Opioid money goes toward prevention in schools

Programs at Nodaway Valley schools that are conducted by Crossroads Behavioral Health received renewed funding last Wednesday from the Adair County supervisors.

Jess Petter, Kate Jensen and Brittany Palmer spoke to the supervisors Aug. 14, giving them an update on how a couple of different programs focused on mental health and substance abuse prevention went last school year.

Nodaway Valley Middle School Counselor Talli Ramey was also present to share her observations on the programs.

Petter said pre and post test scores showed middle school students did learn something from the programming. One example is when they teach about the effects of drug and alcohol abuse, the kids had a light bulb moment when hearing about how sneaky advertising can be.

“You see a lot of light bulbs go on when they realize these companies are trying to make money off of us and they’re being kind of manipulative, trying to do something,” Petter said. “It’s really encouraging that we’re deterring some kids from even wanting to try it because they feel there’s adults trying to manipulate them.”

Ramey added that teaching students these topics in middle school through multiple-size group settings assists school staff in identifying any students who may need the topics reinforced in high school.

Last year, seventh graders were the main focus of what Crossroads was doing in the middle school, but this year, sixth and seventh grades will both be focused on.

High school programming generally enhanced self confidence within the students and broadened their optimism about their future, whether that be their outlook on going to college, graduating college, or even graduating high school. High school students said attending this class helped them be more emotionally aware, think more positively and earn better grades.

“One of my biggest takeaways was the attitude change about school. For some kids, school isn’t their thing, which is fine. How can we go from school being a barrier to school being a next step to where we want to be?,” Jensen said. “We did a lot of goal-setting. We said you can drop out of school, because that is an option, but we also asked how that would change our trajectory. I did have one student who had said school wasn’t his thing, but he told me the whole reason he came to school was so he could go to that class.”