The cost of saving teens

Trevor Dahl knows what it is like to be a teenager and still have to sleep on the floor of his parents’ bedroom because they’re afraid he’ll sneak out.

Hailey McGovern knows what it’s like to do unthinkable things for drugs, and she knows what it’s like to want to give up on life after drugs and alcohol have taken over.

Both Trevor, 19, and Hailey, 16, know that chemical health services have saved their lives.

Chemical health services for teens have been in jeopardy statewide for several years because of decreases in the school finances and grant money that they have traditionally relied on.

But a group of Scott and Carver County educators is seeking to reverse the trend, and to prevent drastic cuts in the chemical health services that still exist for students in the two growing counties, where teen drinking and drug use exceed the state average.  The group is also looking at reworking the programs currently offered.

“I can think of very few high schools that actually still have one full-time chemical health counselor,” said Jeff Glover, the community resource director for the Anthony Lewis Center, a recovery school that has several metro-area locations. “Schools have simply just had to cut budgets, and that has been one of the things that had to go.”

Those counselors, experts say, are critical resources for students who may be struggling with addiction and have nowhere else to turn.

“When I was using,” Trevor said, “I had this habit of talking to counselors, and I thought it was the greatest thing because I could … talk about my problems and not have to go to class. But what it ended up doing is, it made me comfortable using services like that. … It made it OK to reach out for help.”

Over the past five years, financial problems have plagued the Carver-Scott Educational Cooperative, which provides chemical health services to most of the two counties’ nine school districts.

Participating school districts, which provide about half of the chemical health program’s $500,000 budget, are facing their own financial problems. The rest of its funding comes from one-time grants, which are unsustainable and unpredictable.

“It’s a very tough position to be in, not knowing if you’re going to be in your job next year,” said Heather Bicking, the chemical health specialist at Belle Plaine’s senior and junior highs. “Kids who have chemical use issues, they don’t have stability in their home. So to have that stable person they can go to year after year in the school is huge.”

The Carver-Scott Cooperative started offering chemical health services to participating districts five years ago. Counselors work with students referred to them, follow up with students who are caught drinking and make sure every student knows where to go for help.
“We’re not a 'shame and blame’ group,” said Monique Bourgeois, the chemical health counselor for Solace Academy, the cooperative’s Chaska recovery high school, which Trevor and Hailey attend. “We’re about really listening and understanding.”

Jeff Theis, director of curriculum and program development for Solace Academy, lobbied area organizations and superintendents a few years ago, asking for financial help as funding sources started to dry up. The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community gave a $100,000 grant and another $50,000 grant a year later.

But that wasn’t enough. Last year, Carver-Scott stopped providing services to the New Prague, Jordan and Norwood Young America school districts.

“When I heard about [losing the chemical health counselor], I had concerns about how we were going to address these issues with students,” said Tom Doig, principal of New Prague High School, where the chemical health counselor followed up with every student cited for underage drinking. “Now it’s falling on other people to follow up with kids, and some kids are falling through the cracks.”

Finding a solution

The group charged with reevaluating Carver-Scott’s services is made up of area chemical health counselors, Scott County Attorney Pat Ciliberto, community organizers and Carver-Scott staff members.

The group has gone through a 40-hour training on how to build a long-term, effective prevention program that addresses chemical health throughout children’s academic careers.

LeAnn Mortensen, a regional prevention coordinator with the Minnesota Institute of Public Health, which provided the training, said it included research on which prevention efforts work and an assessment of the dominant cultural values of the community.

“What they’re doing is very out of the ordinary,” Mortensen said. “It shows that it’s a community that is dead serious about prevention.”

Some members of the group also plan to address how — or whether — the prevention program can be funded.
For Trevor Dahl, who used school counselors to become comfortable with treatment, the loss of the counselors to area schools would be regrettable.

“Sometimes, just planting the seed that 'Maybe recovery is an option for you’ — or that 'Maybe talking to a counselor isn’t so bad,’ it could change someone’s whole life,” he said. “And it definitely did for me.”

Emily Johns • 952-882-9056