Hope and Beyond Mental Health Matters

In recognition of Red Ribbon Week, Hope and Beyond-Mental Health Matters was created to be a community-wide webinar held on October 26, 2021. The event was planned by our Stop Tigard Underage Drinking and Drug Use (STUDD) students . The students identified the need to address mental health and wellness due to an increase in drinking and drug use as a coping mechanism during the pandemic.  We set several goals for our activities:

Address mental health and substance use awareness

Build a safe school environment where everyone feels welcome

Educate and raise awareness concerning use of alcohol, marijuana, and vaping and other drugs/Help students understand how to cope with stress and anxiety

Decrease stigma around mental health/Build support system for all students and help reduce alcohol and drug use

In addition, Tigard Turns the Tide Coalition provided resources and educational materials including prevention videos featuring Dr. Amy Stoebe, a clinical child and adolescent psychologist. The project was introduced to the school’s health classes. Some students created posters  which were placed around the school.  And, the STUDD students created a social media campaign. 

 Links: Videos by students: http://www.tigardturnsthetide.org/hope-and-beyond and webinar presentation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6EAd6TBiiI

Underage drinking continues to be the number one concern in our community. Other issues, such as vaping and other drug use is also on the rise. Our Healthy Teens data shows an increase in use of alcohol, tobacco and marijuana for our 8th and 11th grade students from 2018 to 2020.

Our students participate in the state survey every 2 years. Here is a link to our County data for 2020 https://www.oregon.gov/oha/PH/BIRTHDEATHCERTIFICATES/SURVEYS/Documents/SHS/2020/Reports/County/Washington%20County.pdf

• Work closely with the Tigard Police Department to enforce underage drinking laws.

• Unforeseen difficulties when planning our activity
• Adapting to conducting a virtual activity
• Change in organizational structure or staff

We were very fortunate to be able to reach out for help from our School District and Tigard High Administrators, teachers and students. Because of their help and investment in the project, we were successful in reaching over 300 students and adults within our community.

• Prevention-related webinars
• StopAlcoholAbuse.gov website
• Communities Talk website
• Communities Talk planning guides
• Communities Talk toolkits
• Communities Talk social media content (e.g., Facebook, Twitter)
• Communities Talk support staff

This activity was youth driven as explained in the description of the activity. We did involve school administrators, leaders and staff, parents, city and county government, Tigard Turns the Tide Coalition leaders, parents, business owners, Tigard Police Dept., and the community at-large.

Because of Covid, we had to limit our in person opportunities. We worked around it by meeting at the park and in open spaces outside to plan and film our videos. We held several zoom meetings with students in the evening and on the weekend to do the planning. We also did our webinar on line with the help of the Tigard-Tualatin School District so that we could increase the attendance.