Prevention through Connection
October 2020


Saturday, October 3rd from 9:30am-12:30pm
Shelter Rock Elementary School
27-A Shelter Rock Rd, Manahsset

Drive up and drop off unneeded medications for safe disposal.

Sponsored by Manhasset Coalition Against Substance Abuse, NYS Senator Anna Kaplan, and Nassau County Police.



With many teens isolated during the pandemic, home for remote learning, and feeling anxiety and depression, it is crucial to prevent misuse of medication by removing it from the home. The DEA warns that teens may look to the medicine cabinet to use, steal or sell prescription drugs. Medications in the home are free and easily accessible, and most teens believe they are safer than street drugs because doctors prescribe them.

Addiction can happen to anyone but the chances increase when a person starts young. After alcohol, marijuana and tobacco, prescription drugs are among the most commonly used drugs by 12th graders.

The most commonly misused medications are opioids usually prescribed to treat pain, depressants (tranquilizers, sedatives, and hypnotics) to treat anxiety and sleep disorder, and stimulants often prescribed to treat ADHD.

If you keep a prescription for these drugs, consider a locking bag to keep them safe. Free bags will be available at Shed the Meds October 3rd.

Accidental exposure to medicine is also a major source of unintentional pediatric poisonings. Each year in the United States, approximately 60,000 emergency room visits and 450,000 calls to poison centers are made for children under age 6 who ingested medication. In cases of accidental child exposure to a grandparent’s medicine, 45% involved medicines stored in child-resistant containers.
 
Safe medication disposal bags by Deterra are available at local pharmacies at no charge while supplies last. Ask the pharmacists at Manhasset Park Drugs, Walgreen’s, Raindew, or Maclennan’s on Plandome Road or the Doctor’s Pharmacy and Salem Drugs on Port Washington Blvd for a free disposal bag. 
Quick facts on the risks of e-cigarettes for kids, teens, and young adults
The CDC has released an explosion of articles about e-cigarettes in both English and Spanish. Here’s the first of many, and we’re just listing the subtitles:
 
What’s the bottom line on the risks of e-cigarettes for kids, teens, and young adults?
What are e-cigarettes? (with pictures)
How do e-cigarettes work?
What is Juul?
Why is nicotine unsafe for kids, teens, and young adults?
What are other risks of e-cigarettes for kids, teens, and young adults?
What is in e-cigarette aerosol?
Flavors and marketing make e-cigarettes appealing to youth
Can using e-cigarettes lead to future cigarette smoking among kids, teens, and young adults?
Aren’t e-cigarettes safer than cigarettes?
Are e-cigarettes regulated at the federal level?
Are there any national public education prevention campaigns focused on youth and e-cigarettes?
What do we know about heated tobacco products?
What can I do to prevent my child from using e-cigarettes or to help them stop?
Protecting Young People from E-cigarettes
This back-to-school briefer provides information on e-cigarette use and young people and what you can do to help protect them. It is also available in Spanish.
Join Common Sense Media for Family Movie Night
Sunday, October 11      4 p.m. PT/7 p.m. ET     

The Social Dilemma is one of 2020's most impactful documentaries and tees up timely conversations about mental health and tech addiction. By providing dramatized examples of how persuasive technology is working on us all, and by pointing to the prevalence of thought bubbles, rabbit holes, and conspiracy theories, the film has already provoked important conversations for parents and kids who have seen the film. This panel conversation, featuring the filmmaker, a journalist, a Common Sense editor, and a teen voice, will spark ongoing discussions in your households on topics close to all our hearts.

Join Common Sense as we tease out the issues presented in the documentary. This panel conversation, featuring the filmmaker, a journalist, a Common Sense editor, and a teen voice, will spark ongoing discussions in your households on topics close to all our hearts.
One of the most complicated dynamics about raising kids or working with students is their keen sense of absorbing what we do and reflecting it back to us - often in ways that make us cringe.

Elementary-aged kids will respond to any stress you’re giving off with a high degree of agitation and irritation. Middle schoolers will point out your flaws straight to your face. “Why are you wearing those ugly shoes?” High schoolers will pull away from you when they feel cornered and criticize you behind your back.

It Takes One to Know One
Kids sometimes copy what we do - especially our poor behavior. They will call us out for our inconsistencies and remind us to fulfill our promises.

Here’s the short story: kids watch us, learn from us, and catch the example we’re offering.

The same is true for our habits of consumption. For example, it’s common for parents to get easily frustrated with their kids for spending too much time on their devices, but cringe when their phones notify them about how their average daily screen time went up in the last week.

There’s no question there’s been a spike in substance use since Covid-19 hit our country. While some factors that lead to substance use have been removed, for adults who are isolated or anxious there’s never been a time collectively with more contributing factors leading to substance abuse.

Here’s an uncomfortable reality - many kids have never seen their parents numb themselves with alcohol and other substances in a concentrated and prolonged period like what we're living in now. Our kids are watching some of us drink our loneliness, stress, and grief away.

THE QUESTION IS: What are we modeling to our kids?
What are they learning from us about how to live life well; how to respond to difficult circumstances, stressors, and feelings?

The good news is that no matter what example we’ve set for our kids up to this point, there’s no better time to repair and set a new course.

What you model for your kids can give them an extraordinary advantage as they make choices throughout their lives. You can show them what it looks like to be honest, vulnerable, and wise in the choices you make.

One key piece of important research helps us understand that kids who engage in moderate drinking as minors with their parents are more likely to engage in risky drinking behaviors.
The Great Giveback