Getting to Know LeAnn and Her Journey in Prevention

Hey, welcome back to another episode of the Drug Prevention Power Hour. I’m your host, Jake White. And today I’m chatting with Leanne Greer, who’s from Washington state. She’s actually done prevention in multiple states, including Washington and Ohio. And I got to work with her over with her student group, CAMP, their youth drug prevention club in her town. And I had such a great time and I learned so much that I just jumped at the opportunity to have Leanne bring us through some different prevention activities. So first we’re going to get to know her a little bit, and then we’re going to jump into some best strategies for prevention. So Leanne, welcome to the show. How are you doing?

Hi, I’m doing well. Thanks for having me.

Of course, it’s good to see you again. So can you just do me a favor, just introduce yourself and how you got into prevention.

Yeah, I call myself a product of prevention. I’ve been doing this in seventh grade. I was involved in a club in my middle school and then kind of just stuck with it, which is kind of a cool story. There was a program back in Ohio called Youth To Youth International. And after I graduated high school, I ended up volunteering for them and then ended up working for them through college and being mentored by their staff ended up, you know, sticking with it. And now I’m here in Washington, working for a high school, doing intervention and prevention here in a school. So it’s been really a fun journey. And I love the students I work with. And like I said, it’s been really cool.

Effective Prevention Strategies: The Continuum of Care

That’s great. And your experience so far, you mentioned Youth to Youth International, which if people don’t know kind of what that is, can you simplify what your role was with Youth to Youth and then what you do on a day -to -day basis with camp and in your community?

Yeah, so Youth to Youth is a youth -led prevention program. So I was a prevention assistant. So I did all of the work to help support the program. So we did conferences and local programming. So that was a lot of fun. It was just really cool to be able to be in a community -based program that was youth -led. Here in Washington, I do a school -based program. So we do direct intervention with students who might be in early use. And then I also run a primary prevention club as well. So that’s youth -led. And so that’s my passion is the youth -led piece. So it’s really exciting to be able to be back in that space and be taking the skills that I learned from a very young age in seventh grade doing youth -led prevention and now being able to run my own club with students here in Washington State. So it’s really exciting.

That’s amazing. And I love that you said you’re a product of prevention because this is, Leanne, you’re exactly what we want. We want someone who comes up in this work, who falls in love with it. And one day they start doing it as well. And it’s kind of like ministry as well. It’s like, okay, I don’t have to be a pastor or a minister to do God’s work, but if you’re just doing it wherever you are, wherever you go to work, with your friends, when you’re out around town.

Yeah.

And the same thing goes with prevention, but you’re actually doing it professionally, which is really, really cool. And you have all this experience since you were in seventh grade. That’s so incredible.

Yeah, it’s a lot of fun. I was actually just on the phone with some, so I’m planning my 10 year high school reunion, which is insane to say. And I’m 2 ,500 miles away, which is also, it’s a wild journey. But I was on a Zoom call with three of my classmates and they were asking me like life updates and we were talking and they’re like, so what are you doing now? And I’m like, well, nothing’s changed. I’m still that drug free. I was a drug free kid. Now I’m the drug free adult. Like still doing the exact same thing I was in senior year of high school. So it was, it was funny. But it’s, they’re like, that’s so cool. Actually. Like they’re like, we knew that that’s what you were passionate then. And it’s really cool that nothing’s like, not that nothing’s changed, but like that you’re still able that you’re still doing that. And that’s still a passion that’s like transcended all these years later. So that was cool that they see that too. So yeah, that was really sweet and touched my heart.

Yeah. Well, and makes it all the more valuable, which I definitely want to transition to what we’re talking about today, is it makes it so much more valuable because you’ve seen over a decade of prevention and, or yeah, just under it, I guess. And you’ve seen it as a student perspective, as a student leader perspective, now being an educated professional and certified preventionist. So like all these things, like, yeah, you’re, your voice holds a lot of weight to me because you have those different experiences. And I think it’ll be really valuable because there’s a lot of turnover in this field. As with any grant funded program sometimes, there’s different turnover, there’s different ways to train people. And so for me, getting to talk with someone who’s been doing it is, that’s like gold. That’s one of the most valuable things we can have is a mentor or somebody who’s doing the work. And you can learn from their successes and their failures. So this is super, super valuable. So what are you gonna teach us today during our time together?

Yeah, we’re just going to be talking about some effective prevention strategies from the professional standpoint. So I’m excited to get into it.

