Act
Preventing Medicine Abuse in Your Community
Posted by Five Mom, Becky Dyer, on Friday, April 1, 2011
So often, parents and teachers are expected to serve as the sole influential adult figures in teens’ lives. However, as members of a community we all play a role in ensuring that teens make healthy and safe choices. There are several steps that each one of us can take to help the teens in our community make the right decision about cough medicine abuse.
The best part? It’s easy to make a difference. Here’s a couple ways for anyone — parents, teachers, school administrators, law enforcement, retailers, health professionals, etc. — to help prevent substance abuse and take action in his or her community:
- Teens that learn about the dangers of drug abuse from their parents are up to half as likely to abuse drugs. Give your teen the tools he or she needs to make educated decisions, or encourage your friends with teens to do so. Download our fact sheet for information about the dangers of medicine abuse.
- Visit DXMStories.com with a teen and listen to the real-life stories of teens who have abused cough medicine.
- Visiting the doctor soon? Bring in this fact sheet about medicine abuse to distribute among physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, etc. at the practice.
- If you’re visiting a school or if you work at a school, download free copies of the informational brochure, Preventing Teen Cough Medicine Abuse, to raise awareness among school administrators.
- If you work in a drugstore or supermarket, be sure to have a copy of the free Preventing Teen Cough Medicine Abuse brochure on the counter for your customers.
- If you are a health professional, talk to your patients and their parents about medicine abuse, discuss the dangers, and share the health risks involved.
- School nurses, download Preventing Teen Medicine Abuse from Home to Homeroom and make the brochure available to parents in your school.
- If you’re a law enforcement officer, make sure the officers in your county all have the information they need to keep a watchful eye for medicine abuse by downloading this fact sheet created for law enforcement.
These are just a few of ways to educate your community about the dangers of medicine abuse. Have any other ideas about how to spread the message? Share them on our Facebook page!
