UNF PROFESSOR'S DRUG PROGRAM HONORED

The idea that parents play an important role in influencing their
children's attitudes toward drug use has been the focus of Chudley
Werch's research for some years.

Last month, a substance abuse prevention program that the University
of North Florida professor co-developed 12 years ago with Michael
Young of the University of Arkansas received national honors.

The program, Keep a Clear Mind, has been shown to increase
communication between parents and children and give both groups a more
realistic view of the consequences of drug use.

The federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration's Center for Substance Prevention (CSAP) in Washington,
D.C., named Keep a Clear Mind a model program in its annual Exemplary
Substance Abuse Prevention Program Awards for 1999.

Keep a Clear Mind is a parent/child program for families with children
in grades four through six. Students receive four short correspondence
lessons about alcohol, tobacco and marijuana to take home, complete
and discuss with their parents. Incentives are used to promote timely
completion.

"We were very excited to win the award," Werch said. "Our program is
unique vs. other drug prevention programs in that it's brief and
inexpensive."

The program is being used by public and private organizations in
Arkansas and Mississippi. The designation and government endorsement
should provide nationwide publicity for it, Young said.

Scientific testing was used to evaluate the model programs in
accordance with criteria of CSAP's National Registry of Effective
Prevention Programs. Keep a Clear Mind continuously held up to the
tests and produced results, according to the evaluation.

"Their thinking was, 'Look, here were some rigorously evaluated
programs and Keep a Clear Mind has produced results, so we need to
promote this,' " Young said.

Ideally, Keep a Clear Mind will help develop communication between
parent and child, Werch said.

"It's appealing because it's low-cost, it doesn't interfere with other
curriculum and it can be disseminated through sports and other
organizations," he said.