Teen Drinking Prevention

If you manage the health and well-being of 9- to 18-year-olds, this Guide is for you.
 
“Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention for Youth: A Practitioner’s Guide” is designed to help health care professionals quickly identify youth at risk for alcohol-related problems. NIAAA developed the Guide and Pocket Guide in collaboration with the American Academy of Pediatrics, a team of underage drinking researchers and clinical specialists, and practicing health care professionals.

Why use this tool?

• It can detect risk early: In contrast to other screens that focus on established alcohol problems, this early detection tool aims to help you prevent alcohol-related problems in your patients before they start or address them at an early stage.
• It’s empirically based: The screening questions and risk scale, developed through primary survey research, are powerful predictors of current and future negative consequences of alcohol use.
• It’s fast and versatile: The screen consists of just two questions, which can be incorporated easily into patient interviews or pre-visit screening tools across the care spectrum, from annual exams to urgent care.
• It’s the first tool to include friends’ drinking: The “friends” question will help you identify patients at earlier stages of alcohol involvement and target advice to include the important risk of friends’ drinking.

Download or order the Guide and pocket guide.

You may also be interested in related resources to support you, your patients, and their families

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Prescription Drug Use and Teens: Lock Your Meds

'I got my hair from my mom.'
'I got my eyes from my dad.'
'And my drugs from my grandma's medicine cabinet.'


More than 3.1 million teens ages 12 to 17 report abusing prescription drugs. Click here for guidelines for prescription drug abuse prevention and discuss them with your family and friends.

The target audience for Lock Your Meds™ is 20-80-year-old adults, with the primary focus on keeping prescription and over-the-counter pharmaceuticals away from drug abusers.  Many adults may be unwitting suppliers and by making adults aware of the problem we can curb the abuse by others.

YOU HOLD THE KEY TO YOUR CHILD'S DRUG-FREE FUTURE

Review the following guidelines for prescription drug abuse prevention and discuss them with family & friends

LOCK YOUR MEDS
Prevent your children from abusing your own medication by securing your meds in places your child cannot access.
TAKE INVENTORY
Download your Home Medicine Inventory Card, write down the name and amount of medications you currently have and regularly check to see that nothing is missing.  
EDUCATE YOURSELF & YOUR CHILDLearn about the most commonly abused types of prescription medications (pain relievers, sedatives, stimulants and tranquilizers). Then, communicate the dangers to your child regularly; once is not enough.
SET CLEAR RULES & MONITOR BEHAVIOR
Express your disapproval of using prescription drugs without a prescription. Monitor your child's behavior to ensure that the rules are being followed.
PASS IT ON
Share your knowledge, experience and support with the parents of your child's friends. Together, you can create a tipping point for change and raise safe, healthy and drug-free children.

Source: Informed Families of South Florida

Be an educated parent, you will have safer teens.

Do you have a teen that you suspect is using drugs? Have you exhausted all your local resources? Take the time to learn about residential therapy, visit www.HelpYourTeens.com. Each teen and family are unique, there are many teen help programs, knowing how to locate the one best for you can be a challenge, however Parents’ Universal Resource Experts in Broward County, can help, starting with a free consultation.

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Teens Online: Do you know what they are doing or where they are surfing to?

Where is your teen visiting - virtually?

October is National Cyber Safety Awareness Month (NCSAM).


Does your teen know more about technology than you do?


It is time to catch up and be proactive in keeping your kids safe both online and off.

When safety trumps privacy - be a parent in the know!


Teens have access to unprecedented amounts of technology, and the problem is, they usually know how to use it better than their parents. With sexting, cyberstalking, cyberbullying and internet predators in abundance, parents need to closely monitor what their teens are doing on the internet and beyond. The best way to do this is to use the newest technology available to spy on their teens. Kids may not appreciate it, but it’s important for parents to know what their teens are up to at this impressionable age when they don’t always make good decisions.

Here are 10 ways to use technology to spy on your teen.

