EARLY INTERVENTION HELPS CUT DRUG, ALCOHOL USE

Allowing parents to refer their children to early intervention programs is
a long-overdue improvement to the local fight against drug and alcohol use
among youths.

When one looks at prevention research for teenagers, it's surprising that,
until recently, the only way to get into the early intervention program was
to be referred through the courts.

The most effective prevention programs have proven to be family-,
community- and school-based initiatives, which focus on building
self-esteem, teaching the consequences of drug and alcohol use and
strengthening family and peer relationships.

All of these programs involve dealing with children before problems arise,
or when they are in their early stages, not waiting for a child to become
crossways with the legal system before providing them with help.

Owensboro first began offering an intervention program administered by the
Kentucky Division of Substance Abuse in 1997, and the program eventually
went statewide in 2000.

The program -- generally for teenagers -- consists of six to 20 hours in
class, learning the skills necessary to resist drugs and alcohol while also
establishing goals and better communication with their families.

About 500 teenagers go through the Daviess County program each year.
Results across the state have been fairly positive. Only slightly more than
1 in 10 kids who complete the program is re-arrested. Twenty-one percent
report a reduction in alcohol use within the first six months, and 17
percent report a reduction in marijuana use, according to a Spalding
University study.

These numbers, however, primarily represent teenagers recommended through
the court system. The success rate should be expected to increase now that
parents are allowed to set up an initial screening with a court-designated
worker.

"One of the goals of the program is to get parents and kids talking," said
Dianne McFarling, early intervention specialist at RiverValley Behavioral
Health. "If parents and kids can talk, you can work through a lot of problems."

A study released last month by the University of Michigan shows that drug
and alcohol use among teenagers is actually declining. Still, half of the
12th-graders surveyed said they had tried some type of illegal drug. Thirty
percent of 10th-graders have smoked marijuana. And one of every five
eighth-graders surveyed consumed alcohol in the last month.

All of these percentages indicated a drop in usage over the last five to 10
years, and yet these numbers are still unacceptably high.

While prevention programs are making an impact, they must continue to
evolve and close gaps where they exist. Opening intervention programs to
teenagers before experimentation turns into something more -- where kids
get headed down a path that is difficult to reverse -- is a positive step
in this process.