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\u201cThe Alliance for Better Communities serves Jefferson County, New York,\u201d said the coalition\u2019s Project Director\u00a0Anita Seefried-Brown.<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cThe economy has always been heavily supported by agriculture, particularly dairy farming and by some of the oldest paper mills in the state. Jefferson County is located at the east end of Lake Ontario, a region of New York called the \u2018North Country.\u2019 Thousands of international tourists visit the area during the summer months, bringing a much-needed economic boost to the local economy; however, the tourism boom is accompanied by a darker side in which some bars and restaurants relax safe-alcohol-server guidelines, often resulting in public drunkenness and fighting as well as increased drunk-driving and drunk-boating incidents.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIn addition, Fort Drum, home of the United States Army\u2019s 10e<\/sup>\u00a0Mountain Division, the most deployed division since the start of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, is located with the borders of Jefferson County,\u201d said Seefried-Brown. \u201cAccording to the American Community Survey, between 2013-2017, 21.1% children in Jefferson County were living below poverty level. The area is also a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) with drugs, including heroin and fentanyl, flowing into the County. Moreover, numerous wineries, distilleries, off-and on-premise alcohol establishments and microbreweries operate in the county, a situation that creates high availability, social access to alcohol, favorable attitudes and lowered perceptions of risk and harm toward alcohol use.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Alliance for Better Communities evolved from the unfunded Rapid Response Coalition, which was established in 2012 in response to the synthetic drug crisis,\u201d said Seefried-Brown. \u201cDuring efforts to address this problem, other drug-related conditions negatively impacting the community came to light, including youth alcohol, prescription drug and other substance use.\u00a0\u00a0On October 2, 2012, after successfully working with the Jefferson County Legislature to sign into law a local ordinance banning the sale, possession and distribution of synthetic drugs, the Rapid Response Coalition decided to continue its operations as the Alliance for Better Communities to re-focus its efforts toward two prioritized problems: prescription drug misuse and overdose prevention and youth alcohol use. In 2014, SAMHSA provided the coalition with Drug-Free Communities funding.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe Alliance for Better Communities learned from various sources, such as the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), that up to 17% of senior citizens might be affected by alcohol and prescription-drug use and misuse, that they are often undiagnosed and that they often go untreated,\u201d said Seefried-Brown. \u201cAlso, an online and hardcopy survey directed to youth in grades 7 \u2013 12 called\u00a0Youth Medicine Survey<\/em>\u00a0revealed that 74.2% of youth, when asked \u2018How did you get prescription medications that were not prescribed to you?\u2019<\/em>reported they obtained drugs at home, and 16.5% reported they got them from grandparents\u2019 or other relatives\u2019 homes. After brainstorming how best to bring vital awareness and education to seniors in the places they live, the\u00a0Health Sense for Seniors\u00a0program was born.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOnce we discussed these findings at a coalition meeting, other member agencies provided information to support the need for this program,\u201d said Seefried-Brown. \u201cThe Attorney General\u2019s office stated that senior citizens are the preferred target for online and telephone scams; a pharmacist indicated that many seniors have trouble managing their prescriptions, especially opioid-based prescriptions; the representative from the Jefferson County Office of the Aging stated that many seniors are not fully aware of the plethora of services offered to persons age 65 and older.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Alliance partnered with the management and administration of senior citizen centers to present an 80-minute presentation,\u201d said Seefried-Brown. \u201cOnce the program segments were finalized and the housing centers confirmed, we invited local media to cover at least the first event, to bring broader awareness about this issue to the wider Jefferson County community. We confirmed 13 senior citizen sites and a total of 250 seniors attended the programs.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cDuring these presentations, it became apparent that older adults living in high rise buildings engage in drug-seeking behaviors and will bully their neighbors into sharing their prescription pain medications,\u201d said Seefried-Brown. \u201cAdditionally, seniors reported that adult children, grandchildren, or caretakers have bullied them into giving up their pain medications or have stolen their medications. A call to the adult protective unit also revealed a spike in elder abuse allegedly connected to adult children or grandchildren demanding prescription pain relievers, especially among senior citizens who were hospitalized.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe goal of Health Sense for Seniors program was\u00a0to bring\u00a0education and awareness to seniors in four segments,\u00a0in the familiar context of their housing complexes,\u201d said Seefried-Brown. \u201cFirst, a certified prevention professional provided the alcohol and prescription- medication portion, with an emphasis on pain medications, recognizing signs and symptoms of abuse and safe medicine storage and disposal. At the conclusion, each participant received a\u00a0free\u00a0medication lock box. Next, a pharmacist answered specific questions about potential medication interactions. Participants were invited to bring their medications to the event, and the pharmacist checked medications for potential interactions and outdated prescriptions. Then, a representative from the Attorney General\u2019s office provided information about how to protect against phone and internet scams, and how to protect against identify theft. Finally, a representative from the Jefferson County Office for the Aging provided information about available services and programs and how to access these services.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhile we delivered the\u00a0Health Sense for Seniors\u00a0programs throughout Jefferson County, each program had its own feel depending on the level of base knowledge, participation and feedback from the attendees,\u201d said Seefried-Brown. \u201cSome seniors struggled with the idea that prescription pain medications are potentially addictive because they were prescribed by their doctor. While most seniors used the same pharmacy for all their prescriptions, many felt that they were not fully informed about potential medication interactions. The pharmacists who delivered the second part of the program, all employed by a locally owned pharmacy, indicated that they will revisit their education policies regarding this issue. Although the Attorney General\u2019s office\u2019s topic pertained to online and phone scams, the assistants to the Assistant Attorney General in Charge were drilled about a wide range of topics.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe Alliance for Better Communities will continue to foster positive relationships with senior citizen centers for the purpose of bringing further education and awareness events, and to partner with individual seniors about becoming partners in prevention,\u201d said Seefried-Brown. \u201cWe are also\u00a0planning to attend the CADCA Mid-Year Training Institute, and I hope to learn strategies on utilizing senior citizens\u2019 knowledge and wisdom in becoming essential partners in youth alcohol and substance use prevention\u2014perhaps matching seniors with youth somewhat similar to the Big Brother\/Big Sister program.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cThe Alliance for Better Communities serves Jefferson County, New York,\u201d said the coalition\u2019s Project Director\u00a0Anita Seefried-Brown.\u00a0\u201cThe economy has always been<\/p>","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":13462,"template":"","resource_type":[281],"drug_specific_issues":[],"action_to_do":[],"class_list":["post-17197","resource","type-resource","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","resource_type-coalitions-online"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n