Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz knew attendees of Tuesday’s conference on opioids deemed it worthwhile.
How?
“It’s six hours later and everyone is still here,” he said.
Indeed, there was nary an empty seat inside the packed Rondileau Campus Center ballroom for Plymouth County Speaks Up Against Drugs. The topic, the role educators can play in the opioid crisis, was certainly timely.
The gathering marked the annual conference of the Plymouth County Drug Abuse Task Force. Welcoming the attendees, in addition to Mr. Cruz and Sherriff Joseph D. McDonald Jr., was BSU President Frederick W. Clark Jr.
The agenda featured a wide-range of topics, from parental perspectives, children and drugs, mitigating the effects of trauma and violence on children, screening and intervention methods, recovery and support.
One of the presenters, Ryan Morgan, earned his master’s degree from BSU. He is the principal and program director of Independence Academy, and regularly speaks about students in high-risk situations, substance abuse among young people and programs to address these issues.
Also speaking was Beverly Heinze-Lacey, a registered nurse and state Department of Public Health consultant. She is the program manager for Screening, Brief Intervention & Referral to Treatment (SBIRT), billed as a prevention model for middle and high school students.
SBIRT is a verbal screening tool used in Massachusetts schools to reinforce prevention and detect risk for substance-abuse problems among children.
The capstone of the conference was a performance by Drug Story Theater Inc., which takes teens in the early stages of recovery and teaches them about improvisational theater so they can explore their own stories and share them with audiences. Parents of the young people are also involved.
A small group of students and parents, who are led by Dr. Joseph Strand, chief of adolescent psychology at High Point Treatment Centers, closed the conference by enacting various scenes drawn from their real lives. A 15-year-old male told of first trying drugs at the age of nine, after seeing his older brother and his friends getting high.
“I tried to ignore it,” he said. “Since I was so little I wanted to know what they were doing.”
A young lady with Drug Store Theater was asked if involvement in the group helped her.
“I didn’t want to do this,” she said. “But I learned about putting others before myself. It’s been important to my recovery.”
One of the parents onstage was asked about his story.
“We never thought we’d be I this position, but here we are,” he said. “Do I want my kids (into drugs)? No, but let’s see what we can do to get them out of it.”
The last question served to solicit advice aimed at parents who may have a child experimenting with drugs. One of the young people on stage fielded the question: “Have a conversation with them, not to them,” he said. “Start to pinpoint what the basis of the problem is and try to tackle it together. Build that relationship.” (Story by John Winters, G ’11, University News & Media)