hello my name is lisa area and i'm one of the co directors of the belmont health collaborative thank you for tuning in to another edition of focus on health today i'm joined by stephanie sunderland ramsey from the wayside multi server center she is the program coordinator there and she will speak with us about two grants that wayside is administrating and we will dive in and learn about what the work that they are doing and how it impacts belmont thank you stephanie for joining me tell us about the two grants that way is involved in and we're just so excited to learn about them learn about how they are impacting this community and the coalition of communities thank you for having  me round about last year we found out about two grant opportunities both of which required a regional approach to the work and so wayside the multi service center which is located in watertown has been doing work in watertown for many years and we have a coalition called the our town youth coalition we sat and we saw very much about the community where the borders were who we were connected to already and we decided that we would approach belmont as well as waltham which we already working in and brookline who we had never worked with before so two new communities sort of surrounding us and through the health departments of each of those communities we got together and decided that we would write for those grants the st one being th substance abuse prevention collaborative that is a bureau of the substance abuse services grant through the department of public health impost m massachusetts grant the other one is a youth mental health st aid grant which is a federal grant and that's from substance abuse mental health services administration also noticed samhsa and we were awarded both of those grants one of them is purely prevention primary prevention and i can talk a little bit more about that that's the substance to be prevention collaborative also a sap see easier to say yep and the youth mental health st aid is a prevention slash early intervention grant i see one as the work that we do ongoing without always knowing what the benefit will be on the other end because prevention takes a long time to prove you prove it through data collection the other one youth mental health st aid will also have data over a period of time however that's an intervention grant a gift that we can give people a skill set a training and a certification and everybody who lives and works in belmont brookline watertown and waltham can be a part of those grants and receive those trainings for free that is good news and we'll talk more about how people can get connected to wayside to find out about the trainings tell us a little bit about the assessment phase of the st grant because you are now embarking  phase one in phase two right wrecked so in prevention work which i think is come a long way you know it's many people go to school for public health and they learn about prevention and ways of looking at things and how to judge data and how to get d to talk to the people that they live and work with and say this is what's happening what shall we do then they do it it's come a long way and been really confirmed in a framework called the strategic prevention framework and i'd say that that is been put forth by the federal government and it's now being used by the state when they give grants they require that you follow that framework and lay it out for you ok the very st thing you do is you assess what's going on the nd thing you do is you look at capacity who do we have to do the work to do the work in the community what members of the community can we pull together and talk about these issues that we're having whatever those issues might be  rd we plan th we implement th we evaluate and this is not a linear framework you can go back and forth between these steps there's two additional steps one of sustainability is the work that you're doing something that the community can hold on to when you're no longer there to do it and no longer have grant funds so you're working towards that and the other one is cultural competency i think we talk a lot about that but it's really are you all inclusive are you reaching out to people that really need to be reached out to that are not going to bump into your work in their everyday life that other people might not be paying attention to is there a deficit in their world that you're not attending to or is there someone who has something to give that you haven't asked them for yet so those of the five steps plus the two that we look at we just finished the data gathering phase and what that looks like is for instance watertown all which have done it in the last year or two and have been doing it every couple of years at least for the last ten years secondly we created a set of questions that we would ask police departments  medical providers you know behavioral health providers parents students educators and those are called key informant interviews so that's the end of it all information i also do to sticks on arrest related to substance use and we collect statistics on suicidal behaviors depression and other things that kids are going to high stress levels ok so far in the work in the data collection have you been surprised by what you've uncovered are these four communities very much like other communities in massachusetts tell us a little bit about your findings so far a sensually they're similar in some ways to other communities and then there's usually something that stands out in each community belmont's data is from two thousand and twelve so we don't have a lot of recent data and so we don't want to really go on that data so much but it's very telling and we'll look at that data but talking to people in belmont we found out specific things for instance with the latest opiate epidemic that we're all suffering through at this time belmont is not different you do have cases of overdose and you have had faith tallaght ease and the e m t chief of the fire department day for zero and shared information with us about that and they're concerned and they're willing to work in prevention for it so for instance i don't know at this time if they're caring arc and i know that the mt is our right but that would be something we'd like to look at can we get an arc into more hands of people that live in belmont and train them on how to use it  when for