Starting a dialogue
Community gathers at City Hall for annual Parent Resource Symposium
La Mesa Junior High School principal and mother Michele Krantz receives two different phone calls from her teen daughter after trying alcohol for the first time at a sleepover. The first call, she yells and expresses fury over the decision. The second, Krantz congratulates her for reaching out and helps her get back home.
This is a game, called “Scenarios,” Krantz plays with her children to practice how to tackle similar situations.
“We make every decision for them. We need to get into the habit, as parents, and ask (our children), ‘What’s your plan?’ It’s about practicing and affirming the good stuff,” Krantz said to a crowd of parents, teens and community members at City Hall on Wednesday.
The gathering was for the eighth annual Parent Resource Symposium, a free event held by the city of Santa Clarita to help educate the community on drug and alcohol trends and the dangers involved.
The symposium is part of the city’s Heroin Kills program, established in 2011, in response to the crisis of the opioid drug use in the community.
Attendees had the opportunity to participate in a free resource fair for parents and their teens, followed by a panel discussion with health
“As parents, we need to be more involved. We should start looking, start asking.” Brenda Tumasone, drug dependence, addiction counselor
advocates, law enforcement and counseling professionals, including Krantz, who shared her take on how parents can have a fruitful conversation the topic with teens.
Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station Capt. Robert Lewis said the fight to end addiction starts with participation at events like the symposium. With more than six overdose-related deaths in the SCV this year alone, “we need to grow this program as much as possible. We are doing everything we can, but we can’t do it alone. We need to do it with the community.”
Besides practicing conversation methods, other ways community members can help is by identifying key warning signs, panelists shared.
Brenda Tumasone, a drug dependence and addiction counselor, said some signs parents or anyone concerned for someone could look for is a change in behavior.
“A warning sign might be that they aren’t acting the same,” said Tumasone, whose son passed away due to drug addiction. “As parents, we need to be more involved. We should start looking, start asking.”
While each panelist approached the topic from different perspectives, they all agreed the first step is to open a dialogue between parents and teens.
Dawnel DeRubeis, of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, encouraged parents to tell teens what they expect from them, not to make alcohol accessible at home, if available, and to create a trigger word both the minor and parent know in case of an emergency.
For students, they should know it’s OK to “say ‘No,’ and walk away” from a situation, she said.
“We all have a role to play,” DeRubeis said, “when it comes to mental health.”
For more tips on how to educate youth about living drug-free, visit HeroinKills.org.