want to use that
information as a data base for deciding what programs to implement.
Share wants to know "what are we seeing, what are we doing, what are
the gaps?" Granek said.

SD43 trustees will consider whether to approve the survey at a meeting
this Tuesday. If they approve the McCreary survey, some 1,500 students
would be asked to spend 45 minutes filling out questionnaires asking
their opinions about their alcohol and drug use, sexual behaviours and
feelings of safety, among other things.

The last time the survey was conducted, trustees voted not to
participate, citing concerns about the time it takes, the sensitive
nature of the questions and the age of the participants.

But board chair Melissa Hyndes, who voted against the survey last
time, said she's more supportive of it this time around.

"It provides helpful information and data," the Port Moody trustee
said. Now that her children are older, Hyndes said, she feels she
might have been naive in trying to protect local students from the
survey questions.

Hyndes still doesn't like some of the questions but finds comfort in
the fact parents can choose not to allow their children to
participate. "As parents, you try to steer your kids from those kinds
of things when they are younger," she said.

The survey is a project of the McCreary Centre Society and is funded
by B.C.'s Ministry of Children and Family Development and Ministry of
Health. It was last conducted in 2002, and 31,000 students provided
data for regional and provincial reports.