instance in watertown the numbers of earn creased a little over the other communities mind you on the scale of things there are not huge numbers but when you think about it in terms of human beings one person right is a big number  and we've all lost to overdose and so we're really working on that as well as the other substances and if i can i'd like to jump back a little bit sure one of the things about the substance abuse prevention collaborative is no matter what you find out in the data it's a primary prevention grant and primary prevention means you want to prevent st use of alcohol if you want to do the lady use of alcohol it's not legal to consume alcohol until twenty one years old twenty one is not a fictitious number that someone just thought of it's actually when your brain is closer to its end development and now it has the capacity to choose between right and wrong and to make good choices if you do as a prevention is we can keep child from using the later they use or never the better every year that they use prior to the age of twenty one they have an increased chance of becoming lifelong dependent by fifteen percent a year that's not a you know tried and true number but that's a ballpark so we're really attempting to do primary prevention and then we look at what are the other substances that are being used and there is no issue with cocaine although we're not going to focus on cocaine but if there is an issue with marijuana we are going to focus on marijuana and we're going to do prevention work which we can talk a little more as you can ask me some question i think we'll get to that so make sure i answer your question we're not overly alarmed with any one thing in belmont because the data is fairly old but we are very concerned that people are very happy that people want to get together and do the work so there is a need there's a definite need and belmont with these other three communities will be have equal access to the strategies as we pull them together that's i think that's good news i hear from parents all the time that they're aware that they need to be talking with their teenagers in their middle schoolers that they need to be broaching these topics but sometimes they don't have the tools to approach their kids they don't know if it should be a zero tolerance or i've heard people mention you know perhaps it should be a little more like it is in europe where there's you know some allowance for an occasional glass of wine on a holiday so i think i am sensing that parents would really like more tools in how to talk with their kids well the youth mental health st aid training that we're going to be offering or that we've already started to offer which is one of those grants can be very helpful on the other hand professional development for teachers and teachers being able to talk to parents and parents coming together and discussing with each other is very helpful things that i know are happening in belmont i know that there's already been some trainings on mindfulness and  different things that are going on in the schools where parents can partake and learn tools to have discussions with their children but my policy is never avoid the situation or the conversation with your child talk about these things in advance because one of the things that we definitely talk about new is mental health st aid is that just by talking about something your child's not going to run out and do it they're actually hoping that you'll give them some guidance kids want their parents guidance they want their parents to be pleased with them and so if you're giving your child their roadmap on how to deal with difficult situations whether it be food intake or cigarettes or how to resist things that are not good for them i think that they really to hear that so i encourage parents to find that information through books through trainings through reaching out to mental health organizations like wayside any way you can get the information there's so much information out there make sure if you are getting it from the internet that you read more than one article so you are sort of have a balance and understanding but i think that part of the work that's going on now in belmont will help parents come forward they'll be events that they can come to for instance in watertown we're having a town hall meeting we're going to do what we're all cafe style we'll be talking about the wire wire vss the youth wrist behavior survey or surveillance survey we'll be talking about the data that we received from the kids when they took it last and will be talking to parents about what are some strategies that you think will work and then we will work to implement those via facebook social media banners that we put up you know things that people can look at and see as they drive through their community say oh oh i didn't know that i'm sure you might have seen some of the the billboards at the drug take back box yes those drug take back boxes in the police stations are essential you can bring any kind of leftover prescription and put it inside of there rather than have it available on your home for your grandchildren or your children to pick up right or rather than flush it which isn't good for the water supply for the environment chief has said that the take back box in belmont is very well utilized and it's just growing where people are doing that getting the drugs out of the house  yeah the other thing that belmont has done with the two thousand and twelve youth risk behavior survey data is they did change some of the curriculum at the high school we saw in belmont that the stress levels among the kids were pretty high  a little bit above the state average so we were able to implement some ways in which to reduce stress through you know some mindfulness and we're introducing yoga and we tweaked our health courses at the high school so i see what you mean about using the data to impact what you're seeing so you know that's the great thing about belmont you have a lot of concern people who love their children and the school department cares about those kids and so they're using the data in the correct way now in terms of the work that we do on the broader spectrum of substance abuse prevention you know there's other things we can talk about with belmont and hope to talk about with the community and ways that we can curb substance use in other ways and substance