Awesome, that’s great. Well, if you want to go ahead and share your screen, me being kind of newer, I would say newer in the field. I’ve been doing prevention for a decade, but learning more about the strategies, about what works and what doesn’t, and constantly trying to improve. Like personally, I’m really excited for you to share too, because I’m always ready to learn.

Yeah, let’s do it. So hopefully you can see my screen.

Yeah, we gotcha.

Okay, is it full screen?

Now it is, yes.

Youth-Friendly Strategic Planning

Okay, perfect. So yeah, prevention strategies, you know, there’s been a large history of prevention. It’s back to about the 1960s when we realized that, you know, that this might be an issue. And so back in the 1960s, there was a lot of scare tactic prevention. You know, you saw the video where they would like cook the egg on the frying pan and be like, this is your brain on drugs, right? And that was very scary tactic -y. Or we saw a lot of the poster campaigns come out where it was like people would be smoking and it would be like half of their face completely gone. And so people realized maybe this isn’t the best approach and moved away from that to some effective prevention, some more like care and okay, how can we care to people’s feelings and their whole person and really press into that through the 1970s. In the 1980s, it was all about alternatives, right? And so they’re like, okay, let’s get people plugged into sports. Let’s get people plugged into a club at school. Let’s get people plugged into whatever it is, church, their church youth groups, whatever it is, like everything in the 1980s was all about alternatives. And if you remember in the end of the 1980s, what was the big campaign?

Do you remember the Just Say No campaign with, Just Say No with Nancy Reagan? Yep. So the Nancy Reagan Just Say No campaign was huge, right? And that was coming off of that, that alternatives approach. So early in the 1980s, there was an increasing emphasis on this comprehensive approach, right? What’s the risk? What are these factors that are really playing a huge role in Youth using substances and if I could just save one student And so we as you can see where they were really moving towards some of these ideas of like, okay Maybe it’s not just one thing that is that we need to that we need to focus on maybe it’s more than one. Maybe there’s more than one area that we need to look at in the 2000s People realized maybe there’s not one cookbook like or one one strategy or there’s not like a cookbook that that works for prevention. Because obviously communities are different, right? There’s, you know, if you’re working with a Hispanic or Latino community, that’s not going to work for your suburban white community, right? Like those strategies have to be different. And so you clearly have to and your strategies need to be evidence based. So you have to work with what you have and the people that you’re working with. And so in the 2000s, we really started looking at that evidence -based and evidence -informed practices. Recently, and since like the early 2010s, we really looked at these holistic approaches with secondary intervention because we realized, hey, students are using, especially with the rise of vaping, since like 2013 and on. And so we, okay, how can we use secondary intervention with education and prevention to prevent youth substance use? So this is really like a culmination of youth history of prevention. 

Okay. Can I ask a question about this one? There’s so when I understand evidence -based and outcome -focused programs, it’s basically you can… That’s just a fancy way of saying we can measure this, right? We can see what happens from the program, from the activities, and we can say, all right, well, if you do this again in a similar community with similar activities, you’ll see similar results, correct?

Yeah, that’s why we do all those evaluations at the beginning and end, right? Those pre and post surveys, that’s what those are for. That’s how we get that evidence -based approaches, or that’s where the evidence comes from.

Perfect. Okay, awesome. And then for the last one, when we’re on the last bullet point, you mentioned secondary intervention. And I’m just getting familiar with this primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention. And if I’m remembering it correctly, primary is some people are not using drugs and primary prevention is to keep it that way. Secondary is maybe they’ve started using but they’re not yet addicted to that substance, how can we help bring them back to primary? And then tertiary is kind of like harm reduction, which is, hey, they’re addicted to the substance, how can we keep them alive and maybe bring them back along with spectrum so that we can get them help and eventually get them to sobriety and a better life? And is that, is the secondary intervention, is that that second one, what’s just like, okay, they’ve started to use, but not yet addicted?

Yep. Yep, exactly. And that’s kind of what I do in my role in a lot of schools and communities and a lot of the funding that comes in for prevention services. Unfortunately, it’s a lot of states and I’ve learned this since moving away from Ohio. East Coast funding is great, right? On the West Coast, it’s in the middle of the country. Funding is so different because it goes to the states and not the county level. So states that have county level funding, they can use it much more. They can use it how they want to. States where it’s coming straight from the state, they can’t. So for us, we have to do the secondary intervention as well.

Yeah.

Which is fine, it’s much needed, right? So students that are using, that are vaping, right, or using cannabis, they need services as well. And they need, a lot of times they just don’t know, right? They need the education so that they can make educated decisions because a lot of times they just don’t have that information. And so, and then a lot of times they will just very quickly move back into that primary, that primary state. Because you’re right, exactly right with that primary, secondary and tertiary spectrum.