1. Nanny cam – Originally used to monitor in-home caregivers, nanny cams can be used to spy on your teens as well. These hidden cameras can be installed in common household objects and placed strategically throughout your home. Parents of teens may consider putting one in their teen’s bedroom to make sure their child is not engaging in inappropriate behavior when they’re not home.
2. Facebook – Friend your teens on facebook to monitor what they’re posting on their facebook page. If you suspect they are blocking you from some of their postings, you could get sneaky and pose as someone else, such as another teen, to find out what they’re really up to.
3. Twitter – It’s also a good idea to follow your kids on Twitter to see what they’re tweeting about. Your teen will be more likely to be careful about what they tweet if they know you’re watching. This can help prevent inappropriate pictures being sent into cyberspace where they will live on forever.
4. Internet search history – Periodically check your teen’s internet search history on their computer to see what they looking at when they surf the web. Are they doing research for homework or just watching You Tube? Make sure you block any porn sights and check to see if the blocks are still in place. Teens will find ways to get around your parental controls, so hold them accountable if they do.
5. Email – While you’re at it, check on their email history too. Teens won’t like the fact that you’re doing this and will accuse you of invading their privacy. This is a legitimate concern, but so is your concern for their safety. Unless you know that they’re using the computer responsibly, they shouldn’t be allowed to use it unsupervised.
6. Computer monitor – If you want to know what your teen is doing on their computer and are concerned they will delete any information they don’t want you to see, you can install a monitor to keep track of their computer activity. These monitors can record every keystroke, websites visited, take screen snapshots and give you detailed reports. This is the best way to monitor chat rooms, email and any social networking your teen is engaging in.
7. Remote monitoring – The technology is also available to have these monitoring reports sent to your email so you can stay informed of your teen’s activities while you’re away from home. This is a great feature if you travel a lot for business. It’s also a good way for your child to let you know instantly if they’re in trouble.
8. Cell phone monitor – You can get a similar monitoring system to track your child’s cell phone activity. These devices will send you reports on their calls, texting, location, web history and any pictures taken. Teens with mobile phone technology are more likely to use it than their home computers. This is also a great way to deter teen abductions and know instantly if anything goes wrong.
9. Car monitor – Teens don’t always use good judgment when they get behind the wheel, so a car monitor is another way to use technology to spy on them. These GPS devices not only track where your kids are going, but what speed they’re driving and if they’re out past their curfew. They can even be set to give your teen an audible warning if they’re driving recklessly and emit an ear piercing sound if they’re driving too fast or staying out too late.
10. Home security – Many people have security systems installed in their homes that can be used to spy on their teens. Security cameras can be reviewed plus checking the alarm history can let you know the exact time your child enters and leaves the house.

Of course your teen is not going to like all this spying, especially if you are doing it on the sly, so be sure to let them know what you’re doing and why. Be careful not to overreact over every little piece of information you get or your teen will find ways to get around your monitoring. There’s a delicate balance between ensuring your child’s safety and just plain being snoopy. Give them as much privacy as you can, but be ready to broach their boundaries if you think they’re in real danger.

Source:  My ISP Finder

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Is your teen addicted to their Blackberry? Have they became Crackberry?

Your teen demands a Blackberry.
You become a Crackberry!
Now what?


The nickname ‘Crackberry’ was applied to Blackberry cell phones early on in its use, and it stuck. There is even a website called crackberry.com that claims to be the number one site for Blackberry users and abusers. Obviously, there is a reason behind the name and the comparison of the phone to the addictive substance, crack cocaine.

1. Geek disease  - Every geek had to have one as soon as they came on the market. The large screen, lots of little buttons and multi-functioning capabilities had them foaming at the mouth.
2. Addictive – Of course, the main reason for the name was related to its apparent addictive qualities. Once a person owned a Blackberry, you never saw them without it. They not only carried it with them everywhere, but they seldom put it down or took their eyes off it.
3. Compulsive – The instant communication capabilities of the Blackberry when it first arrived on the scene were novel to the cell phone user. The ability to receive and respond to your emails on your phone was quite an amazing feature, but it also meant that you were being bombarded with the sense that you needed to respond immediately to each new email that came in.
4. Expensive – As with cocaine, the ‘crackberries’ were also a very expensive habit to maintain. They cost hundreds of dollars for the unit itself and then there were the monthly data plans to carry all the functionality to the phone, besides.
5. Peer pressure - “You have to get one!” with the Blackberry seemed to be as affective with the geek crowd as the “You have to try this!” with the crowd that was into drugs. Peer pressure isn’t the least bit limited to one social group or the other.
6. Zoning – You’ve seen ‘the zone’, haven’t you? Their eyes are fixed, and they seem to be oblivious to everything and everyone else around them? The only difference with the Blackberry addict is that his eyes are fixed on an electronic device.
7. Withdrawal – A Crackberry user will suffer withdrawal if he is forced to do without his phone for more than a few hours at a time. Symptoms of the with include nervousness, irritability and a lack of focus.
8. Euphoria – If you watched a new Blackberry user immediately after receiving their first Blackberry, you would witness an obvious sense of euphoria flooding their face.
9. Behavior modification – The possession of the Blackberry created a definite change in behavioral patterns of the owner. They became much less verbal in their communication and began to prefer to use their thumbs for sending short email messages via their phones.
10. Cracked screens – There is one additional reason for the ‘crackberry’ nickname that came from a very different direction, that being the frequency of cracked LCD screens on Blackberries. Blackberries have not fared well when dropped on concrete or sent flying off the top of a car after being left their by their owner. Cracked screens, of course, often lead to the symptoms of withdrawal, listed above.

As you can see, there are a lot of reasons the Blackberries gained their nickname of Crackberries. It appears to be quite fitting.

Source:  Home Phone Service

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