RELATIONSHIPS CITED AS KEY TO DRUG PREVENTION AT SEMINAR

Chesley - Developing meaningful relationships is key to adolescent
well-being and according to a professor of Psychology and Psychiatry
at the University of Toronto may also be one of the keys in helping
teens avoid becoming substance abusers.

Dr. David A. Wolfe, the Director of the Centre for Addiction and
Mental Health Centre for Prevention Science, believes so strongly in
the importance of healthy relationships for teens - with their peers,
their teachers and especially their parents - he and his colleagues
are promoting the "fourth R."

"We have the three R's in school - reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic,"
he said, "but now we need the "fourth R."

The "fourth R" is a comprehensive, school-based initiative for
reducing adolescent violence and related risk behaviours by educating
them on what a positive, healthy relationship really is.

Wolfe was guest speaker at a drug awareness forum in Chesley on
Tuesday. Entitled Dazed & Confused: A Forum to Help Parents &
Professionals Understand the Risks of Drug Use in Grey/ Bruce, the
all-day seminar attracted about 100 educators, youth and social
workers, parents and police officers from across Grey-Bruce.

"Given the recent attention to crystal methamphetamine, many parents
are increasingly concerned with the issue of drug use," said one of
the organizers Linda Yenssen of Public Health and the Grey Bruce Focus
Committee.

"This is the first time we've opened something like this up to parents
. . . it is important that we keep everyone on the same page."

The day-long session included a morning panel discussion examining the
local drug scene, the effects drugs can have and the resources
available to help those who are addicted, and the afternoon session
with Dr. Wolfe.

"There are no simple solutions, no magic pills to solve the problems,"
Wolfe said, after hearing during the morning session that although
crystal meth use is "becoming increasingly popular and is something
users can become become quickly addicted to, alcohol abuse remains the
number one drug in Grey-Bruce," according to Constable Jeff Mercey of
the South Bruce OPP.

In an Ontario-wide survey of high school students in 2005, 62 per cent
reported regular binge drinking, with 63.7 per cent of Grey-Bruce
students - the majority of them under the legal drinking age - saying
they regularly drink excessively in one sitting.

"Crystal meth and alcohol are competing against each other in
popularity," Mercey added, saying, "the users of both are the ones who
lose."

His comments were echoed by another member of the panel, Dave Roy of
the Choices counselling service for youth, who told those in
attendance "youth drinking is starting at an earlier age," saying
13-19-year-olds reported the highest percentages of binge drinking in
Ontario.

"And again, Grey-Bruce numbers were higher than the provincial
average."

Like Wolfe, Roy encouraged workshop participants to connect and listen
to the teens.

"Adolescents wish their parents knew what was happening in their life,
but they don't want to tell them," Wolfe said.

"They want their parents to understand what it's like to be them . . .
kids show us the problems they have, they don't necessarily have the
problem," he said, adding sometimes bullying at school or an unstable
home environment are the reasons teens turn to substances "to try and
rid themselves of the problem. They adapt to what works . . . they
don't know what else to do."

That's why Wolfe is such a proponent of the "fourth R" relationship
teaching.

"Having a healthy relationship with friends, parents and teachers you
can trust can make all the difference to a teen who is uncertain about
things.

"Strengthen those relationships and you'll strengthen the teen," he
added, and thus end or at least reduce the circle of risky behaviour
which includes alcohol and drug use, sexual behaviour and violence.

Dating violence, for example, increases 20-fold when alcohol and drugs
are involved. "Kids today are getting so many mixed messages . . .
they need to know there are choices, they need to know the facts and
they need people they can depend on to help them."

"Intimacy and relationships are major developmental tasks for teens .
. . they have to learn how to relate, need to understand peer and
gender differences and do all that when their brains have not fully
developed in that reasoning area of the brain," Wolfe said.

"Girls grow up seeking connection and boys grow up seeking status.
They don't know how to relate to each other and often fall back on
images seen on TV - most of them gender stereotypes and sexually
explicit - as their source of information. That's why having a good
relationship, with open communication, is so important."

"Early to mid-adolescence is a battleground," Wolfe acknowledged, with
teens facing pressures to conform and yet be individuals at the same
time.

"The fourth 'R' uses a show it-practice it-get feedback approach with
teens, as opposed to lecturing. The only solution is relationship
building and, through that, education."

Such relationship building needs to begin in pre-teen years to be
effective, Wolfe added, as he encouraged workshop participants to
"help your child by building a healthy relationship with them."

A balance of sensitivity and firmness is essential, Wolfe said, adding
"parents should never questions you don't want to hear answers to."

He encourages open, honest dialogue with teens and says parents need
to use the resourcefulness of other parents, school officials and
community agencies to develop healthy relationships with their teens.

Wolfe also encouraged "harm reduction as opposed to zero tolerance,"
saying it is unrealistic to think teens will not experiment.

He also stressed the importance of an authoritative, not authoritarian
approach with teens and said special effort should be made to
accentuate the positive.

"Acknowledge the pressure your teen may be under," he said, stressing
the need for parents to be active participants in their teens' lives.

"Teens appreciate knowing the limits and above all, they appreciate
knowing others - especially those close to them - care about them."