Early Intervention Team
Andrew Hall, Chief of Police, Westminster, CA
September 10, 2008.
Two years ago, I learned my 16 year old daughter was addicted to drugs and alcohol after she visited for the weekend, something she had been doing less and less over time.
Shortly after she returned to her home in Riverside, my wife and I were in the family room with our 12-year old son when he asked if he could get a blanket from my daughter’s room. Not thinking much of it, we said, “Of course.” He trotted upstairs and moments later we heard a loud crashing sound from the room. Our son came downstairs and showed us a one-half empty bottle of vodka that he just “happened to find” when retrieving the blanket. It was the only way he knew how to bring my daughter’s drinking to our attention.
I went upstairs and began searching the room, where I found a staggering amount of hidden drugs and alcohol. It was stashed and secreted everywhere. I recognized this was not simply a matter of bad behavior, but a case of addiction. I was stunned beyond description.
Later, after my daughter completed two months of unsuccessful outpatient treatment, I was called out to the home where she lived and found her in an alcoholic stupor like few I had seen before. The sight of my beautiful daughter, laying in this dark, surreal, toxic state of intoxication was horrifying beyond words, but it opened my eyes further and created a sense of urgency within me.
I placed my daughter in the car and drove her to Chapman Medical Center in Orange, one of the very few hospitals in Southern California with an in-patient unit dedicated to teen recovery. I carried her into the emergency room and our family began a journey that first grew more difficult and dark but gradually became easier and brighter.
That trip to the emergency room occurred on November 10, 2006, 22 months ago today. In my entire life, I’d never felt such powerlessness.
You see, I’ve been a police officer for 28 years and police chief for six of those years. I have earned two advanced degrees and I’m a licensed attorney. I am a fully privileged individual with every conceivable resource at my fingertips. I have Blue Cross PPO, friends in high places and access to everything...
Yet, at that moment, facing that evil, seeing my precious daughter disappearing in front of me, I was completely incompetent. I faced a genetic demon that had already ruined lives in my family and was now reaching out to take another, right in front of me, without any fear of me whatsoever. I was utterly and completely incompetent.
Thankfully, I had turned for help at the right place, and I soon learned about the power of 12-step programs. Of all the people who compassionately, selflessly, and lovingly helped my daughter, my family and me, I will forever be most grateful to those alcoholics and addicts, who must struggle every day to maintain their own recovery, yet make time to support the recovery of others. It was alcoholics and addicts who ultimately saved my daughter’s life. I don’t even know their names, but I do know they are real people who are experiencing real recovery and. They are people who have been called upon by their creator to help others discover that same path to recovery as well.
It is a strange irony that a program whose first step is the declaration of powerlessness is itself so incredibly powerful and empowering to others.
So, I am pleased to share the celebration of recovery with you and thankful you took this time to share it with me. Together, let’s help others recognize National Recovery Month as something very special and important to all of us.
Thank you.
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HELP IS ON THE WAY
Students, Faculty and Families Working Together to find Solutions
“Mike and his students have been speaking at assemblies at Las Flores Middle School for the last five years. I require my 7th and 8th grade students to attend. I have found in my 20 years as an educator that children will listen to a peer. The assembly makes a huge impression on middle school students. I hear from dozens of our parents about the positive impact this had on their child. This assembly is especially compelling for parents and teachers as well.”
Holly Feldt, Principal LFMS
“I have been working with Mike Darnold and his group for almost ten years and they have had the most impact on the health students at Tesoro High School. They are making a difference.”
John Gipe, THS
“Your student presentations at Dana Hills High School have been invaluable. The service that you are providing on awareness, prevention and intervention is immensely compelling.”
Robert Aristo, School Psychologist, DHHS
“Mike Darnold provides education, consciousness, personal attention to any student who reaches out for help. He and his teen panels have been instrumental in helping a number of students and parents seek treatment and begin the road to recovery.”
Cynthia Olaya, School Psych. FVH“
"Your teen panels have been an amazing part of our Red Ribbon Week. Their stories are extremely impactful. We look forward to next year.”
Brennan Dean, Counselor, Torrey Pines
Teen safety conference alerts parents of emerging drug trends
Mike Darnold, from the Early Intervention Team, talks to parents about his struggles with drugs as a young man, and the importance of communication about drugs and alcohol with teens.
JEFFREY ANTENORE, CONTRIBUTOR
Teen safety conference alerts parents of emerging drug trends
Issues such as bullying and teen driving were discussed on Tuesday.
By ALEJANDRA MOLINA
The Orange County Register
LAGUNA HILLS – Ecstasy bracelets. Emerging fight clubs and gang activity. Drug concealment devices.
Parents were shocked, to say the least, of the drug trends facing teens today. Some were even brought to tears after hearing first hand accounts of drug abuse.
"I'm horrified," said Katina D. Chopra, an Aliso Viejo parent with one son in high school and two children in elementary school. "It's destroying our children. Parents need to wake up."
