Emily is a high school senior at Wyoming Valley West. After she lost a friend to suicide earlier this year, the tragedy prompted her to hold a benefit concert to help support the non-profit organization To Write Love on Her Arms.

"To Write Love On Her Arms [is] an international organization that provides counseling and assistance to teenagers suffering with depression, addiction or self-mutilation issues."

The benefit was scheduled to be held at an area jazz café, and Emily said she hoped that at least 150 attendees would be on hand to support the bands and the organization. Source: Times Leader News

Labels: counseling, prevention, suicide

Yoga and troubled youth are two terms that few people would put together. But the Denver (Colorado) Children's Home has, and it's getting great results.

"Thirteen-year-old Jatay Phillips had never tried yoga before. She's dealing with anger issues while at the Denver Children's Home. Phillips says yoga helps her control her temper. 'Yoga, it relaxes me and there's not so many things rushing through my mind,' said Phillips."

Chris Bradford, a 17-year-old former gang member, said yoga had helped him learn how to handle stress. Dr. Ann Bortz, a psychologist with the Denver Children's Home, said students in the home have been more relaxed, and facility has experienced fewer discipline problems, since the yoga program was started. Source: 9News

Mount Bachelor Academy, a private boarding school for troubled teens in Oregon, offers mindful meditation to support attention and executive function/brain development. Learn more at http://www.mtba.com/yoga.html.

Labels: exercise, peace, yoga

The National Institute of Drug Abuse estimates that teenagers and young adults are the largest groups currently using prescription medication for recreational purposes. In NIDA's most recent survey on teens and drugs, 36 percent of high school seniors admitted to having used drugs at least once in the previous 12 months.

"Many adults.... may not realize that it could be poor judgment to leave those medications accessible around the home. For example, a teen's mother just returned home after having surgery. That teen knows her mother is taking a pain reliever called OxyContin. When no one is looking, the teen gets into the bottle and gets a couple of pills. No one is the wiser."

Pain relievers, stimulants, sedatives and tranquilizers are the most commonly misused and abused prescription drugs. Parents need to keep prescription medications locked up, and should observe their teens for common indicators of a drug or alcohol problem. Source: The Purell Register


Learn everything you want to know (and some things you might not want to know) about prescription drug abuse at http://www.teenoverthecounterdrugabuse.com.

Labels: addictions, medications, prescription_drug_abuse

A young girl recently wrote to a local advice column seeking guidance about her friend. "Emma," as the friend was referred to, is 14 years old and like a little sister to the writer. But Emma had recently begun hanging out with 18- and 19-year-old boys who let her drink and smoke pot. "What should 'big sis' do?" the writer asked.

"Tell Emma's mother now. Because Emma's father is an alcoholic, she already has the predisposition to become one. The longer you procrastinate, the greater her chances of getting into serious trouble - and face it, she's already well on her way."

It's not always easy to do what's best for friends, but making difficult decisions such as this is an important part of friendship. Sometimes teens have to act in a manner that will make a friend mad now, but will benefit her in the long run. Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Labels: addictions, girls, peers

Seattle has long had a problem with teenage prostitution, as have many other cities across the United States. But a recent report has shown that the Washington city provides little or no help to girls who want to get off the streets and into a better life.

"Safe housing for girls to escape violent and domineering pimps: nonexistent. Outreach programs: understaffed. Substance abuse and mental health counselors: untrained to address these teens. 'I don't even know how to ask them these questions,' one social worker admitted."

The report's author, Debra Boyer, held a forum in Seattle in which she revealed the results that were gathered from case studies and police reports. Boyer emphasized the importance of developing programs and other forms of assistance that will treat teenage prostitutes as victims rather than criminals. Source: Seattle Post-Intellingencer

Labels: girls, prevention, prostitution

A 40-year study that began when participants were eight years old has produced some surprising predictors of alcoholism in adults:

• Aggressive, impulsive children - regardless of sex - were more likely to develop adult alcoholism.

• Family conflicts and limited parental education did not predict adult alcoholism.

• Popularity during childhood and adolescence was linked to drinking in amounts greater than average in early adulthood, and problem drinking later in life.

• Children with high IQs and who had attained educational status before age 18 were more likely to drink in above-average amounts as adults.

This fourth finding is the so-called "wine effect," according to Professor Rowell Huesman, who co-authored the study with Professor Eric Dubow of Michigan's Institute for Social Research. "Higher education is associated with greater wine consumption, and that produces the correlation," Huesman said.

The study was published in the May 2008 issue of the journal Addiction

Labels: adulthood, aggression, alcoholism

Tristen Hurt was just 15 when his girlfriend became pregnant. After his son was born, he started attending a program called "Young Men in Transition" that teaches teenage boys how to be dads.

"Since 1994 it has helped about 450 very young fathers - more than 90 percent of whom started in the program - complete high school, get jobs and establish relationships with their children."

Tristen and his girlfriend were married two years ago, and Tristen in on the road to becoming a surgical technician. He has great relationships with his kids and credits "Young Men in Transition" with teaching him what it means to be a dad. Source: Star-Tribune, Minneapolis, MN

Youth Care offers a residential treatment program for pregnant teens.

Labels: fathers, pregnancy, role_models