What Makes YOU An Expert?

What Makes YOU An Expert?.

Hang On A Sec…

Recently, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) called for a nationwide ban on cell phone use and text messaging while driving.  This post is not a commentary on that recommendation.

It IS a commentary on the statistics that are quoted to show that cell phone usage is as dangerous as drunk driving.

I’m here to tell you, we’re not comparing apples to apples with that statistic, and I would much rather be on the road with cell phone talkers (not texting) than with drunk drivers.

The drunk drivers who are cited in the TWO studies (and there are only two) that tested a TOTAL of 42 people are at .08% Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) (University of Utah & Car and Driver).

That is, indeed, legally impaired.

Unfortunately, in Wisconsin, 83.8% of those who drive drunk are known to be driving with a BAC over that legal limit, and over 50% of them are AT LEAST twice the legal limit, .16%.  (Over 14% refuse the test, so the BAC is unknown, and 1.8% are underaged and are violating the absolute sobriety laws but aren’t at .08 BAC.)  (2002 statistics from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation http://www.dot.wisconsin.gov/safety/motorist/crashfacts/docs/archive/alcoholfacts2002.pdf)

Again, this is not a commentary on whether or not the NTSB has the right idea; this is a plea for anyone who thinks that it’s OK for him/her to drink and drive, believing that it’s “as safe” as talking on a cell phone.  If you can keep your BAC to .08%, evidently, it is, albeit still illegal.  That’s not to say it’s SAFE.  It’s just AS SAFE as talking on a cell phone.

But we at the Hope Council know that chances are, your BAC will go above .08%, and now your argument that you’re “as safe” as anyone talking on a cell phone is going out the window, along with your money for fines and fees and, potentially, your freedom.  Don’t even get me started about the other consequences.

Be safe.  Don’t drink and drive.  Don’t drive and then drink.  And, while you’re at it, hang up the phone, too.

Keep It Classy, Vegas!

I recently had the opportunity to, once again, visit Vegas, and I was, once again, not disappointed by the level of tackiness and intemperate behavior.

I don’t go to Vegas to gamble, eat, drink…or be merry.  Pretty much, the only reason I go is to watch my husband David race in a half marathon down the Strip.  We do have friends who live there, AC and MB, so the monotony of the Las Vegas Strip is broken up by time with them, thankfully.

So, here’s what shocked me THIS time.

First, the characters along the strip who pose with tourists for pictures are well-known.  Elvis, Stormtroopers, Marilyn Monroe…they are all there.  But this year there was a new twist.  Take a beloved cartoon character (think Mickey Mouse and Garfield), and sit them down in the middle of a bunch of empty beer and liquor bottles.  How FUN is THAT?!  Now you can look back on your photos from Vegas and remember the fantastic time you had, walking the Strip and having your photo taken with Drunk Mickey.

Then, because I don’t drink to get drunk, these posters I saw at the hotel we stayed in shocked me:

Evidently, if I got drunk, I could just take this pill, and all would be forgiven by my body.  Nevermind the fact that the hangover is the body’s way of telling me I had too much to drink, and I shouldn’t do that again.  With Forgiven I can skip the hangover and start drinking again.  Can you say “bad idea”?

The last bit of evidence that the Las Vegas Strip is not for me — or anyone who doesn’t think getting smashed is all the makings of a good time — is the allowance of open intoxicants in public.  I will, thankfully, never get used to seeing people walk down the street drinking alcoholic beverages, but worse was the drunken person walking down the middle of the race course, holding up his half-drunk bottle of whiskey, cheering the runners.

Maybe next year I can talk David into doing a half marathon in Indiana.

Great American Smokeout is TODAY!

I’m embarrassed to say that today is the 36^th Annual Great American Smokeout.  I’m embarrassed because, even though I work in the field to prevent alcohol and other drug abuse, and nicotine is definitely an abused drug, I didn’t know that today was the Great American Smokeout until I read the Kenosha News.  I know that it’s the Thursday before Thanksgiving, but, as a non-smoker, it isn’t a date that’s top of mind for me.

