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Lock
Up The Medicine Cabinets
By
Marie Fricker
Weymouth
- When Julie Berenz, a student at Hanover High School, ended
her 10 weeks of telephone conversations with Louise
Hamilton, a senior citizen in her community, she wrote an
essay about her new friend’s life and background. “Like me,
Ms. Hamilton is an avid movie fan, but when she was young,
she could see two movies, cartoons, and buy all the food and
drink she wanted for only a quarter,” wrote Berenz. “We
talked a lot about entertainment, because that was an
interest we had in common, but we also talked about more
serious issues like smoking. Mrs. Hamilton said there is
nothing good about smoking, and it doesn’t make you look
cool. I could always count on her for a piece of good advice
every time I called her.”
Berenz and Hamilton are just two of the many pairs of
seniors and teens who have participated in a program called
“Ten Weeks Between Generations,” co-founded by Valerie
Sullivan, Weymouth Community Health Program Coordinator. “We
work with public schools and the elder services groups in
various towns to create telephone relationships between
elders and youths over the winter months, when seniors tend
to be more isolated,” said Sullivan, who developed the
program under the direction of the Hanover Alliance for the
Prevention of Substance Abuse. “Each student is required to
talk with their elder match once a week for at least half an
hour, and at the end of the period, they write up a story on
their senior’s life history. It’s a wonderful experience for
everyone involved.”
“Ten Weeks Between Generations” has been implemented in
numerous South Shore towns, including Hanover, Hingham,
Weymouth, Whitman, Hanson, Norwell, Randolph, and
Marshfield. The model is available to any senior center and
high school that wishes to participate. “We end the program
with a luncheon at which the elders and their youth partners
get to meet one another for the first time,” said Sullivan.
“We pin all the student essays on a bulletin board along
with photos of the youth/ senior matches, and the police
chief usually emcees the event. It really brings the whole
community together.”
Barbara Rugg, former director of the Hanover Council on
Aging, believes the telephone alliance between seniors and
students helps erase preconceptions held by both
generations. “The negative beliefs some seniors may have had
about today’s youths completely disappear after the 10-week
match,” said Rugg. “And the kids, who thought telephoning an
elder for a couple of months might be a real drag, found
they had made some fascinating new friends. Seniors may be
in the later years of their journey, but that doesn‘t make
that journey any less exciting. They are true role models
for our kids.”
Programs such as the “Ten Weeks Between Generations” grew
out of a community-wide effort to marshal the efforts of all
age groups to prevent substance abuse among teens. Lyn Frano
is the coordinator of the Drug Free Community Support
Program Grant for the Weymouth Youth Coalition. The
five-year federal grant was awarded to the town after a 2002
health survey indicated a higher than average problem with
alcohol and drugs among youths and adults in the community.
“The government looks at drug and alcohol abuse as a
community- wide issue,” said Frano. “Our goal is to work
collaboratively with clergy, police, schools, health
departments, teen groups and senior citizens to implement
programs and services to keep our kids on the safe and
healthy track to success.”
Frano’s group conducts its own surveys at the middle school
level to gauge the level of substance abuse among
adolescents. A recent questionnaire, entitled “Communities
that Care Youth Survey” asked such questions as “Have you
consumed alcohol in the last 30 days?” According to Frano,
the children’s’ answers indicated that a higher percentage
of youths in the 11th and 12th grades were abusing pain
killers, such as Oxycodin and Oxycontin.
“When seniors ask us how they can get involved in helping
with the substance abuse problem, we tell them that the
first step is to lock up their medicine cabinets,” said
Frano. “When grandchildren visit them, it’s important that
all narcotics and alcohol be kept out of sight or secured.
Elders can also talk to their adult sons or daughters about
the dangers they face when they allow their teenage children
to have liquor at graduation parties or sporting events.
It’s up to the grandparent to speak out against these
behaviors. It’s time for society to realize that drinking is
not a rite of passage and taking the car keys away is not
enough.”
Nancy
Owens, 70, of Weymouth, volunteers for Frano’s grant program
every Friday at the Weymouth Health Center, hoping to
further the cause of preventing substance abuse among youths
in her town. “I’ve been helping Lyn out with her project for
three years and I love it,” said Owens. “I work 9 a.m. to 1
p.m. copying the minutes of meetings, preparing packets for
door-to-door distribution and getting surveys to students in
grades 7-12. What I do may not seem so important, but I
believe every little bit helps when we’re trying to address
such an important problem as drug abuse among our kids. When
I was young, we heard about drug addicts in high school, but
we never knew anyone personally. Now it’s everywhere.”
Seniors at the Whipple Senior Center in Weymouth added their
“little bit” to the Youth Coalition’s efforts last year by
knitting red scarves to promote Frano’s Red Ribbon Campaign.
The scarves were sold to raise funds and were given away as
gifts at a “Strengthening Families” program held at the
local teen center.
“A book called ‘The Red Ribbon, a Story of Hope’ was the
inspiration for our Red Ribbon campaign,” said Frano. “It’s
the story of a troubled kingdom where the answer to their
problems lies in the collective abilities and efforts of a
community working together. Our goal to prevent substance
abuse among today’s youths cannot be met without the
involvement of people of all ages and all walks of life.”
Like Frano’s group, the South Shore Hospital’s Youth Health
Connection is a collaborative network of community leaders,
parents, youths, educators, law enforcement officials and
health care providers who are working to raise awareness of
physical and emotional issues facing today’s young people.
Kim Noble, RN, directs the program, which offers a wide
range of resources, including speakers addressing such
issues as adolescent depression, grief response in children,
the impact of cancer on families, pediatric obesity and
diabetes, drug and alcohol abuse, emergency procedures for
schools, cardiac health and pediatric asthma.
“I speak to senior organizations about ways that we can
‘connect the generations’ for the benefit of our kids,” said
Noble. “In this computer age, it’s a fact that many
teenagers barely learn cursive writing today. We encourage
grandparents to write to their grandchildren and send them
self-addressed stamped postcards so the child or teenager
will write back to them. It’s a simple thing for them to do,
but so important for their children’s academic development.”
Noble also urges seniors to talk with young people about
things they are interested in, such as sports, or music.
“Find out what your grandchildren are into and ask them
questions about it,” said Noble. “It’s amazing how kids will
open up to you when you take the time to listen.”
The idea of grandparents, parents, and children opening the
lines of communication is on Frano’s list of most important
things to do. “Video games, computers and cell phones are
wonderful devices, but they have taken a toll on good, old
fashioned family interaction,” said Frano. “Reports show
that sitting down to dinner as a family more than three
nights a week makes kids 70 percent less likely to use
alcohol or drugs. That’s a pretty good reason to set the
table and turn off the TV.”
For more information about these programs to help set one up
in your community, including the Drug Free Community Support
program, contact Lyn Frano at (781) 340-5008. For details on
the South Shore Hospital’s Youth Health Connection, contact
Kim Noble at (781) 624- 8000. To learn more about a Ten
Weeks Between Generations program, contact Valerie Sullivan
at (781) 340-5008.
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