And that’s probably good for us to acknowledge in the beginning because there’s different strategies for each, just like each community has a different strategy that they would use because their culture is different, they have different norms and influences, and their lives look different. The same thing will happen when you’re looking at some students that don’t use, that have started to use, or who already are addicted to a substance. We’re not going to use the same strategies with them, or we’re going to see different effects. If we try to use the same strategy, We’re going to see different effects. So yeah, this was a super helpful slide.

Mm -hmm. Yeah, exactly. Thanks. Okay, moving on. Okay, so prevention, the continuum of care. So yeah, so we see promotion, that’s like promoting healthy lifestyles, right? So what I didn’t realize until I started really researching a lot of this, after I graduated high school was prevention is like a third of the continuum of care, but it only gets like 5 % of the funding from the federal dollars, right? Which is really not a lot. But if you look at the continuum of care, it is a third of it. So that promotion is promoting healthy living. Then prevention is that universal, selective, and indicated. So universal is everyone. Selective is like, hey, this is maybe like, if you’re working in a school, this is the best way to describe this. Maybe you’re working in a school and you maybe go into a classroom and this is a classroom that you’re maybe teaching a lesson to. For example, in my role, I have to teach all of the ninth graders because the ninth graders are like our selected group that get all of the prevention education series. So that’s our selected group because then, they get all of that information on coping skills and alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs. So that’s like our selected group, right? Indicated would be more of like students that are, or youth or individuals who maybe are at higher risk for engaging in high risk behavior, right? So maybe you want to do more of a individualistic approach with them, maybe running a group with them or doing a more engaged approach with them, right? And then you move into that treatment and recovery, and we’re not gonna go into that because that’s not really the field that we work in. But that moves into that after that indicated, maybe they start using after that field. Does that make sense?

Okay. Yeah, that’s great. Yeah, that’s perfect. And it makes sense too. The visual is perfect. So if someone’s listening in your car, if you get a chance, go back to the YouTube channel and watch this episode again, because it shows this half wheel that is showing the different progression and the continuum of care for prevention. So you can see half of this is promotion and prevention. Then it moves to treatment and recovery, which for us to be communicating with our partners who are in treatment and recovery, but staying in our lane of saying, hey, I’m going to be the best at prevention. Or if you are in treatment, great, I’m going to be the best at that or the best at recovery. That’s so important and to rely on our partners for the rest because it is so different and it comes with different strategies. So yeah, this wheel is super helpful. So for anybody listening, keep listening. And then when you get a chance, go back to the YouTube channel so you can look and maybe take some notes on this because it’s super helpful.

Yeah, I love telling my peers in our field like, hey, we have a scope of practice and we’re going to stay right in that lane because we don’t want to veer from that, especially because a lot of the people that I work with are certified practitioners. They have licenses to do a lot of different things, but they’re now working in the field of prevention despite them having like alcohol addiction counseling certificates or despite to work with adults or despite them being Licensed social workers, right? That’s not their role now and despite your despite your Certification right your role kind of plays a huge part in that now if obviously there was a crisis Like if you’re working in a school or whatever, like if you’re a licensed social worker, obviously you can take on like certain things just depending on what your role is, right? But obviously your role plays a huge part. If you’re a prevention specialist, like you, your scope of practice is huge. Like you have a, you have a role of ethics. Like, like you can’t, you can’t step outside of that, that scope because there’s treatment providers and recovery support specialists that do that, that do that work. And so, and we’re so thankful for them because their work is hard. I’ve done that work. That work is so important and so necessary. So thanks if you’re listening. I stepped back into prevention because that work is hard.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, and you know what’s really cool to acknowledge, I like what you said, is you might have a passion for recovery and treatment because maybe you have a personal experience of that. And that’s fantastic. You can be an advocate and you can be passionate about this, but if you’ve chosen prevention as your medium, it’s good. Like you just said, you just know where the line is, where you say, great, even though I have a passion for this or I have a pass with this, this is where I pass. You know, the baton to someone else because they’re the professional in it and vice versa. You know, maybe you don’t have that, that story, but you are a certified counselor or something else and that’s your field. There’s, there’s still opportunities to, you know, be passionate about what you are, use your story, but stay within your lane because you know, you’re going to be the best at that. And the question I like to ask people on this is I say, Jake, but I want to use my story. I want to help people with recovery, but I also want to prevent because my life would be changed if I had learned this stuff earlier. And so the question is, well, this is kind of dramatic of me to say, but hey, which one, if you had to give a thousand times, you had to help a thousand people with one thing instead of helping one person with a thousand things, which one of these things would you choose?