More than 100 parents and teens from Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel and Aliso Viejo packed the Laguna Hills Community Center Tuesday for a forum titled "Is Your Teen at Risk?," a community resource forum for parents of middle and high school aged children who wanted to learn more about the issues facing youth.
School Resource Officer Lance Christensen gave parents a reality check during one of the sessions that evening. On display were alcohol bottles, prescription drugs and illegal drugs that have been confiscated from high schools.
"We come from an area of entitlement. This is not an inner city. We do this presentation all over the state. A lot of people that see these products out here … they go 'yeah we get it, we come from an inner city, troubled area," Christensen said. "This is south Orange County. We're not an inner city. We come from good families, good kids and yet we still get a large amount of narcotics."
Parents learned of pharmaceutical "pharming parties" where teens go to house parties and take prescription painkiller pills. They learned of GHP, a date rape drug that can be concealed in Visine bottles and of colorful bracelets that contain sponges where teens can suck the date rape drug from.
The forum was made up of four conference sessions – current drug trends in the community, teens and technology/Internet safety, teen driving, and bullying and school violence trends.
Parents also heard a first-hand account of alcohol abuse from Mike Darnold with the Early Intervention Team and urged parents not to encourage bad behavior by constantly bailing their children out.
"You got to consequence. You take away the phone. You take away the computer. You take away the car. You ground them. You keep an eye on them. If they break trust, you don't trust them. You didn't break trust, they broke trust," Darnold, a recovering alcohol addict, told the audience.
"It was convincing," said Terri Marris, and Aliso Viejo parent.
Before and after the sessions, parents also learned about community outreach efforts through display booths outside the community center. Groups that were there include: California Youth Services, Orange County Fire Authority, Orange County Sheriff's Department and more.
This presentation is a collaborative effort between the cities of Laguna Hills, Laguna Niguel and Aliso Viejo, Orange County Sheriff's Department, Orange County Fire Authority, California Highway Patrol, Capistrano Unified School District, Saddleback Valley Unified School District, PTSA and other agencies working together to keep teens and communities safe.
Contact the writer: amolina@ocregister.com or 949-454-7360
Rancho forum shows parents dangers facing teens
'Is Your Teen at Risk?' event presents adults with challenges and struggles on the minds of adolescents.
By JOHN CRANDALL
The Orange County Register
RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA – Online videos detailing how to create hallucinogens, Web sites enabling sexual predators to snare victims and cell phones acting as inventory lists to keep track of drug sales.
These were just some of the dangers that parents and adolescents learned about at the "Is Your Teen at Risk?" forum at the Bell Tower Regional Community Center.
"Nowadays kids are pulled in so many ways, and there's so much peer pressure," said Tasha Schilling, an education specialist for the Orange County Fire Authority.
The forum showcased information from a number of different government organizations including the Orange County Sheriff's Department, the Orange County Fire Authority and the California Highway Patrol.
Tables and booths held information for parents including brochures for treatment centers for adolescents struggling with addiction or pamphlets with advice for parents on how to determine if their children are using drugs.
Coto de Caza resident Megan Melsheimer, 19, who attended, said she started drinking and using drugs when she was in sixth grade. Now, she's almost three years sober and says that she goes to events like this one to help show that young kids can get addicted and that they can get help.
"It doesn't just happen to a certain type of person," Melsheimer said. "It can happen to anybody."
At about 6:30 p.m., a number of speakers – including Rancho Mayor Neil Blais, parents who lost a child to a drug overdose, a former alcoholic and law enforcement and emergency services officers spoke to attendees about challenges facing the modern teen. According to sheriff's estimates about 375 people attended.
Among the topics discussed:
Rancho Santa Margarita is a good neighborhood that still suffers from teen drug problems, according to Deputy Lance Christensen, an Orange County Sheriff's Department school resource officer.
He also spoke about some of the narcotic trends occurring on local campuses and showed Youtube videos that display how to make drugs from store-bought chemicals. He said that parents should know what teens are using their phones for, as some have used them to record drug sales or establish narcotics deals.
California Highway Patrol Officer Chris Goodwin spoke about the importance of using care while driving.
"The leading cause of death for kids between 15 and 20 is motor vehicle collisions," Goodwin said. "We take driving very, very seriously."
OCFA Battalion Chief Scott Brown talked about the dangers of street racing, especially on Live Oak Canyon Road in the canyons.
He said that many teens have died on that road. "We consider that our 'blood alley'," Brown said.
Jeff Brown, an investigator for the Orange County Sheriff's Department, spoke about ways for parents to protect their kids from online predators as well as possible danger in their neighborhoods. He said that parents should know who their children are talking to, both on the internet and in life.
Deputy Josh Money, part of the OCSD's high tech crimes unit, showed parents some of the basics of internet social networking sites that many kids use, including Myspace, Facebook and Twitter.
For more information about the program, visit www.isyourteenatrisk.org.
Contact the writer: 949-454-7308 or jcrandall@ocregister.com