The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
GCSAPP working to find more mentors, better outlets for kids
By Katherine Nettles
While there are many healthy recreational and extracurricular outlets available year-round in the Gunnison Valley, a recent report on youth across Colorado shows more local kids are turning to substance use than the state average. This is true across other resort areas such as Telluride, Vail and Steamboat Springs, but Gunnison County Substance Abuse Prevention Partnership (GCSAPP) is working with multiple community partners to counteract that trend. This includes finding better outlets for kids and helping them recognize early signs or risk factors to intervene among those who are most susceptible or already forming unhealthy habits.
In an update to Gunnison County commissioners last month, the county’s juvenile services director Kari Commeford described the department’s recent successes as well as its persisting challenges. She said juvenile services emphasize “upstream prevention,” which encompasses the GCSAPP and collaboration with the Early Childhood Council and Family Advocacy Support Team (FAST). There is also a youth intervention program which includes mentoring and diversion, and Commeford said her department has seen the need for intervention drop over time, which signals that the preventative measures among high-risk youth are working. She said outcomes are also improving.
Commeford said the age of youth engaging in family support resources has decreased, which was a goal of the program. “Right around 2020 many of our referrals were for those over age eight…now 80% are under the age of eight, which is great because we see that as our upstream prevention,” she said.
One major need to fill is getting more mentors to connect kids with a trusted adult. She said anyone interested in becoming a mentor to beneficially impact the lives of local youth can reach out online at gunnisonmentors.com/mentoring-programs/#becoming-mentor.
“I think where we are as a department right now is we’re really strong in our connections and our collaborations. We have really strong support from the school district and coming into the school year we’ll have presence in the elementary, middle and high school and a lot of support for those preventative programs,” Commeford said.
Another success is that substance use rates are trending down, but those who are using are using at a higher frequency and using more than one substance, known as polysubstance use.
“We have seen an increase of referrals to services which is positive – we can’t help divert from the court system unless they get a ticket and it is better for them to enter into our office for low level offenses and learn from their mistakes and get connected to services. When diversion isn’t used, youth often continue to make mistakes that lead to higher consequences,” she said.
Healthy Kids Colorado survey results
Healthy Kids Colorado, a state-led survey conducted every two years among high- school aged youth, shows similar numbers across other rural resort areas for 2021, notes Commeford, “but our alcohol, binge drinking and marijuana use is higher than the state average.”
Local binge drinking is recorded at 19.5% for students while the state rate is 12.5%; for marijuana use, the local rate is 17.3% and the state rate is 13.3%.
“We try to point out that the majority of young people (80.5%) are not binge drinking and are not using marijuana (82.7%),” she added. The full results can be found at cdphe.colorado.gov/hkcs
Alcohol and perception versus reality
Commeford said a major barrier in prevention measures for youth is community culture and adult modeling. “There aren’t many activities for youth that don’t involve adult substance use,” she noted. There is also reluctance to prevent alcohol use for older teens.
“There is an attitude as they get around 11th or 12th grade that they are all going to do it and ‘I don’t want them to get isolated so I’m going to let them go to that party,’” said Commeford. “These narratives are sending messages to our young people that are not the messages that GCSAPP wants to send to them.”
She said alcohol is the number one drug used by youth, and the one that causes the most harm in terms of social consequences, sexual violence, law enforcement infractions, drinking and driving and mental health.
“And no one wants to talk about alcohol,” she said.
The other struggle too, commented commissioner chair Jonathan Houck, is that the markets have responded by making substances and products easier to consume, such as flavored vaporizers and hard seltzers.
County commissioner Liz Smith commented that alcohol is also almost a constant presence in the community because of being a resort area in which people are often seen partying and celebrating while on vacation.
Commeford said that these circumstances can be teachable moments. “Teaching what is responsible adult use,” she said, may look like a parent pointing out someone who is stumbling and visibly inebriated in a public space during an event, and saying “that’s why you don’t drink too much alcohol.” Another is explaining when one parent is driving home from dinner because the other had two cocktails, she said.
Houck said it could be helpful to give youth more context for seemingly common behavior, like a group of people drinking Bloody Marys at 10 a.m. in Paradise Warming Hut while on a trip. “Pointing out that these people are on vacation, and it isn’t normal,” he said, can make a difference. “There is also the problem that we do have an oversized group of what I would call the Peter Pan folks who tend to live here or move here. They want to feel young forever,” which may lead to more party-centric lifestyles.
“That’s the thing. We have to talk to kids, to help them understand those differences,” said Commeford. She said giving parents the ability to engage with their kids is key, and giving them “seed material” to go to and have those conversations.
“Another area that is lacking is the mental health of our community. We continue to see in youth and adults struggling with ‘problems of living’ and mental illness. This can include relationship challenges, financial and housing challenges, isolation, anxiety, depression, substance misuse and suicide. We have supports for youth and are lacking supports for our 20 –45-year-old population – parents and non-parents,” said Commeford.
Commeford said that while there were a couple years of reduced participation among students for the Choice Pass program, which celebrates and rewards healthy lifestyle choices for sixth through 12th graders, including free ski passes, participation is back up with over 500 youth signing up in 2022.
“We have had some conversations about expanding the Choice Pass as a modified version, not with the ski pass but as an entry for fifth graders,” said Commeford. “We’re seeing a lot more concerns in terms of behavior and socialization and ability to have conflict management with friends and creating that sort of social norming that Choice Pass has.”
During the school year the Choice Pass program provides free parent and community presentations monthly – it will be posted on choicepass.net in September and open to all community members.
Another preventative step being taken is to introduce a new clinical case manager coordinator position this fall that will support youth who have parents who are divorcing or are divorced and/or parents who are involved at some level with law enforcement.
“Divorce is the number one most common adverse childhood experience in Colorado,” said Commeford, so giving support to the kids and educating parents on making that transition is important.
Offering bilingual services is also key. “We had a 40% increase of Latinos needing services in the last two years,” said Commeford, so they have hired a bilingual diversion officer with new funding. “It’s wonderful to have translation services; it’s even better to have bilingual staff, so we’re looking forward to that,” she said.
One question every day
Commeford said another approach to take in the community at large is, “Always ask the question, ‘And how are the children?’ This is the traditional greeting of Maasai tribe warriors. The true strength of a community is determined by the well-being of its children. We believe this is the single most important question to consider each and every day. As issues are debated, priorities are set, and decisions are made, asking first and foremost ‘How are the children?’ will guide us toward a more just and thriving community.”
