Speakers associated with Adolescent Counseling Services stressed the importance of fostering an environment of open communication between teenagers and their parents in a substance abuse forum held at Paly last Thursday, Nov. 12.
On the same night, the Paly Parent Teacher Student Association passed measures aiming to introduce a seventh vice president position as the Outreach and Diversity Chair and to assume Senior Grad Night activity planning responsibilities so that there would be no insurance policy mix-ups.
“One of the activities we had last year involved a mechanical bull,” said PTSA President Christine Chang. “There was not enough insurance coverage for that, and the executive board could have been liable had there been injuries.”
Chang continued, “One of the first steps is to have the senior activities be a subcommittee of the PTSA, so we can be more accountable.”
Both the Paly PTSA and the ACS presented the forum, titled “Breaking the Stigma: Teenage Substance Abuse,” before the PTSA meeting.
Open to all members of the community, about 40 adults showed up to listen to keynote speaker Dr. Stephanie Brown, a therapist and experienced addiction researcher for 35 years, who has founded and led programs at Stanford and the Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto. Members of the audience also participated in a question-and-answer period with a panel of experienced counselors after the keynote speech.
The counselors included Assistant Principal Jerry Berkson, who talked alongside counseling-program leaders who help teenagers and their parents in areas along the Peninsula.
At the meting, presenters aimed to explain to parents how to facilitate discussion with their children if they believed their kids had problems with substance abuse.
“[The goal of this meeting is] to break the stigma of substance abuse,” Dr. Phillipe Rey, executive director of ACS, said. “Our goal was to mainly help parents find the tools so they can begin discussion with their kids.”
In her speech, Brown spoke to the audience about today’s society becoming engrossed in a culture of addiction based on the need for speed, technology, and limitless achievement that fosters the type of mindset behind addiction.
“Because our culture looks towards limitless, fast advancement, there is a parallel between addiction and the culture,” Brown said. “Kids get [in trouble] based on an impulse to drink limitlessly.”
Rey mentioned after the event that teenagers who have trouble initiating conversation with their parents could ask the ACS and similar services for confidential assistance However, he stressed the importance of keeping an environment of open communication between kids and their parents.
“I think honesty is the way to go,” Rey said. “I know it is difficult as a teen. If you are still in the denial phase, it’s hard to approach your parents, but honesty is the way to go. And I know how difficult it is, but it’s your parents, and they love you.”
The next ACS sponsored open forum is scheduled for May 20, 2010. While the venue has not yet been determined, organizers look forward to student participation.
“We’d love to open these meetings to students,” Rey said.
The Paly PTSA will meet next at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 19, in the English Resource Center.