YOUTH AND FAMILY SERVICES TARGETING ADDICTIONS OF CHILDREN

A 16-year-old high school student in Enid once tried marijuana with
friends when he was in elementary school. He got caught by school
officials and eventually went to juvenile court, where he received a
probationary sentence from the judge. He later got caught on an
alcohol offense and was sent to Garfield County's drug court for
juvenile offenders. The young man currently is attending counseling
sessions at Youth & Family Services on North Midway as part of his
drug court sentencing. He's doing good in his aftercare treatment,
said Taylor Randolph, a first time offender program coordinator at
Y&FS. The young man is doing well in school, and he's pursuing
something he's always wanted to do - he's playing on a football team.
What's propelling the young man to get on the right path toward
success? "My desire is to get out of drug court.

You have to call the CIC (Community Intervention Center) every morning
to see if you have to give a UA (urine analysis). That really sucks,
especially during the summer," the young man said. Randolph and others
at Y&FS are reaching out this month to the community to let them know
what's going on in the way of alcohol and drug addiction recovery.
September is National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month, a
time to celebrate the stories of those working toward addiction-free
lives. "Each person has the ability to be addicted to a substance of
their choice.

It's nice to have a structure of recovery they can fall back on. I
give them that structure," Randolph said. Oklahoma Department of
Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services is banging the drum loudly
this month about alcohol and drug addiction recovery. Deputy
Commissioner Ben Brown has included fact-laced information within a
media packet that includes a letter to the editor. "Substance abuse is
Oklahoma's number one public health problem.

Our state spends approximately $7 billion annually dealing with the
lingering effects of substance abuse - either directly through costs
related to health care, public safety and property loss or indirectly
through costs associated with lost productivity," Brown states. Linked
with the work of Y&FS, the state's mental health and substance abuse
department reports people who begin drinking before age 15 are four
times more likely to develop alcoholism problems than those who begin
drinking at 21. And children who are victims of abuse or neglect are
more likely to engage in serious and violent delinquency. They are
also at higher risk for drug use, poor academic performance, teen
pregnancy and emotional or mental health disorders, according to state
statistics. Randolph said he gets up to 10 percent of his young
clients from direct contact with parents who with their adolescent
children agree that some changes must be made. "Ninety percent,
however, have had trouble with the law. That's a red flag. Multiple
legal offenses are criteria for substance abuse.

I get a lot of referrals from municipal court," Randolph said. Y&FS
counselors offer a 12-step program of recovery proven to be one of the
most successful models of continuous sobriety and abstinence. Randolph
also incorporates a lot of educational materials, such as
physiological damage to the brain and central nervous system, for
example, if addiction continues. "You have to do some talking and show
them that 'Yeah, that is causing some problems in my life.' They
(young people) haven't felt a whole lot of consequences from their
abuse or addiction," Randolph said. The young man who tried drugs in
elementary school said he thought he could take care of school and
sports priorities while reserving a small chunk of his time to having
a good time or, in other words, abusing. He learned his lesson
swiftly. He began running around with people he normally didn't
associate with and also began selling drugs. The somber tone and
severity of consequences the young man experienced in drug court,
however, soon gave him a lot of desire in a hurry to quit his old
ways. "I went to (drug) court the first time, and my desire was to get
out of there," the young man said. It all points back to desire - the
willingness to develop courage to change. When asked what makes
aftercare treatment successful, the young man spoke about the phases
of his own program offered and monitored by Y&FS. "For people who
don't want to quit, this will be really tough."