Addictions team helps save the youth

Melissa Strle
Times Reporter

 

Dean Young, chairperson for the Strathmore Wheatland Addictions Team (SWAT) came before Strathmore town council on Nov. 16 to give an overview of SWAT’s accomplishments to date.
The team was also on hand to thank town councillor Bob Sobol and give him a service award for the leadership he has provided over the years for the team.
“Our mandate is to increase awareness and education in any kind of addiction type issue in Strathmore and the Wheatland county area,” said Young. “Recently, over the last two years, we decided to extend our mandate a little bit into more the education than the awareness side of things.”
The SWAT team is in the midst of its tenth anniversary, and over the years, the team has developed and provided three programs for Strathmore and Wheatland County.
The first program was aimed at the youth and the SWAT team worked with Crowther Memorial Junior High School (CMJHS) to help deliver its message to students within health classes. The program featured discussing the personal stories of three people who suffered from addictions.
“The three people touched me personally, my family and ultimately the community,” said Young.
Last year, the CMJHS Grade 9 health group was able to go through this particular program.
The second program the SWAT team provides targets practitioners and parents.
Young said it is important to look at the root cause of an addiction and this philosophy intertwines with this group.
“Upbringing is always a big issue, parenting style is a big issue, family dynamics is a big issue,” said Young.
The team has a program called “raising youth, lowering risk,” which is based on 40 developmental assets. These assets relate to the development of risky behaviours including alcohol and drug abuse. The program is designed to prevent substance abuse through positive youth development.
Young said the 40 developmental assets have been a “structure for youth development for a number of years.”
The program educates about a variety of subjects including drug abuse, violence and teen pregnancy.
SWAT was able to offer the program to a number of local practitioners.
“We’ve had some really good luck with that (program),” he said.
Young describes the third program as really basic and a precursor to the kids and drugs program, which is an Alberta Health Services and RCMP proprietary program.
The “anytime is the right time” program is set as an introduction to talking to kids about substance abuse.
“It’s just a real informal setting where we can bring parents into a room and we can discuss how to broach that subject,” said Young.
In the future the team would like to present the three programs to anybody who would like to participate.
“We’ve had some interest in other areas of the province that are very much intrigued by the program that we have put together,” said Young. “We’ve been invited now to go outside of our coalition area to present this particular program to show what we are doing here in Strathmore and Wheatland County.”
Young believes that a lot of local area residents are not necessarily aware of what SWAT does. So, over the last two years, the team decided to develop an Internet presence and try to help increase awareness. The team makes daily posts on social media.
Last month, Young created a small survey that elicited results from 50 respondents in an effort to find out what types of programming and issues local area residents are looking for.
“That was a nice eye-opening piece of data for us,” said Young.