Picture a bedroom… a bed, a nightstand, a chair, a dresser… posters on the wall,
a backpack…perhaps some dirty clothes on the floor.
Sounds like a typical tweens’ or teens’ bedroom right?
What if as you were putting away clothes or looking for a lost item… you discovered a beer can inside a fast food cup? Or some pills tucked away inside a tic tac container?
Would you recognize these as
warning signs of substance use?
Healthy Choices Caring Communities is providing parents and community adults a chance to walk through the mock up of a teens’ bedroom, to see if they spot the over 75 items, hidden within the room, serving as indicators of substance use or red flags for potential use to be followed up.
Parents: Did you KNOW?
• Most Fulton County youth choose NOT to use substances.
o 88% of Fulton County high school youth have NOT used alcohol in the past 30 days.
o 92% of Fulton County high school youth have NOT used tobacco products in the past 30 days.
o 89% of Fulton County high school youth did NOT report marijuana use in the past 30 days.
o While most youth do not use, assuming that your child will not use, increases the risk that your child will use.
• Alcohol, Tobacco, Marijuana and other drug prevention begins at home.
Parents be sure to:
o Be involved in your child’s life – just hanging out and enjoying them!
o Make a habit of going in their room and looking around.
o Make a habit of looking through their technology, know what apps/websites your child is using.
o Make a habit of knowing who they are communicating with electronically.
o Make a habit of knowing your child’s friends and the parents of your child’s friends.
• Parents have tremendous amount of power and influence over their children in regards to decisions about underage substance use.
o Youth, whose parents or other adults, speak with them on a regular basis, are 50% less likely to use substances.
o Only 28% of Fulton County youth reported that their parents had spoken with them about the dangers of substance use within the past 30 days.
• There is no such thing as “it’s only alcohol or tobacco or marijuana.”
o Most Fulton County youth start using alcohol and tobacco and move to other drugs as they are exposed to a culture in which substance use is supported.
Interested in hosting “Hidden in Plain Sight” at a community event?
Let us know by contacting us at HC3Partnership@gmail.com