use is in relationship to stress level and mental health and mental health maybe i should die and then a little i was going to say to that training perfect segue into the nd grit which is the youth  mental health st aid so use mental health st aid is one of two trainings the other one is mental health st aid the differences mental health st aid as a training giving given to anybody  adults and talks about mental health disorders and ways to use skills to help people who might be in distress at any age the use mental health st aid training is given to adults as well and those adults who interface with youth the one that really ages twelve to eighteen and essentially what it does is it talks about the typical adolescent behavior versus not typical adolescent behavior and helps people to see the differences and the judgment call would be i think that this person is entering into a mental health crisis and we teach skills on ways to intervene and this is not a bo teaching people how to diagnose or decide that someone has a mental health disorder it's a boat trip at that moment your own child your nephew the neighbor might be going through something you're seeing something different and you want to approach and say is there any way that i can assist you and there's basically five skills that we go through at length it's an eight hour training there's no way to avoid it you must do all eight hours and you become certified and every three years you get recertified it's similar to st aid and c p r in that way essentially i think that you would use your youth mental health st aid skills ten times more often than you'll use your st aid and c p r skills so the federal government is offering grants to substance abuse mental health services administration and they would like to saturate the entire country with this knowledge they would like every person who interfaces with you which is difficult to find someone who doesn't if you go to the supermarket you're interfacing with the youth that are working bagging ringing up your items they'd like to have people a be kind in conscious of what's happening around them and be be able to help you it's early intervention it might be able to get someone to the help that they need prior to them getting into a position where there may be using drugs to soothe their woes so there's a lot to it i was intrigued by the notion that grandparents are invited uncles it's not just for professionals it's not just for teachers or people who do the kind of work you do and it's what i'm hearing from parents again in the community is that those distinctions with what is normal behavior or normal anger in a teenager because we all know teenagers kind of you know run run the spectrum for emotions but what is normal and what does require some professional help it's very murky for many of us for many parents so i think that this training to shed some light  on what is normal teenager behavior and what might require some additional professional help is really will be very meaningful for the community while the great thing is if you follow the skill set for the youth mental health st aid and you've listened well and you're out there in the community you might only have to use to the skills maybe that person really doesn't require professional help maybe you say hey i'm taking a yoga class and find it really soothing and it really reduces my stress level maybe that  person goes and takes a yoga class and if that's what they get out of your interaction with them fine but really it just opens up a whole world of communication between people where someone who would normally avoid someone they think is going through a mental health crisis because well let's face it we call them crazy or they're acting weird or i'm staying away from that person we tend to isolate from them and we isolate those people instead we could be entering in and right then and there that person might be able to take a right and not go all the way down the path that they were on right to sort of learn how to speak into their listening and listen to their speaking sounds like it would be a very important distinction well an essentially the other major goal with that training is to stop stigmatization of people with mental health disorders i think one of the things we talk about in the training is if you really think about it every single human being kno somebody or has dealt with a mental health crisis in their life not necessarily a disorder but a crisis a time where things just didn't seem right and didn't feel right and they had to really think about what to do and how to do it to get to the next place and it's sort of like a really bad cold you're in it you're in it you're dealing with it you forget how wonderful it is to feel well and when you're done with the cold you say all i got i really take life for granted i feel really good right now you know so it's really that same thing happens when you're going through a mental health crisis you're in it you're in it you're in it if you could get a little assistance from people around you and they said gee are you feeling better today how are you doing because when someone has a cold you say oh you sound terrible is there anything i can do for you and i get you a cup of tea right then you fall and say oh you're done with your cold nights right same thing for mental health we want to take the judgment out of it no i think that sounds like with substance abuse are you finding that it's easy to start those conversations or is there still some stigma surrounding these struggles there is but it's getting easier i think you know let's face it governor baker came out strongly and that's great and he's given a face to this whole epidemic and there is the whole campaign called no i'm forgetting right now i can't believe i'm forgetting  that's ok but there's a campaign there's billboards and really now yes people are willing to talk about it and people were willing to talk about it one on one and it's so amazing over the past few years watertown specifically has been working with everett cambridge and somerville on the massachusetts overdose abuse no opiate abuse prevention collaborative similar to the sabzi it's called the and we've been working on it for about three and a half years four years now from then till now we were the only ones talking about it then and now everybody's talking about it so yes people are