When I got to work I had an email from the US Food and Drug Administration, which was received at 8:30 a.m., and it said, “Today, November 17, is the Great American Smokeout.  Approximately 70% of adult smokers in the U.S. report they want to quit completely.  Smokers may take part and quit for the day or make plans to quit permanently.  Many also use the day as a chance to encourage their friends and loved ones to quit smoking.”

The Great American Smokeout is a GREAT opportunity to encourage friends and loved ones to quit smoking or to quit yourself.  Clearly, those of us leading the charge should be doing a better job of getting that message out.  Rarely does someone wake up and say “I’m never going to smoke again” and then successfully rid themselves of that addiction.

Instead, quitting smoking takes planning, and so I’m embarrassed that I didn’t do my part to remind others to plan.  But it’s not too late!  Here are some resources if you’re part of the 70% who want to quit:  http://www.fda.gov/TobaccoProducts/NewsEvents/ucm279378.htm

You really can quit any time…even just for one day.

Is this funny?

I’ve already written here about the fact that I tend to be a little hypersensitive when it comes to jokes about alcohol and other drugs.  People, especially we Wisconsinites, are inured to the impact of alcohol and other drugs, so much so that we don’t notice when reference to them is inappropriate.

Take this photo for example:

This is the latest hilarious post popping up all over Facebook.

And, you know, it might actually be humorous if 12 year olds weren’t on Facebook.  Or 14 year olds.  Or 18 or even 20 year olds.

What a “funny” post such as this does is normalize drinking for everyone, and that’s a message that is already being managed quite well by all beer and liquor companies and alcohol sales outlets.  They don’t need our help.

In a state that has:

• the highest rate of adults drinking;
• the highest rate of heavy drinking;
• the highest rate of drunk driving;
• the highest rate of binge drinking; and
• people who drink alcohol at baby showers and babies’ first birthday parties without realizing that the practice is incongruous, at best,

we don’t need more messages that normalize drinking.

There’s no great story that starts with alcohol.

~Guida Brown, Executive Director

We Can Help the Mothers…& Fathers…& Brothers…&

I attended a workshop recently where the facilitator was trying to impart the importance of drawing a picture in order to get people to support our cause.  I’m a decent writer, so drawing a word picture isn’t typically a problem for me, but the cause of alcohol and other drug abuse prevention and education is a tough one for people to get behind.  Far too many people want to deny that substance addiction is a true disease, so those people treat addiction as a weakness of character. “If she would only pull herself up by the bootstraps, her life would be better.” “If he were just stronger willed, he would overcome this.”

So, in the facilitator’s explanation, he described a prostitute crack addict who was pregnant for the second time.  His true storytelling was to point out that sometimes the story focuses on the wrong thing; in this case, the story focused on the mother, and the board members hearing the story were angry that that’s what their agency did:  paid women to be prostitutes and crack addicts and have babies.  And then a calmer head prevailed, and the Executive Director in the story (at least I think it was the Executive Director; at this point I was pretty angry myself, so I’m not really certain) explained to the board members that, indeed, that is NOT what the agency does.  That agency helps the children because “we can’t help the adults.”  And then I left.

So, I’m using this space to tell all those people I left behind in that room and you that the adults can, indeed, be helped.  We at the Hope Council on Alcohol & Other Drug Abuse see adults helped out of their addiction every day.

• A week ago our first-ever client from when our computer lab first opened four months ago came back to thank us for helping him find a job.  He is a felon, and he was helped.
• Clients who are being drug tested in our Intoxicated Driving Program are testing negative on abstinence tests — tests that go back more than three months, not 24 hours or 3 days.  They are alcoholics and addicts, and they are not using alcohol and/or other drugs.
• People access treatment and change their lives because they can.  They are being helped.

Alcoholism and drug addiction are diseases, and, like other diseases, there is help for them.

I, for one, will never give up on them.

Help & Hope for the Future: Are You Signed Up?

Have you signed up yet for the Help & Hope for the Future:  Serving Those with Substance Use Disorders Conference on Friday, Oct. 14 at UW-Parkside’s Student Center?  If not, time is running out to benefit from the early bird special!  Right now cost is only $70 to register for this daylong training that promises to be outstanding…even if I do say so myself as one of the planners.  (If you sign up after September 30, cost is a still very reasonable $85.)  Seven hours of CEUs are available for this training.

