The Power of Prevention

Learn how courage, gratitude, forgiveness, and compassion-in-action prevent violence and promote healthier relationships. Our guest, Shannon Desilets, NH program director of the Choose Love movement, is teaching essential life skills to build strong, compassionate and healthy communities.

Have you wanted to become more culturally effective in your prevention or health education work? Our special guest, Bobbie Bagley, focuses on ways to make your outreach, education and communication more fair and just by addressing the social conditions that can harm people's health. She shares how the Nashua Department of Public Health and Community Services is making a lasting impact on their neighborhoods and people by embracing shared leadership and power, intentional deeper listening, and deferring to the community to name their priorities. Together, they work collaboratively with different groups in specific, sensitive ways to address health issues, resulting in better health for all.

Emerging brain science is challenging the belief that cannabis use is harmless, especially during times of active brain development. Amid growing concerns about the widespread legalization of cannabis, our guest Dr. Kristen Gilliland shares the science and her unique lived experience to help us gain knowledge, compassion, insight and hope. You won't want to miss this interview if you are concerned about a young person using cannabis.

When communities come together to plan, implement and monitor the public's health, it makes a difference. Learn how the Nashua Health Department is leading the way with strong leadership and priceless collaborations.

Are you interested in the direction the State of New Hampshire is going with the expansion of legal cannabis? Learn what's new and changing regarding cannabis and what it might mean for prevention and treatment approaches.

Have you ever thought about what it takes to build strong, safe, and stable families and communities? Remarkably, many of the essential components mirror those needed for establishing and sustaining recovery from substance use disorders (SUD's). Learn more about this relationship in our interview with Keith Howard.

Talking with your child is a powerful way to build strong connections and set healthy boundaries. It is the first line of defense in minimizing the influence of risk factors like social media, access to drugs, peer pressure, online influences and exposure to violence. In listening to this interview, you'll gain the courage to start these tough conversations, get inspired to step out of your comfort zone, and learn how to positively influence young minds and prevent problems before they happen. Listen to learn what Cindy Pierce is doing and what you can do to help young people handle the risky situations they face.

As a result of decades of research on addiction, we know that substance use affects the body, brain, and behavior. Despite the science, many misunderstandings linger about the factors that make a person vulnerable to substance use disorder, its progressive nature, and how to prevent and treat the disease. Dr. Elizabeth Harwood will tackle these misunderstandings with science to help us make informed decisions for our families and communities.

Susan Mckeown is passionate about helping caregivers strengthen their relationships, especially couples who are in the throes of raising their families and trying to juggle all the demands. To build a strong foundation for our families, she stresses the importance of self-care and the benefit it has on those you love. When parents and caregivers have support, resources, and coping skills, they can then show their children they care, communicate their expectations and stay connected, even through challenging times.

Connection, care, and concern are powerful tools in helping people overcome mental health challenges. When we let people know they matter, we offer them hope and can help them find resources to support their mental health. Every one of us can be a resource. Helping someone doesn't always mean referring them to a clinician. Mental Health First Aid is a skills-based training course that teaches people to identify, understand and respond to mental health and substance use challenges for youth, adolescents, and adults.

The introduction of fentanyl into the drug supply has been a game changer in how we prevent overdoses. More people are focusing on practical strategies and ideas to keep the person engaged, safe and alive while minimizing the harm resulting from substance use. A key tenant of the harm reduction approach is to accept a person unconditionally where they are in terms of their drug use with no expectations or assumptions for treatment. The goal is to keep the person alive. Phoebe Axman, Director of Education of New Hampshire Harm Reduction Coalition, has joined us today. She will share the evidence-based practices behind these life-saving services and how they are making a difference across NH.

As young people grow and mature, they seek independence and intimacy. However, many struggle with forming safe and unhealthy relationships. The New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence (NHCADSV) and its member organizations are teaching these important skills to youth starting in middle school.

