Addressing substance use once that behavior has evolved into an addiction is an ongoing challenge that has brought unprecedented national awareness to the issue. One approach to the problem is to seek out younger students who may be at-risk of developing such a dependence and guide them in a better direction, nipping the problem in the bud.

Kickemuit Middle School is one of the most recent schools to join Project SUCCESS, an evidence-based prevention program run by Rhode Island Student Assistance Services (RISAS) that strives to steer adolescents away from destructive decisions such as drug and alcohol use by placing an assistance counselor in the school to provide guidance, give presentations and, if necessary, recommend treatment and recovery services to families.

Alondra Berrios began full-time as the KMS student assistance counselor at the beginning of the year through funding allocated by the Rhode Island Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities, and Hospitals (BHDDH). Each counselor provided through the program has at least a Master’s degree in social work, psychology, counseling, or other related area. Berrios got her Bachelor’s from Providence College and a Master’s from Rhode Island College.

Although Project SUCCESS is now in 70 middle and high schools encompassing 33 school districts throughout the state, Berrios said that sometimes people can still be surprised to learn that prevention work is now actively happening in middle schools and not just high schools.
“Even people I speak to outside of here, who work in different fields, when I tell them what I do and where I am, they’re surprised,” she said. “I think it’s not something that we normally think is really happening.”

The data paints a sobering picture of the reality however. According to the CDC, by their senior year of high school, about two thirds of students have tried alcohol, about half have tried marijuana, and about 40 percent of students have tried cigarettes.

Again according to the CDC, schools that participated in Project SUCCESS showed a 37 percent decrease in overall substance use, while 23 percent reported to have quit using substances as compared to a control group of students. Students in such programs were reportedly less likely to have ever used marijuana, prescription drugs, or used inhalants as compared to a control group.

For the young students at KMS, although full-blown alcohol or drug addiction is not something common, Berrios said that, while they are still assessing how large the problem is, issues of nicotine vaping are likely to be as present here as they are elsewhere across the country.
“It’s so much easier for them to get access to it and also hide it, in a way,” she said. “Nationally, that’s what we’re seeing.”

Services provided

Her job can mean different things, depending on the day and the individual student.

Sometimes the work will involve direct intervention services, where a student currently using illicit substances will undergo a confidential assessment of their level of use and any use happening in their family. In these cases, the family will be given references to outside agencies who can provide further help.

When not directly counseling students, she gives school-wide and classroom presentations throughout the year on various subjects, such as topical overviews, coping mechanisms for how to handle situations they may encounter related to drugs and alcohol, and how substance use can be influenced by substance-using family members. According to Project SUCCESS, one in five students lives at home with someone who has a substance-use disorder.

“I try to highlight that with the kids that I meet with,” Berrios said. “They are at that age where the family and friend dynamics are all a mix. So I try to make them see that sometimes the issues are rooted in the family.”

Locally, the Warren Prevention Coalition also partners with the program to help raise community-wide awareness. They wrapped up their Red Ribbon week at the end of October and organized a number of substance use prevention events, including a take back day for unused prescription medication.

Berrios is still getting acclimated and introduced to the school, but said the reception has been overwhelmingly positive thus far, and that she looks forward to helping run anti-drug programming in the coming months.
“Everyone has been super excited to have the program and have the support that the program is providing, and the students seem to be receptive as well,” she said.