There are great breakout sessions to choose from:  Strategies for Working with Children Affected by FASD – Kristi Obmascher; Taking a Good Alcohol and Other Drug History – Michael Miller; and Coping after Combat – Jon Christiansen.  I know I had a hard time deciding which I wanted to attend.  And that’s just the FIRST session. The second is equally compelling and equally difficult to choose which session to attend: Resilience: The Key to Prevention, Treatment, Recovery and Just About Everything Else – Pamela Woll; The Role of Parents in Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment – Hugh Davis; Motivational Interviewing in Diverse Settings: An Introduction – Scott Caldwell.

But wait!  There’s more!  After a great lunch and a bonus session about Kenosha County’s Drug Court, Michael McGowan will provide the afternoon keynote session on Relapse and Recovery.  If you haven’t had the pleasure of attending a training facilitated by Mike, you are really missing something!  He’s a GREAT speaker who is entertaining, educational and just all around encouraging!  You won’t want to miss this!  And, he’ll be addressing the concept that relapse prevention is essential to the treatment process. The goal of relapse prevention is to encourage an individual to become comfortable and aware that recovery is a process that has peaks and valleys. Recovering individuals are knowledgeable of their personal warning signs of relapse and have a plan of action should these signs develop. In recovery, an individual fully accepts that relapse is not the end of the world; it’s just another obstacle in recovering from chemical dependency.

For more information or to sign up, follow this link.  You’ll be glad you did!

http://www.uwp.edu/departments/continuing.education/conferences/helpAndHope.cfm

What Message Are You Sending?

I tend to be a little hypersensitive; ask anyone who knows me.  That correlates to my work, so when people make jokes about drinking, I don’t laugh.  It’s my way of saying that binge drinking is not OK; that modeling behavior for children shouldn’t be accepted; that drinking is fine, in moderation, responsibly.  Jokes aren’t typically about that.  So I don’t laugh.  I don’t even smile.

Last Friday my husband David McGrath and I had dinner at a brew pub in Madison with David’s son, Tony.  At 8:30, Tony pointed out that many of the servers were slamming a beer.  Seems that the establishment has a prohibition on drinking before 8:30 p.m., so at that time, the staff line up and slam one down.  How quaint.  It rubbed me the wrong way, and I had to get a reality check from my husband to make sure I wasn’t being too sensitive…I’m like that sometimes.  He said I wasn’t, and he would know.  There’s something wrong with staff slamming a beer at a designated time, just because they can, and there’s something wrong with an establishment that legitimizes the practice.

On Saturday I ran a 5k in Madison where I saw a man running a half marathon wearing a Nike shirt that said, “I run for beer.”  Hmmm.  I’ve already written here about the inappropriate Nike clothing, but seeing someone wearing such a shirt really brought it home for me.  What a great message for athletes, and what a great message for all those children who look up to athletes.

Then I read the Kenosha News column “Sunday Morning With…Basil Willis,” and I was disillusioned once more.  He wrote quite a witty column about quotations, and, being a lover of them, I read it willingly.  Until I came to this:  “We use quotes to keep us from drinking. Or to get the party started. And in some cases, how we should party:  ‘Beer before liquor, never sicker.  Liquor before beer, you’re in the clear.’ It’s true, kids.”  I assume that Mr. Willis doesn’t really MEAN “kids,” but, here’s a quote…say what you mean, mean what you say.  Regardless, I can think of much better quotes to use than one that allegedly tells people how not to get hangovers.

Over the weekend I also went to Milwaukee’s Irish Fest.  I love Irish Fest; I love the music; I love the dancers; I even love the food…who doesn’t love potatoes?  What I don’t love is the culture of drinking that the Irish have foisted upon them.  I stopped counting the jokes about alcohol consumption on clothing, songs, and every other place imaginable.  Suffice it to say that the message about alcohol that children at Irish Fest get is not an appropriate one.