much more open to it and they're feeling like they can start to talk about what's happening for them personally or what's happening with their coworker someone who's had a loss or is struggling with opiate addiction and as that conversation gets easier the stigma decreases and that stigma is it's a barrier but it's all a perception and so that's the kind of work prevention of do we work to change the perception so that we can start to do the work of healing right because once we can have the conversation once we can own that there are issues we can work to improve the situation and again look at the data and hopefully see positive results and i think we will you know it's those grants that we work  on it's funny you know we have to report back we must say what we're doing and what kind of changes happen we file reports every quarter in the state to talk about the the things that are going on in the community for instance one of the ways you know you're doing the work is building capacity more people are coming to the table and talking about it and i ask you to explain to our listening audience what you mean by capacity capacity means how many sectors of your community are collaborating on one or more things for instance here in belmont we started by talking to angela braun and wesley chan at the health department they said we don't have a person to give to this project that you're talking about but we're more than glad to start to make introductions and support you and talk with you about what's going on in belmont and be of assistance it was through them that i met you and  hammond and you're doing this kind of work focus on health so this is capacity building the connections that we're all making with one another the fact that i'm sitting here today now more people can hear what we're saying and might come forward to do some work with us so you would like to see the police department interfacing with the fire department with the health department with belmont health collaborative with the school department and see these groups work together yes it really requires families parents grandparents kids it requires health department the school department the fire department the police department the clergy it requires mental health organizations prevention organizations afterschool programs you name it really somebody from each sector of the community needs to be at the table so civil groups you know we work with the rotary sometimes we you know there's  boys and girls club the y everybody needs to be at the table and they really do show up eventually in belmont which were new to i think that those people are coming forward so we're moving toward what you like to see absolutely yeah and i think that you have all the parts emplace it's really just about who is willing to started making the connections and apparently you and i are right right rich and we're so happy to have you we have a few minutes less left stephanie so i just wanted to ask you as a public health professional i'm always intrigued by if if funding were not a question if there were lots of funding and lots of personnel what are some of the ideal prevention programs what would they look like what would be something to strive for well prevention these days works in several ways you do less direct service work however for instance if you have a coalition a substance abuse prevention coalition or health collaborative like you do you might bring together a group of peer leaders at the high school or with among young people and ask them to help you do the work and then maybe they do a social media campaign to erase the stigma that's what the state campaign is called the race the stock market and you would put banners up that people can see as they're driving by to work but you'd also home hold town hall meetings and share your data you would work with the school department and you would work with the police department on policies that reflect the need in the community and you'd work with the alderman or the city council whoever it is in your community and you'd make policy changes that would benefit the people living here can you give an example of what a policy change might look like for instance maybe there's an ordinance for social host law so social host as one adult it allows their own and other youth to drink alcohol say in their home and they're at home or not at home they might be in california vacationing but they allow their kids to stay home they're high school kids to stay home by themselves the kids have a party everyone starts drinking they're having a great time and someone falls down the stairs and hurts themselves so now the police come and now it's known that there was a party at that house with underage youth and it reflects back to the parent that can become a really messy situation so we might have an ordinance that tells parents if you do this we're going to charge you three one hundred dollars in an ordinance feat it's just the idea that we educate you about that and then you say oh i better make a choice not to have that happen because i don't want anyone to get hurt and now i know that this is this is what it could look like and be i don't want to pay three hundred dollars right and it's on ability and at the end of the day i want my kids and their friends to be healthy something like that something as small as that becomes huge educational campaign and we raise awareness excellent well we thank you so much for coming to speak with us today and thank you for the work that you're doing at wayside and with the communities i know that belmont i speak on behalf of the bama health collaborative as well as the entities that we mentioned the fire and police departments the health department the school department our board of selectmen i know that they are all committed to having a healthier safe  belmont and we have information on our website and how to get in touch with stephanie at wayside multi service center to find out about the youth mental health st aid training my partner and i are attending one tomorrow so we're very excited so thank you again stephanie for taking some time out of your busy schedule to meet with us and we will be back in touch and we will keep this community informed of the work that you're doing and the work that we're all doing together thank you and i'd love to come back and update you absolutely we will make that happen thank you