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Explore the Connection: Technology and Addiction

Hosted by: West Chester Communities That Care with West Chester Area School District

Please briefly describe your Communities Talk activity.

Our event was an online training opportunity focused on teaching parents in the greater West Chester area about the impact technology has on youth mental health and substance misuse patterns.

How does alcohol and other drug misuse affect your community?

There is heightened concern in our community regarding the mental health of youth due to several recent suicides by people under age 25. We were able to help educate families about the relationship between technology use, substance misuse, and mental health concerns among youth.

What goal(s) did you hope to accomplish with your Communities Talk activity?

Reduce prevalence of underage drinking and other substances in community
Create an ongoing conversation about underage drinking and substance use prevention in the community
Foster collaboration between community stakeholders for continued underage drinking and substance use prevention activities

What challenge(s) did you face in planning your activity this year?

Adapting to conducting a virtual activity

How did you overcome these challenges?

Our partnership with the school district was crucial to the success of our event, because their technology infrastructure allowed for a much easier transition to virtual for parent presentations.

What are your next steps?

Expand our coalition with new partnerships in the community
Create a public education campaign to raise awareness and/or change behaviors around underage drinking (i.e., create PSAs and other promotional materials)

Which Communities Talk resources (or other SAMHSA resources) were most helpful for your activity?

We always appreciate seeing what’s happening in other areas of the country to help spur creativity and ideas for our own work.

Who did you involve in your activity planning, and who did your activity impact?

We partnered with West Chester Area School District to make the program available to the families of 12,000 local students.

Did the COVID-19 pandemic affect the planning or execution of your activities?

Yes, due to the pandemic, we had to host a virtual event.

Event At a Glance

Location:
West Chester , PA

Format:

Media campaign (e.g. TV or radio PSA distribution)
Virtual (e.g. conference call, webinar, social media livestream)

Topics:

Communication campaigns and strategies (e.g., materials development, promotion of prevention messaging)
Parental involvement in prevention
Technology Use Addiction and correlations with substance use.

Outcomes:

Reduce prevalence of alcohol and other drug misuse in your community
Create an ongoing conversation about alcohol and drug misuse prevention in your community
Foster collaboration between community stakeholders for continued alcohol and other drug misuse prevention activities
Create new resources/materials to support prevention of alcohol and other drug misuse (e.g., publications, handouts, factsheets, videos, graphics)
Encourage community and local businesses to implement measures to prevent alcohol and other drug misuse (e.g., restricting or decrease sales of alcohol at community events; conducting responsible beverage service training)

Host Information

Name:
West Chester Communities That Care with West Chester Area School District

Contact:
Loretta Cohen

Website:
http://www.wcctc.org

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