Published: Saturday, June 23, 2012 1:09 AM CDT

As part of a newly built relationship between the Yankton School District (YSD) and Lewis and Clark Behavioral Health Services (LCBHS), a drug and alcohol counselor will be present in the middle and high school beginning this coming school year.

The goal is to have the counselor hired next month, train the person in August, and have the counselor ready to start work at the beginning of the school year.

The funding for the new position will come from the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention Block Grant, which runs year-to-year. However, officials are optimistic that the funding will be available for a number of years. The counselor will also be employed by LCBHS, not the YSD.

If the funding did not become available, the schools wanted to at least get some preventative curriculum and on-going activities started.

Officials hope the new counselor will help curb drug and alcohol use in the school district which increased substantially last year.

“The overall goal of the partnership is to establish an evidence-based prevention program,” said Dr. Tom Stanage, executive director of Yankton’s Lewis and Clark Behavioral Health Services. “This is a prevention program that has demonstrated effectiveness. It is focused both on middle school and high school youth.”

There are several components of Project SUCCESS (Schools Using Coordinated Community Efforts to Strengthen Students) including designing alcohol, drug and tobacco curriculum aimed at helping students resist pressures to use substances and correcting misperceptions about substances; a parent program that includes parental education and informational meetings; individual and group counseling; and school-wide activities and promotional materials to increase the perception of the harm of substance abuse.

According to Stanage, the project was chosen after YSD and LCBHS staff reviewed similar programs that were already in place at other schools in the area. Staff members also consulted with prevention experts on the best program for students.

“Several other programs were also considered during this process,” Stanage said. “This one was chosen because it was one of the more comprehensive programs.”

The counselor will also communicate with school staff and administrators, and present information about the program at faculty and departmental meetings.

The partnership between YSD and LCBHS came as a result of an effort led by Dr. Joseph Gertsema, superintendent of YSD, to involve the community in an effort to address the alcohol and drug use problems in Yankton schools.

The counselor’s main role in the middle school will be to focus on prevention.

“We are excited about the upcoming position of a drug and alcohol counselor for the Yankton School District,” said Todd Dvoracek, principal of Yankton Middle School. “The main role at the middle school will be working on prevention.

“We are working hard at making sure that the right person is hired for the job,” Dvoracek added. “Lewis and Clark Behavioral Health has been outstanding in getting this effort into place.”

Dr. Wayne Kindle, principal of Yankton High School, thinks the new counselor will have a significant impact on drug and alcohol use in the district.

“The impact of a new counselor will be a tremendous addition to our staffing needs, in particular for drug and alcohol prevention, awareness and care,” he said.

Kindle added that drug and alcohol use is not just a concern locally, as it is also a state and national issue.

He thinks that it is easier for students to obtain both drugs and alcohol, which is a great concern. He also added that he believes there seem to be places available for students to have house parties. However, students do not necessarily need a house to use drugs or alcohol, which is a concern knowing that students would be operating vehicles under the influence.

“We chose the counselor to provide students and parents with a person who could address the areas of drug and alcohol prevention, awareness and care,” Kindle said. “We really believe that if our parents and students have a resource person available to them, we can all work as a team and have a positive impact on this area.”

Stanage added, “While no one knows why there may have been an increase in problems last year, part of the solution is in the kind of community partnerships represented by this initiative,”

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http://yankton.net/articles/2012/06/23/community/doc4fe5397fe80ac126284782.txt