Opiates bind to receptors in the human brain and spinal cord, blocking pain and causing feelings of well-being. They’re legally prescribed for people in serious pain caused by surgeries, injuries and cancer.
They’re also highly addictive, and thus dangerous. People who become addicted to opioids become obsessed with getting more.
Legally prescribed opioid medicines – and of course illegal opioids like heroin and fentanyl – can cause addiction, overdose and death. Confronted with what has become a well-documented epidemic, the state of Georgia is fighting back with a program called Sources of Strength (SOS).
The Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (DBHDD) is partnering with the Georgia Department of Education (GaDOE) and the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS), to implement SOS in Georgia’s middle and high schools.
“This partnership between state agencies and dozens of communities across Georgia is one of the most comprehensive and coordinated efforts to implement SOS in the nation,” explained Scott LoMurray, developer of the program. The state will have 30 trainers certified for the SOS curriculum, with the goal to start conducting local training as early as January 2020.
Aimed for implementation in more than 60 schools, SOS will be the latest and largest effort by DBHDD’s State Opioid Response, an initiative within the department’s Office of Behavioral Health Prevention tasked with combatting Georgia’s opioid crisis.
“We hope that these efforts will empower our youth to resist the misuse of substances like opioids, and help reduce the spread of this crisis,” said Brian K. Le, senior coordinator of DBHDD’s Statewide Opioid Response initiative. “SOS will help youth gain coping skills and increase their resiliency to the stressors of everyday life,” he added.
The SOS curriculum includes training youth to build skills to resist and protect themselves against pressures and temptations to misuse substances like opioids. It also encourages them to interact and connect with their peers.
The Division of Family and Children Services’ (DFCS) Prevention and Community Support Section is committed to increasing the availability of Sources of Strength to Georgia’s youth as a form of primary prevention of not only substance abuse, but also suicide, bullying, and other forms of interpersonal violence.
SOS promotes protective factors in middle and high school students by promoting youth leadership and developing appropriate interpersonal relationships.
“Through my role on Georgia’s Youth Suicide Task Force, it became apparent that there was a need for a focus on prevention services to decrease the rising youth suicide rate,” said DFCS Deputy Section Director Deborah Chosewood. “This partnership with GaDoE and DBHDD is a way for us to collaborate to address the needs of young people across the state.”
