Author: Brenda Cockerham
Planning Unit: Johnson County CES
Major Program: Substance Use and Mental Health - CED
Plan of Work: Substance Use Prevention and Recovery
Outcome: Initial Outcome
Knowing what to do about substance use disorder remains one of the greatest challenges in the country. At a time when life is most dismal, finding ways to stay positive becomes an even greater challenge. The lack of mental health can be a great obstacle for overall happiness as well as lay the groundwork for other problems. Pete Wentz made the statement “If you aren’t just a little depressed, then you aren’t paying attention to what’s going on in the world.” So then, what are we to do?! Johnson County FCS has chosen prevention as one strategy to combat the issue.
Truth and Consequences is a youth program held for students usually in High School. It is designed to give them an opportunity to experience what it might be like if the made a poor decision as it relates to substance use. Even before Covid, the program was at risk of being postponed due to inclement weather or other obstacles. Many counties do not have the cooperation and resources needed to do the program as well. Given that it takes many hours and much commitment to host a live event, it was decided that a virtual version would be helpful to carry it on as well as expand it. Johnson County was the first to field test the idea.
Here is how the Truth and Consequences program works: students select a scenario. This paragraph describes what they did in relation to substance abuse. For example, one scenario might be “pills were found in their locker”, or perhaps “a friend gave them meth” …. Once they have the scenario, they begin seeing each person and agency that would be a consequence of that action. There is an average of five people they would need to see, for example they may have to see law enforcement, the jail, a lawyer, a Court Designated Worker CDW, and the judge. Next, they would visit the jobs station, they would look at the whole dynamic of what implications for their life would be, hear a wrap up summary, take an evaluation, then exit the program. Approximately 155 videos, and 2 PowerPoints were created in response to each scenario and uploaded into a virtual system by 4-H agent Staci Thrasher.
There were 39 contributors who helped to create the virtual version of TC, coordinated by FCS agent Brenda Cockerham, utilizing the advice of a steering committee made up of several participants with leadership from Dr. Alex Elswick and FCS agent Christy Stearns (the original program designer of TC). Following the event Dr. Alex Elswick made an appearance and spoke to the Freshmen Class at Johnson Central who assisted in field testing the program. Three English teachers, Ashton Ross, Emily Warne and Megan Wilson, introduced it to all of 200 plus English students at Johnson Central, with the assistance of Freshman principal Marc Shepherd and Family Resource Center director Lynn Wilcox. One hundred and twenty-nine students responded to the evaluations.
The following were the results:
Students responded about the virtual presentation by saying:
“It is a useful, interesting program. Giving the possible outcome and consequences really helped me get a better understanding”
“ I think it will help a lot of kids with their problems and give everyone else a better understanding.”
“I thought the program was great especially because you can see firsthand what can happen after you make these decisions. “
“I think this is a very good program. The directions are very clear, and I really enjoyed the number of people participating and giving advice. My favorite part was the exit message because the guy presenting went through a variety of bad things.”
“I don’t really know how to improve on this. Exit message was very inspiring.”
When asked to name one thing they learned, all but 8 out of 129 responded with very valid responses, a few are as follows:
Following the program, 99% could name at least one resource that would be helpful to those suffering from a consequence related to substance use disorder (SUD) and could name one strategy that would be helpful in increasing prevention and decreasing negative effects of addiction. Ninety eight percent indicated they increased awareness of SUD and increased knowledge as to resources, and prevention strategies.
After responding to why it was important to use destigmatizing language, 98% responded that had learned the importance of using appropriate language when talking with those with SUD to help them move forward in a more positive direction, and 75% could site additional logical reasons for doing so.
Ninety six percent stated they learned things and would apply them, that could change their behavior to deter the possibility of SUD in their lives.
Four to six students suggested they didn’t learn anything they didn’t already know.
Those who delivered presentations were:
County Attorney: Michael Endicott
Funeral Director: Jeremy Hyden
Court Designated Worker: Michael Endicott, PowerPoint by Brenda Cockerham and JC Blanton
Counseling and Treatment: Alex Elswick
Department of Juvenile Justice Case Worker JC Blanton and (Power Point)
Probation/Parole office JC Banton (and PowerPoint)
Hospital Worker: Rhonda Kendrick (coordinated by Laken Chapman)
Jail: Scott Hazlett
Judge: Kevin Holbrook
Law Enforcement:
Minister: Ben Stephens
Pharmacist: Coty Conley
Principle: Justin Arms
School Board Testing: Shawn Castle
School Resource Officer: Adam Williams
Early Intervention/prevention:
Jobs: Johnson County Fiscal Court Economic Development: Judy Daniels
Commonwealth Attorney and steering committee member: Matt Runyon
Clinton County Attorney: Michael Rains
School Therapist: Sarah Browning
Nurse: Robin Shelton
Clinton County Schools: Julie York
Clinton County School Principal: Kenny Dearborn
Pastor: Jim England
Judge: Scarlett Latham
Coordinator: Brenda Cockerham
Technical Coordination: Staci Thrasher, steering committee
Landscape Screen designer: Dianna Reed, steering committee
Background Support: Haley Pierce Interim Director Agricultural Communications and Extension Marketing Manager
Coordinator for Clinton County, steering committee and presenter for wrap up: Christy Stearns
Dr. Alex Elswick: Counseling presentations, steering committee and What’s Next presentation, and face to face presentation
State Extension Homemakers Marketing Chair: Rebecca Clay
This program was an effort to share information about the importance of maintaining family tradition... Read More
Suicide is a public concern and one of the most preventable causes of death. Every eleven minutes so... Read More