Unite for Youth takes aim at keeping illegal prescription drugs from teens
Nationwide, 1-in-5 teens have abused prescription drugs, and next to marijuana, prescription medications are the most commonly abused substances.
Every day, almost 2,500 teens abuse a prescription medication for the first time.
In Lincoln County, alcohol is still the drug of choice for students in grades 8 to 12, but according to 2010 Montana Prevention Needs Assessment and 2013 Youth Risk Behavioral Survey data, prescription drug misuse has tripled from less than 5 percent in 2010, to 16 percent 2013.
This has Vel Shaver, Flathead Valley Chemical Dependency Clinic prevention specialist and Unite for Youth project director, concerned.
“The threshold for prescription drug addiction is very low in youth. This really is a call to action that needs to include every sector of the community.”
Dr. Greg Rice, a family physician at Libby Clinic, identifies drug abuse as one of the community’s primary medical concerns.
“We have a very serious problem with prescription and illicit drug abuse in Libby and Troy, and it’s getting worse. I’m seeing that in my medical practice. It’s very important that we take steps to decrease that problem.”
Michelle Boltz, Lincoln County Unite for Youth (UFY) Coalition member and nurse practitioner at CARD helped to coordinate the efforts of Unite for Youth with local medical providers.
“Discussion at a recent medical staff meeting centered on prescription drug abuse in the community, and local care providers voiced concern about how prescription drug misuse affects the safety of community members, especially youth. I had recently become aware of the community-level work the Unite For Youth Coalition was doing around youth substance-use prevention and thought that this would be a great opportunity to connect with the coalition and assist medical providers in collaborating with existing community resources to create a team approach in addressing the issue of prescription drug abuse.”
Medical professionals, who were particularly interested in community-level trends and in efforts to gain a wider perspective of the problem, felt that law enforcement officials needed to be part of the conversation. HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, has made communication between law-enforcement and medical providers a gray area. Public information such as prior prescription drug abuse offenses is not easily available, making it more difficult for medical providers to identify patients who may be at high risk of misusing prescription medications.
During the meeting, Boltz added, “Currently, there is not an effective line of communication between medical providers and law enforcement about prescription drug-abuse. Establishing systems that maintain patients’ privacy and rights while assisting medical providers in identifying known prescription drug misusers would be a good place to start in creating a link between medical providers and law enforcement.”
As a member of the Northwest Drug Task Force, Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office Detective Joe Nagle has connections to resources to help clarify the application of HIPAA regulations as they relate to medical providers and law enforcement on issues of drug abuse.
Nagle will be facilitating a training for medical providers on how both groups can work together to share information in hope of decreasing prescription drug misuse in the community while maintaining patient rights and protecting ongoing law enforcement investigations.
“I really appreciated the opportunity to have a dialogue with the medical professionals at the recent meeting. This conversation needs to continue, and the upcoming training I’ve arranged should be very informative.”
Sheriff Roby Bowe strongly believes that a communitywide effort is needed.
“I’m really encouraged by the interest to take this problem on and look forward to working with medical professionals and Unite for Youth Coalition members to widen our approach,” Bowe said. “Prescription drug abuse and addiction has a devastating ripple effect throughout the community. We owe it to each other to step up to the plate in our own personal and professional lives to do our part in addressing the problem, and in preventing the youth trend from growing.”
Bowe suggests we can all start with simple measures like locking up our meds, keeping track of quantities and taking advantage of community prescription drug drop-boxes to safely dispose of unused meds.
“We need to get this right, We all have the opportunity to make a big difference here.”
(Maggie Anderson is affiliated with the Lincoln County Unite for Youth Coalition.)