Substance Abuse and Military Kids

An online educational campaign is underway to help you and your military children discuss substance abuse.

Military Teen Drug Use Targeted

Concerned about drug and alcohol use among teens in military families, three organizations are undertaking an online educational campaign on Wednesday to encourage parents and children to talk about substance abuse.

The Partnership for a Drug-Free America, along with the National Military Family Association and the National Association of School Nurses, are providing guidance and scripts online to the parents of military kids about good ways to bring up what the teens are going through.

A key risk factor for children in military families is the fact that teens are more likely to experiment with alcohol or drugs during times of transition - and many military children have experienced multiple transitions as their parents mobilized for duty in Iraq and Afghanistan on top of ordinary military relocations, which happen on average nearly every three years.

"When these families are moving their adolescent kids, they're introducing another transition, another point of time where those kids can fall into drug and alcohol abuse," said Steve Pasierb, president of the New York-based Partnership for a Drug-Free America. "That's what we're hearing from military families, that their kids are under a lot of pressure."

Another concern is military teens' access to prescription drugs, which are common among war veterans under treatment for a mental or physical injury. After alcohol and marijuana, prescription drugs are the next most highly abused drugs by teens, according to a study by the partnership.

There's no research that shows whether military teens are abusing substances at a higher rate than the rest of the population. But the organizations say they've heard enough anecdotal reports to be concerned.

Amy Garcia, executive director of the National Association of School Nurses, based in Silver Spring, Md., said her son, Jim, developed an addiction at age 14 while she was in Germany tending to her husband, Ernie, a Marine Reserve who broke his neck in a 2004 dining hall bombing in Iraq but has since recovered. The injury occurred when Jim was also dealing with other changes such as attending a new school.

"Jim was acting brave and I thought he was OK," Garcia said. "Would talking with Jim about the transitions he was experiencing have made a difference? Possibly. Probably. Our children do listen and we had not taken the time to talk about those particular issues."

She said Jim is in a 12-step program, and their family spent more than $138,000 on treatment for him last year at a private hospital.

As part of the initiative, the organizations are providing tools online that parents can use to initiate conversations. Garcia said she's hopeful that families will add them as part of their to-do checklist before a Soldier deploys.

Robyn Lutzkanin, 16, of Stafford, Va., whose dad has deployed twice to Iraq, said it was difficult to adjust last year when her dad was transferred to Fort Belvoir, Va. She said she does not use drugs or alcohol, and many of the issues she's faced were made easier because her family meets regularly to discuss them.

"Being in the military is about being strong and some people think it's weak to cry. They think it's weak to talk about what's bothering you. They think you have to be strong and push through it and it doesn't work," Lutzkanin said. "It doesn't solve the problem if you don't communicate."

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Comments

[Marine Wife]

Were you in our house last night? Stretch had the first of such conversations with our oldest then.

[Army Wife/Navy Vet]

I have been trying to bring this issue to the surface at Fort Bliss, TX for the past 15 months. Being less than 5 miles from the Juarez, MX border makes Bliss an even more dangerous place for teens. I would volunteer our post and especially Colonel's row as first study site.

Here is my submission to AFAP:

The Issue of Mental Health in Adolescents of Military Families.

Military children experience disrupted lives; the two main causes of which are frequent permanent changes of duty station (PCS) and deployments. In her 16 years of life with us, my oldest has attended seven different schools (not counting pre-school) and my husband is currently on his third deployment since 2003. When children are young, moves don't affect them as they do when they reach their teen years. School administrators expect children to fall in line and follow state/district/county rules. The rules are almost never the same from state to state, and sometimes between even between districts or counties.

Here in El Paso, military children are often slapped into In School Suspension (ISS) and Alternative Education because administration can't understand or handle "children such as these." What they should realize is "these" children have interrupted lives because one or more parents have been or are deployed in order to bring peace and provide stability for the rest of society. Our children try to fit into the environment we thrust them upon; some will adapt but many don't fare as well. The latter will find a group that helps define them and usually end up in a gang or doing drugs in order to find a fit or feel “normal.”

While in therapy, our child has disclosed that she isn't the only one abusing substance on our street, and that most of the kids she knows are either a user or a pusher. While not many of the parents involved are aggressively seeking solutions to their children's behavioral issues, most are aware there is a situation. In my attempt to clean this street, I have met with resistance and downright opposition. The military police tells me it is my lack of parenting skills; the post chaplain claims my child encouraged her own assault. No one wants to deal with the problem at its root because it involves a military person of standing.

The commanding general announced that Military Family Life Counselors will be placed in many of the public schools military children attend, but progress has been slow and we do not think that these individuals are what we need. MFLC’s are even more transient than the military families they are to assist. There are no records kept and thus no continuity. The current solution to correcting “deviant children” is to pull them from mainstream education and place them in ISS or Alternatives, where they usually meet the true problem kids. What these children need are school psychologists who can address the effects of change and separation in adolescents. There are resources for children with extreme special needs such as ADD and ADHD in the public school system, but they are reserved for those children who have exhibited a pattern of behavior through "long-term observation." Military children are not usually privy to this service because they are never in one place long enough to benefit from this service.

My husband may have enjoyed his experience in the US Army, and may have made a positive difference in many countries with his service. When he returns, however, I will be asking him to either consider retirement or continue on by himself. This is the reality most senior military personnel will face, and this is a problem for the future of the Army leadership. Why is the Army having such difficulty with retention? It is because the education system and mental health issues are accumulating more stress for the families our soldiers leave behind when they deploy.

[Ann - AF spouse]

I am a high school teacher, and a parent of teenagers.

It amazes me how the students flaunt there drug and alcohol experiences in front of teachers. it is like they are daring us to do something.

The DoDDs school system had a school psychologist on campus as well as a substance abuse counselor and a support group for students trying to stop. I would regularly recommend students to them.

When we got back to the states, and I mentioned these programs to the administration, I was told they had a "more punitive approach". Meaning if a kid admits abuse, they are going to jail. Actually had one kid arrested the week before graduation for selling prescription drugs from his home.

Why couldn't he find help before that happened?

[Chris S.]

we have lots of young people in recovery and at our meetings

http://www.soberliving.com