COUNSELING IS AVAILABLE

When Addicts Lose Control Of Themselves, USC Has Many Options For Help.

For college students, the days of DARE and its elementary school-level Drug
Abuse Resistance Education are gone. The straight-edge students of
yesteryear have graduated to the big time.

The university offers several resources to help students, faculty and staff
manage their decisions about alcohol and other drugs. Many involved in the
effort are taking a stance of harm reduction rather than endorsing
across-the-board abstinence.

"People will say that's wrong, but I am not the police department," said
Paula Swinford, director of Health Promotion and Prevention Services. "We
know humans are going to engage in activities; it's whether they're going to
do it in a risky way or a non-risky way."

HPPS educates students at the campus-wide level to clear up misconceptions
about alcohol and drugs and their use on campus, and assembles data on
student behavior and attitudes to help shape university health policy.

Campus organizations or groups of friends can request crash courses in drug
and alcohol information through health educators at HPPS.

Student Counseling Services, in the YWCA building, works with students on a
more individual level. Therapists and psychiatrists run support groups and
evaluate, counsel and treat students' mental health issues.

The Health Center's physicians, nurses and allied health professionals
address any physical health issues that students may encounter because of
drug use.

The divisions operate as a network, referring students to other resources as
necessary.

Counseling Services tries to avoid mandatory counseling, said director
Bradford King. Many students enter the system voluntarily when they, their
friends or their roommates realize that drug use is getting in the way of
their personal life or academics.

In the substance abuse support group called "Solutions and Strategies," for
example, psychologist and group leader Mary Andres said many undergraduate
seniors enter the group when they feel that "life after college cannot keep
up this kind of pace" of frequent drug or alcohol use

Typically, substance abuse treatment is only mandated when the Office of
Student Judicial Affairs and Community Standards disciplines under-aged
students caught drinking alcohol or using illegal drugs in student housing.

The judicial affairs office referred 85 students to HPPS last year for Drug
Education Consultations, in which students were coached on the realities of
alcohol and drug use, Swinford said.

While Student Judicial Affairs does not have a blanket policy on
disciplining students, Assistant Director Christine Wozniak said referrals
to HPPS are made when appropriate.

"Part of what we do is try to speak to the students' needs," Wozniak said.

King also uses this individualized approach with students seeking
counseling, citing several options for students with different substance
abuse problems.

In one scenario, King said, a student might realize he has an alcohol
problem. Following the harm reduction model, a counselor could suggest the
student cut back to three drinks when he parties.

King said the most common substance abuse problem he sees among students is
excessive binge drinking ­ an activity he said is supported by society and
amplified by the college atmosphere.

"For college students, the big issue is making friends (and meeting people)
both to date and to hook up with," King said. "One of the prime ways to do
that is to have a drink or two. It's the social lubricant."

According to a 2001 study by the Core Institute at Southern Illinois
University at Carbondale, students said the main reasons they drink are to
have more fun, meet people, "break the ice" and facilitate sexual
opportunities.

On top of the perceived benefits of alcohol, society supports and encourages
drinking, King said. Society might have negative judgments about hard drug
use, but the widespread acceptability of alcohol reaches from peers to
parents.

"You would not steal a book from the bookstore because you think that's a
bad thing, but you probably would sit down with your friends and have a
drink (even if you were under-aged)," King said.

While maintaining that alcohol and drug use is an important health issue
that accounts for about a quarter of HPPS efforts, the reach of these
substances is misconceived by students because of irresponsible and
sensational media reporting, Swinford said.

"What makes me angry is when CNN and all these reporters talk about binge
drinking," she said. "It's ethically wrong because every college student
that goes to USC who hears that report on CNN will start drinking."

In a survey conducted by HPPS in 2000-2001, about 53 percent of
undergraduates perceived that typical USC students drank at least five
alcoholic drinks the last time they partied, while less than 25 percent
actually had. More students, 26 percent, had nothing to drink the last time
they partied.

"This is not exactly chugging down," Swinford said.

Misconceptions are dangerous because students will try to alter their
behavior to match what they think is normal, she said. HPPS teaches students
the reality of substance use so they are not swayed by inaccuracies.

As an additional aid, the university annually distributes "USC Drug-Free," a
compilation of available drug education and counseling services, created in
compliance with federal law.

A section of Alcoholics Anonymous, an abstinence-based support group, meets
at the University Religious Center every day at noon.

As King and Swinford continue their work on campus, future medical
practitioners at the Keck School of Medicine are targeting their health
education program toward the community.

Medical students teach various health curricula to children from a local
juvenile hall in the Community Outreach program, among them a drug and
alcohol class that replicates Swinford's educational, information-based
model.

"We try not to pass any judgment, like drugs are bad," said Vannita
Simma-Chiang, co-coordinator of Community Outreach and a second-year medical
student.

"The goal of our program is to educate them ... teen-agers can't be expected
to know that alcohol does X, Y and Z unless they're taught it by their
parents or by a program," Simma-Chiang added.