Healthy Choices Bulletin

The Healthy Choices Bulletin is a monthly summary of substance use prevention resources for school staff to use and share with students and families. Most of the titles and images are linked to fliers and websites. We want to encourage school teams to include them in their school newsletters and communications with families. If you have thoughts, questions or feedback please feel to reach out here.

Mark your calendar for NDAFW 2023, March 20–26!

National Drug and Alcohol Facts Week®, or NDAFW, is an annual, week-long, health observance that inspires dialogue about the science of drug use and addiction among youth. It provides an opportunity to bring together scientists, students, educators, healthcare providers, and community partners to help advance the science and address youth drug and alcohol use in communities and nationwide.

Consider playing this Kahoot! with your students, or taking the National Drug & Alcohol IQ challenge, or watching a video;

• What Is Addiction? (1:34)
• What Is the Worst Drug? (2:22)
• Can Using Drugs Help Me Deal With Anxiety and Depression? (1:22)
• What Happens When Drugs Are Combined? (2:28)

Next Legends is a vaping prevention campaign aimed at Native and Indigenous youth. This website includes links to videos, information, and additional resources for youth to get support quitting.

On Thursday 3/9/23 McDaniel High School hosted a district-wide Family Information Night. The event include a resource fair and presentations in Spanish and English.

Please see the slides in English and this version with some slides translated into Spanish.

On January 26th Charlie Health offered a webinar on providing mental health care for young people who are neurodivergent. I recently reached out and they generously shared a copy of the video training.

In case you missed it, you can watch it here.

On Thursday 3/16, Charlie Health will be offering another webinar on adolescent substance use that will address present trends in teen substance use, how it affects mental health and what substance use might look like in the future. Topics will include:

• A summary of national trends for vaping and substance abuse

• How to identify risk factors and protective factors regarding onset of substance use

• Describe common ways youth are physically and digitally concealing substance use

• Explain the growing fentanyl crisis

For more information and a link to register click here.

The Oregon Legislature is currently considering legislation that would increase the funding for Recovery High Schools in Oregon (HB 2767) and another bill that would designate funding for Naloxone for schools (HB 2395). These are both important pieces of legislation to increase supports for youth struggling with substance use.

Currently, Oregon ranks 50th in the country for access to addiction treatment, but has the 2nd highest rate of untreated substance use issues (source Oregon Recovers website). If you have questions about who your elected representatives you can find them here - find your elected representative.

Dana Riemer, Sarah Holm and Mary Krogh host joint office hours on Mondays from 10:00-11:00 and Dana and Sarah offer a second time on Wednesdays from 2:00-3:00.

We answer questions about substance use resources, access to services and substance use related discipline. Please join us to staff students, talk through challenges and find out about specific services and supports.

For a list of the the Student Success & Health consultation hours, please click here.