And it’s not just about what you’re passionate about, but it is what are you uniquely qualified to do and what do you love doing? And that’s the big one. Which one do you love? Because you’re going to spend thousands of hours getting good at this. Pick the one that you love doing and you really, really are invested in. And you can still be a cheerleader for all the other ones and a connector for all the other ones.

Yeah, so good. So good. Okay. Awesome. Okay. So in prevention, we kind of follow a couple different guidelines, I would like to say. One of those is SPF. Have you heard of SPF before? The Strategic Prevention Framework.

Strategic Prevention Planning

Is it the Strategic Prevention Framework?

It is! Yes! Woo! Yes!

I don’t think that you’ve been at any sort of training if you’ve not heard of SPF before. So SPF kind of guides everything that we do, right? And so it basically says, okay, how do you do the work that you do? And I have a couple of slides that walk through this. So we’ll kind of go through this in the best way possible to kind of go through all these slides. So SPF says, OK, how can we do this in the most effective way? So this nice little flower that, so this was, SAMHSA is the one that put this out there and says, hey, this is how you should do this work. So step one is like, OK, we need to assess what our community needs are. What is the problem and how can I learn more about what said problem is. Okay, build capacity. So if you’re in a community that has a coalition, this is a lot of the work that the coalition does, right? Or if you have community providers or community partners, this is a lot of the coalition. This is a lot of those community partners, this is bringing them to the table or identifying who or what those those people are. Understanding what your capacity is, right? So what do you have to work with? Step three is planning. What should you do and how are you gonna do it, right? So if your assessment identified that you have an issue with youth using cannabis, okay, well, what are you gonna do about it, right? Are you gonna go and do a sticker shop campaign in your community to all of your cannabis retailers? Okay, how are you going to do that? What funding do you have to do that? Do you need $5 ,000? How are you going to get that $5 ,000? Are you going to fundraise? Identifying all those things, planning that out with your capacity, where are you getting that money? You know, bringing in all of those people. Implementing that. So, okay, how are you putting your plan into action? And then step five is evaluating. You know, before we talked about, you know, those evaluations. Here’s kind of where that steps into play as well. Like is your plan succeeding? Like, you know, doing a pre and post eval on some of these things is really important. A lot of communities that have DFC funding, the drug free communities funding, they have to do community surveys every other year. Schools have surveys that they do every year. So understanding that like you might be able to, see if your plan is succeeding just by surveys that are already in existence, but see like doing some evaluation to see if see if there’s any reduction in use or reduction in whatever it is. Maybe you’re maybe you’re trying to evaluate if you know, or trying to assess a need about recycling in your community. I don’t know what it is. But is there less trash in your community like on the side of the road is your. Are your local people that are cleaning up your trash, picking up less trash on the side of the road? You see what I’m saying? So is your plan succeeding? Yeah. And then obviously the two guiding things that are gonna make this go the whole mile is, is it culturally competent? Meaning is it serving the people that you’re trying to serve? And then also, is it sustainable? Is it gonna last a long time? So. that is how SPF says, okay, this is how all prevention strategies need to operate. Any questions about this?

No, you know what I love about this one is it makes so much sense. Like, I don’t have to get out my thinking cap on it. I’m like, no, that makes sense. You want to see what’s actually happening by assessing the needs. You want to see what resources you have, you know, by building capacity. You want to plan something, you want to do something, and then you want to see how it went so you can pivot if you need to. And just the overarching components of sustainability and cultural competence is like, hey, along this whole plan, are we being equitable? Are we being fair? Are we biased in any way within our group? And then to see, are we engaging people in this work so that it’s not just on us, but it’s on all of us? If one person leaves, great, there’s somebody else that’s in the chair. That stuff so, it makes so much sense to me. So I like this one too.

Yeah. Awesome. So moving on, so we have some, so Youth to Youth created this, I don’t know, probably seven or eight years ago, maybe even longer. So this is a youth friendly version of mapping that out, right? So strategic planning is like the other half of that piece, right? So taking SPF and then putting it, putting it on paper. So taking the SPF model and then making something happen with it, right? So you two said, okay, how do we make this approachable for our young people? So obviously I said I worked there. Typically when you strategic plan with an organization, it’s an 11 by 17 piece of paper and it is just like eight boxes and it’s just really long and because it all has to fit in on 11 by 17, like that’s some rule or something. I don’t know. But it’s like, I don’t know, it was just like, they always said it has to sit on, it has to be on 11 by 17, it has to be in these like boxes. And we’re like, that’s not youth friendly, who’s gonna wanna do that? So we created this, right? Because we were gonna send young people. And this worked out really well for us. So it was all the same information, just colorful.