Please, watch how you model alcohol use.  What clothes are you wearing?  Do they advertise alcohol?  Where are you wearing these clothes?  Do you laugh at jokes about over consumption of alcohol in front of children?  Do you talk about someone having a wooden leg?  Do you ask children to grab you a beer from the fridge?  These are all ways to get children used to the idea that alcohol is a beverage they, too, should be using.  And is that really the message you mean to be sending?

Volunteers Rock!

The Associated Press recently reported that, according to the US Census Bureau and others, Wisconsin ranks eighth in the nation for volunteers.  Milwaukee ranks first in volunteer retention!  According to the report, between 2008 and 2010, the average Wisconsinite volunteered nearly 36 hours per year.  About a quarter of those were in Milwaukee.

Wow!  Those are outstanding numbers!

At agencies as small as the Hope Council is (we have 12 employees), volunteers make all the difference in the world.  We need people who are willing to help with fundraising and governance, but we also need people who are willing to help with direct service.  And we need people to do simple tasks such as shovel snow and mow lawns.

Sometimes finding our niche is difficult.  We think we have no gifts or that the “gifts” we have aren’t very valuable.  Nothing can be farther from the truth.  Some agencies need people to file, sort, organize.  Knowing the alphabet or being able to tell good clothes from bad may be all that’s needed for a successful volunteer experience.

The other hurdle is time…  Too often we think if we can’t give a great chunk of time our service won’t matter.  Again, that’s wrong.  Sometimes volunteers are needed for specific events only occasionally…perhaps the back to school picnic to staff a booth.  Sometimes volunteers are needed an hour a month, just for organizing.  Or, one hour per week, a regular commitment, to make a difference directly.

Whatever your calling, volunteer service can be a lifesaver to nonprofit organizations in more ways than one, so please consider your gifts and what you would like to commit to.  If you want to help reduce the impact of alcohol and other drug abuse in our community by providing education, prevention, intervention and referral services, give me a call!

RIP Amy Winehouse

Amy Winehouse died last weekend, and while the official cause of death is still outstanding, I think we would all be hard-pressed to find someone who is either surprised by the singer’s untimely death or shocked by it.  Winehouse had a disease that most everyone knew about, so when the news hit, there was a foregone conclusion that the disease of chemical addiction had done her in.

I don’t know her music, and I likely wouldn’t have known she existed, except because of her addiction.  As her friend comedian Russell Brand wrote of her, “Our media though is more interested in tragedy than talent, so the ink began to defect from praising her gift to chronicling her downfall.”

She happened to die a day after the horrific crimes took place in Norway, where 91 people were killed.  And a wise person named Carly asked, “While Amy Winehouse’s death was unexpected, how about a little more love for those in Norway?  My thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families.”  Which got me to thinking, why did I react more vigorously to the news of her death than I did to the tragedy in Norway?

Is it because of the field in which I work?  I do tend to look at everything through the prism of addiction, so sometimes even the most innocuous statement
sends me on a tirade.

Is it because I feel as though I actually have some input over addiction but I have no control over a crazed killer in Norway?  Again, as Brand writes, “Not
all of us know someone with the incredible talent that Amy had but we all know drunks and junkies and they all need help and the help is out there.  All they have to do is pick up the phone and make the call. Or not. Either way, there will be a phone call.”  He’s referring to the phone call that comes when the alcoholic or addict either asks for help or “the sad nocturnal chime from a friend or relative telling you it’s too late, she’s gone.”  I know both calls; I pray for the former while I dread the latter, but I firmly believe that help is available – to those who want it.

Is it because I am looking for a hero?  I try not to be cynical and prefer to think of myself as merely skeptical, but we are in desperate need of heroes in the substance abuse field – poster children for the cause.  We have myriad examples of “practicing” addicts and alcoholics, but where are those in recovery?  Our media’s obsession with “chronicling the downfall” has left us no one in the public eye to look up to.  Once the downfall is over, be it through death or recovery, the celebrity is no longer news.

I’m still not sure.  But Amy Winehouse died last weekend at 27 years old.  She had youth, money, fame, talent.  And the disease of addiction.