All behavior is communication, but with children who have been traumatized, it can be difficult to know what they are saying. Through an innovative project, pediatric practices around the state are learning to decode what these children are saying. The Institute for Health Policy and Practice at UNH with expertise from the Children's Hospital at Dartmouth bring proven strategies and resources in quality improvement science to help healthcare providers take the steps to improve care during routine well-child checks. We are excited to have Felicity Bernard, the Director of the New Hampshire Pediatric Improvement Partnership (NH PIP), with us today. She's here to talk about how this project is helping pediatric practices look beyond what a child presents during a visit to understand how they feel and respond to stress.

While the youth smoking rates have been declining over the past twenty years, there are now more youth using e-cigarettes, particularly disposable vape products. A huge driver for these youth using this product was the direct and illegal marketing to youth that the manufacturers did over the past three years. Our guest from Breathe NH helps us understand why so many young people choose to vape in this episode of the Power of Prevention Podcast.

Juvenile court diversion is an approach to help both youth and those harmed by their offenses heal and repair from their actions. Research shows that most young people age out of delinquent behavior with no intervention, by simply growing up, and diversion programs are a more productive way to prevent future arrests. Being involved in the court system does more long-term harm than good to youth.

As we age, we become more vulnerable to misusing substances for a variety of reasons. Physical changes alter the way alcohol and other substances are processed impacting mood, memory and movement. Significant events such as retirement, moving or grieving change our lifestyle and can lead to using substances as a form of coping. Chronic pain or illness can result in multiple prescriptions that can be unintentionally misused. When adult children, loved ones, providers and others understand the risks associated with substance misuse among older people, then we can support and help our friends, neighbors and loved ones enjoy healthy aging. There is an urgent need for all of us to recognize and support our loved ones when we see their unhealthy use of substances as they age. When all of us invest in the early stages and take action, we can help our parents, friends and neighbors get well and stay well.

In this episode of the Power of Prevention Podcast, we explore factors that contributed to the recent decline in NH overdose deaths and how a new grant from SAMHSA to UNH Extension can support those working in their communities to reduce the harm of substance use. To dive into this topic we have guest Melissa Lee, Certified Prevention Specialist, associate field specialist, and Project Director with the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension. She shares how this new funding collaborates with stakeholders to implement evidence-based opioid prevention strategies to reduce the misuse of opioids (with or without a prescription).

Today the misuse of substances can have lethal consequences because many substances contain a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl. Counterfeit pills look like common prescription medications like OxyContin(™), Percodan(™), and Adderall(™). Listen to this podcast to learn how young people in NH reach their peers with motivational messaging to avoid substance misuse, prevent suicide and promote well-being.

Are we getting it all wrong? Lynn Lyons suggests a new approach when it comes to dealing with worry and anxiety in young people. In this podcast, she challenges us to think about the consequences of eliminating these negative feelings and shares practical tips on helping your kids cope forward with worry and anxiety in their lives.

We are joined by Julie Nicknair-Keon LCMHC NCC, Director of Counseling at New England College, Wellness Center in Henniker, NH and Ashley Desrochers, Public Health Program Manager , Strafford County Public Health Network to talk about what they've seen in terms of supporting young adults during this phase in their development. Their work is supported by funding through NH Department of Health and Human Services (NH DHHS), who recently conducted a large population survey as part of the Voices of NH Young Adults. The purpose of the survey was to better understand why our young adults are struggling and how their unique challenges can be addressed. At the Partnership we believe when young adults have access to resources and opportunities they can explore and secure their identity, independence and intimacy, and become responsible adults who create happy and healthy families, develop into strong leaders, and contribute to a vibrant workforce and economy.

The pandemic was hard on families, schools and other institutions that serve our community. Our natural coping resources and those of institutions were not available. People had to figure out how to cope with quarantining, isolation, home schooling, unemployment, loss and grieving without these supports and resources. Existing inequities widened. To cope with the stress, many people increased their substance use during these isolating months. While we begin to open up and return to “business as usual” we know for some this experience is still with us. Others are excited to get back into the swing of things. We are joined by Traci Fowler, Senior Program Officer, Upper Valley Region to talk about what she's seen in terms of prevention and what can be done to help people live, learn and thrive again in NH.

The Partnership @drugfreeNH sits down with guest Kim Haley, Student Assistance Program Coordinator for Second Start in Concord, to discuss what schools, and SAP's in particular, can do to help students live, learn and to hopefully thrive in NH.