Yeah, I love it.

Dissemination of Information

And so it’s like, okay, so let’s gather our data come up with a challenge statement, like what’s the focus of our project or our group? So if we’re creating a group, like, so for example, our club at school is called CAMP. It stands for Cubs Advocating for Mental Health and Prevention. We’re the Cubs at our school. So that’s like our mascot. And so we’re like, okay, when we were creating our name for our club, it was like, okay, well, what’s our focus gonna be? It’s gonna be mental health and prevention. So like that was a huge thing. Okay, well, what are we going to do? So I actually gave them this map, and they filled it out for the year. And they’re like, Okay, this is some of the things that we want to work on. And they were able to do this. And so next year, when we go into the school year, they’re going to do it again, and they’re going to break up into two different or three different groups, and be able to identify different campaigns or projects that they want to work on. And that’s what they’re going to do, right? They’re going to they’re going to identify, okay, for a long term goal, they want to for the school year or for the next two years, and then a short -term goal for the next two months, right? So identify some short -term and long -term goals. Identify resources available to meet needs. So if you have a coalition in your community, or if you have a school system that supports you, or if you have community resources that support you, or if you have a local restaurant that can provide food to you, right? Because lo and behold, it’s lo and behold, a lot of restaurants will donate to organizations, right? They love that, especially if you’re serving youth. They love being able, one, to write that off, and two, they love if you’re doing good for the community and doing good to support youth making healthy decisions. I’m trying to think of what else. Stores will, like, if you want to apply for fundraising to stores, they will donate to you. Right, so identify resources that will meet your needs. Strategies that you’re going to use. So going back, we’ll get into that more later, but going back to some of the strategies that we talked about earlier with SPF, we’ll get more into what that looks like a little bit with the CSAP strategies. What’s gonna be the result of your project or group? Like what are you, what’s your end result going to be? Like are you going to have an assembly? Are you going to have a big like field day? Are you going to have a conference? Like what’s what’s what’s the end result? Are you or you want to have a reduction of youth vaping? Right? Resources, trying to think of what else? How are you going to evaluate this? Are you going to do a pre and post test? Are you going to see if there’s 47 people that showed up to your event? And those types of things. And then finally, How are you remaining sustainable and culturally competent? Are you gonna try to do this again the following year or so on and so forth? Does this make sense?

Okay, cool. This is a great map. I like it strategic mapping, but make it youth friendly. It’s perfect. Is this something that’s proprietary to youth for youth to youth? Or if you go online, can people download this?

So they give it out at their conferences. They’re like, here, take this. But I don’t think that they have it on their website. But they do make it available to people.

That’s great. Awesome. Well, if I find a way to share it with people in the show notes are on Vive18.com slash podcast, I will try my best to get this because it sounds really helpful, Leanne. And I was doing a training with students in prevention in Kansas State for this statewide conference. And this is just such a beautiful document to use that it just puts it all in perspective. And it kind of makes you want to use it, you know? So I love it. That sounds awesome.

Yeah. Okay. Same thing. I’m not going to go go over this, but it’s the same. It’s the same. Spiff SPF mobilize and address people, mobilize and build capacity to address needs, develop your comprehensive strategic plan, so on and so forth. Okay. So we kind of identified this earlier with universal indicated and selective. Okay, so really, this is the core piece, right? After you identify your SPF, right, your strategic prevention plan, right, you’re gonna plan, now you need to identify your strategies. What are you gonna do to meet that plan? So in that big strategies box, now you’re going to come up with some strategies. So there’s six strategies with the CSAP, which is the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention. Now. I don’t love that name, but it’s really old and it’s from Sansa. Cause obviously if you don’t know, we’ve moved away from using the word abuse. We use misuse now for like the last 15 years. And so thanks Sansa. And so there are six strategies. It’s dissemination of information, prevention, education, alternative activities, community -based processes, environmental approaches, and problem ID and referral.

Prevention Education

And so something really important to keep in mind is that these were created before SPF and it’s the oldest model that is still in use. The other part of this is that you can’t just use one. Kind of like going back with the history of prevention, it’s really, really important that, because even back in the history of prevention, like we saw that like, okay, they were doing one thing and then they were doing another thing and they were doing another thing and they saw maybe we should probably do all these things, right, except for the scare tactics, don’t do those. Right. Same thing here, like if you your community is probably going to want to use all of these at some point, right. And it’s population based use. So, Right. You’re going to use some prevention education. You’re going to use some community -based processes. You’re going to use some of these. So I’m going to explain exactly what all of these things are, but just some notes to keep in mind. So first thing first, dissemination of information. This is one -way communication. This is just sending out information to your community, to your students, to your teachers, to your parents. This is one -way communication from the source to the audience with limited contact between the two. So this is like sending out a newsletter or sending out media campaigns or sending out social media posts. And again, we’re always like, it always has to be at the forefront, not the back, the forefront of our mind to that cultural competency. We wanna make sure that we’re aware of the people that we are serving. Questions?

One way, meaning this isn’t a live event, for example, like you’re not in a classroom. It’s just they’re getting information from you. Okay.

Exactly. So if I’m going to put up some flyers at the school, I am going to, you know, put out information on social media. I’m going to like, it is, it is from the source to the audience. Okay. The second portion is prevention education. This is two way communication. So it goes from the source to the audience and back. So this is like in a classroom setting. Or what you do, Jake, right, in your presentations or in your workshops, right? This is two -way communication. So this is very much an interaction -based portion. So this is activities that aim to affect critical and social life, critical life and social skills, including decision -making, refusal skills, and critical analysis. So these are small group sessions, parenting and family management classes, peer leader and peer helper programs, educator programs for youth groups and groups for children of addicted individuals. So this is pivotal to understand that, especially in those peer spaces, that a lot of it is back and forth, right? It’s not just like, hey, I’m just preaching to you, right? It’s back and forth education. And that’s why a lot of prevention ed is like hands -on tools and activities and stuff.

Yeah, and what I love or what I think could be pointed out about prevention education is how amazing it is when you have a group of young people that are doing the education as well. So they’re educating their peers because they’re not only, they’re learning the content at a deeper level because they have to teach it. And that back and forth is so much more powerful than even for me, example, as a professional who does this all over the country, I know that I have a limitation and when students do it, they do it to a greater degree. So investing in the students and their abilities is paramount, especially in this.

Yeah, that youth led piece is so important. That’s why I love it. That’s why that’s my passion. Like, you know, you were talking earlier about funneling into that one passion. I mean, obviously we need to, I think, say, keep our minds open a little bit, but like my one, my one silo is that youth led piece. That’s where I grew up and that’s kind of where I stayed for a long time. And you’re exactly right. You know, youth led can be the prevention educators. And so, because it allows for that two -way communication and they’re also the ones educating. So, I love it. Okay. Alternative activities. You know, we don’t want to just do alternative activities, but they are an excellent source of strategy. So this is drug -free social and recreational activities, drug -free dances and parties, youth and adult leadership activities, community service, mentoring programs.

You know, building a community garden, like all those things are really, really, really important. And it’s participation of target populations and activities that exclude drug use, right? Doing, you know, in colleges, I know that you do a lot of work with colleges as well. You know, when I was still living in Ohio, I was friends with someone who was working at Ohio State and at the time, and she was involved in the prevention spaces there and they were doing a lot of like tailgating, but sober tailgating. And I thought that that was such a unique, because I went to a Christian college, so I didn’t really have that experience. But I thought that that was such a unique strategy, because it’s like that is not the experience that a lot of students have. Because the tailgating is such a you know, high use activity. And so, yes, no, that’s, that’s a great alternative activity, you know, for college based students, right. And so, okay, or, you know, reframing that, how can we do something else that’s not, that’s not a typical activity, you know, obviously, and we’re not going to do something that’s like, pong, right, you know, when we’re doing a youth event, I’m, I’m never going to do anything that’s like, a pong -based activity, because that’s an activity that is based off of a beer pong, right? And so how do you move away from those activities that are similar in that aspect? And so I think it’s important to identify those things and then do something alternative. So this is doing constructive and healthy activities getting kids involved in sports, getting kids involved in youth groups, getting kids involved in band and choir, whatever it is, right? 

Yeah, I do have a question about this one. And I don’t know, maybe you’ll tell me, well, data just suggests this or maybe you have some type of reason. Either way is fine. But you mentioned that like, okay, I wouldn’t play a game with youth that seems like a drinking game, but we’re not drinking. And for me, I love alternative activities because that’s where I started. I started by throwing these giant drug free house parties at colleges and, and it was something that really like it started the education component. It started, for example, the social norms. Because I say this a lot, let’s turn social norms into social proof. Because if you say everyone’s not using, but then people are still alone and isolated when they make a healthy choice, they tend to not believe you. And so I think these actions speak louder than words. What if they get an invitation to a sober tailgate or they get an invitation to a school dance or an activity that you’re putting together? That is going to be so much more powerful. And one of the things I see it in the prevention field, I’m sure we see a lot of stuff that doesn’t work, that’s still being done, that maybe we tried in the past. But you mentioned one specifically, and I feel like I’m halfway there in understanding it. But it’s kind of a question of what battles do we choose? Because since I’ve been doing this work, people have said, I don’t want you to use the word sober. I’ve heard that before. And I’m like, wouldn’t we wanna define sober as something good and acceptable? Well, don’t we wanna redefine that? Or people saying, yeah, don’t redefine what a game is. Like if it uses cups, it’s a drinking game. But wouldn’t we wanna redefine, like a game is a game. It’s not a drinking game, but. what happens? Is there something that happens in the mind of a young person when you put that in front of them and they see the correlation between a drinking game and why it doesn’t work or why it’s not best practices? I’m just wondering what your thoughts are on that.

Alternative Activities

Yeah, it’s definitely not best practice, especially for those under the age of 21, because it is correlated to alcohol, right? Because it’s like, okay, we know that this is like, a young person sees this game or this activity, and they’re like, we know that this is beer pong, right? And they can associate the two. So like me as an adult, would never put that in front of like in a drug free space would never put that in front of or like even a church youth group would never put that in a space that is promoting prevention. However, I can see the tension, right? It is one of those things it’s like I didn’t understand it until probably four or five years ago because it’s one of those things with brain development where it’s like I get it now of like our brains aren’t fully developed until we’re 25 and kids or teens I shouldn’t say kids youth teens when their brains are still developing they’re correlating everything. And so when they’re seeing, this person that I look up to, this adult that I am, you know, that I am supposed to be trusting, this adult who is mentoring me, this adult who is pouring in time and effort into me is saying that this activity is okay even if it’s just water or even if it’s just whatever, that means that it must be okay, right? And so regardless, and so that means when I am 21, it must be okay, you know? So if we remove that correlation, then maybe they won’t want to when they’re 21 either, right? Because the whole goal would be to delay the prevention. The definition of prevention is to delay the early onset use of whatever it is or to delay the early onset of whether it means mental health diagnoses or whatever. So for me, I just steer clear. Because if, right, I just steer clear. If I don’t do it, then there’s no correlation.

And I’m not attached to that memory for that kid. I remember being in youth group and like church youth group and people snorting pixie sticks. Like the youth group leader saying that that was okay. And for me, I really looked up to these adults in my life. And it’s like the sugar, like sugar, it was just sugar, but like that was the impression that I had. And it was like, okay, this is not, but I remember that being weird. And it was just sugar, right? But it was, but that correlation was weird. 

I think that, one of the things that helps me understand it is just the marketing behind it and how many years companies have invested to make you think, right? Like a party, a Red Solo Cup, a game like Pong. If all this culture, all this consumerism is poured into you associating that product with that outcome, being using alcohol or other drugs, then If I’m going to use it in a prevention strategy, then not only does it have to call out clearly that I’m almost making fun of this or I’m showing you evidently that that is ridiculous and that is not effective or that the drug can’t give you the thing that it’s selling you, that makes it easy for me to understand what you’re saying. Which is our culture and everything has put a correlation between a cup that’s red and plastic and this outcome of drinking alcohol or having a straw and using something in your nose. You don’t use a straw to suck up anything in your nose ever except for a powder form of a drug.

But yeah, for sure. And like, you know, you can do games on stage, right? Use a hula hoop or whatever it is like, you know, with young people, but like, you know, don’t use the giant Red Solo Cup trash cans with high school students. You see what I’m saying because it again correlates those things for them because, and we just don’t want to prematurely give them that correlation.

Yeah. Right, and that it’s okay by you. And in fact, you can be the one to say, hey, it’s actually not okay. I don’t love that our culture does this or that this is associated with it. You can be that person in their life to show them the correlation and say, do you want this correlation or do you want something different?

Okay, so next is community -based processes. So these are things like having a coalition, right? So these aim to enhance the ability of communities more effectively to provide prevention and treatment services for substance use disorders. So these include organizing, planning, and enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of service implementation, including coalitions and networking. So this is essentially having a coalition or working together with your community to work more effectively. So shout out all you coalition communities out there.

Bloop bloop!

Environmental Approaches

Okay, next is environmental approaches. We have two more. Environmental approaches. So this is something that I, in the last six or seven years, have become super passionate about. And I never thought I would be on this side of it. But I am so passionate about this. So it seeks to establish or change community standards, codes, and attitudes, thereby influencing the incidence and prevalence of drug misuse. I spelled that wrong, in the general population. So this is like review of your drug policies in schools. If your school has a super discipline approach, like a super indicative discipline approach to your policy, and it’s like, you know, suspending or expelling your students for 10 to 30 days in schools, look at other schools in your community or your state. And say, hey, this is how we really should be approaching this because that’s not what’s happening everywhere. And get to understand like the root of how those things are being addressed and, and maybe enact or try to enact some different approaches. And that’s you doing an environmental approach. Technical assistance to communities. Yeah. Review of alcohol, tobacco and other drug advertising. You know, you walk into a convenience store or a gas station and there is signs below three feet in the state of Ohio. I don’t know where it is everywhere else, but in the state of Ohio, that’s actually not allowed. It’s against the law to have things, to have like tobacco advertisements below three feet, because who is that advertising to Not adults, it’s advertising to three -year -olds. And it’s making them aware of tobacco products, right? Because they’re the ones that are at eye level with those products. So they’re supposed to be above three feet above like the door handles or whatever. And so again, I’ve learned a lot. And so social norm strategies, media literacy and public service announcements also fall into this. And so I think that a lot of these things so and you can also get your youth really involved in this, which is really exciting. Take them in to do some to go in and survey your local gas stations, get them involved, have them make some public service announcements, and maybe your local movie theaters will play them in the previews, or have them get involved in the drug policies in your schools, or have them do some technical assistance to your teachers. They can go in and do PDs. That’s allowed they can do PDs with your with your teachers and your and your communities or have them speak at a coalition meeting all these things are our Approaches that your your students can also be heavily involved with.

Problem ID and Referral

That’s cool. I think when it comes to environmental approaches, we talk about what’s wrong a lot of time. It’s easy to talk till our face is blue about how the advertising is corrupt and how the policies aren’t there and all that stuff. But this is where you really get to stand out is by focusing on the solutions instead of the problems. It’s easy to say this stuff is wrong. We know it is. But what can we do for it? Can we bring youth into the table to make it a little better? So this is super cool. I have one question though. Do you know why public service announcements is in this one and not in the first one of one -way communication?

Yeah, it can be in both. I put it here. It goes in both. I put it here because youth made it. Last one. Okay, so problem ID and referral, and this is the shortest one. Problem ID and referral, this is the least one that gets used, which it probably should be a little bit more, used more, a little bit more often with some prevention specialists or people working in prevention. So this is, this is just saying like, hey, this is past my scope of practice. I’m going to refer out. So this is aiming to identify, or this is the secondary prevention approach. So identify those who have indulged in use and hopefully assess their behavior to see if it can be reversed through education. So this is a lot of what I do through my secondary work. So student assistance professionals out there, what up? That’s what I do. So, you know, we do a lot of this problem ID and referral. And if you can’t, can’t, If things aren’t working with your education, then you might have to refer out because maybe they need a higher level of care or higher level of support. But yeah, that’s pretty much where we’re at with that. And that’s a lot of the strategies and that’s a good stopping point for us.

I can’t thank you enough for taking time out of your day to share with us. And I know it’s going to help a lot of people because like you said, there’s new people in, there’s people going out. We’ve been here for a while. I know we don’t plan on going anywhere, but that means that anything that we learn, we’re going to get to pass on to a lot of other people. Can you, before we go, can you tell us if there’s any of your pages you want to promote or how can we follow Camp and the great work that you do? Do you all have a social media page or something?

We do have a camp Instagram. It is swhs underscore camp and that’s us. I’m at Leanne, L -E -A -N -N underscore Greer, G -R -E -E -R, if you want to follow me. I sometimes post things about prevention, so follow me for that. And yeah, all things good. So.

Okay, cool. Well, this has been a jam packed episode and I’m glad it went a little long so we could cover everything. And for everyone listening, thank you for the work that you do. I just know that someone, you know, 10 years from now is going to look back on their time as a student and they’re going to be better off and recognize that you are a part of that, that you help them make better decisions, you invested in them and using all these strategies we talked about today. And at the time when they’re in school, you know, we’re like the drug guy and the drug lady and we get these weird titles, but it’s all this stuff that they’ll look back on and who knows, maybe we’ll have another Leanne who is going into this field and you are a part of making that happen. So keep up the incredible work, keep working together and stay in touch. And then we’ll see you next Monday for another episode of the Drug Prevention Power Hour.