Building a Healthier Life Without Vaping and Nictotine – with Darian Graells, BA, CPS, Prevention Program Supervisor

0:00:00
♪♪

0:00:07
8:22 97.3 WZBG. Our monthly visit focusing on a specific topic with the folks from the McCall Behavioral Health Network. What a welcome to the broadcast this morning, Darian Grells, who’s been with us before, and she’s in a capacity this morning as a prevention program supervisor with McCall talking about their commitment to wellness and a tobacco-free campus.

0:00:29
Let’s start with that Darian. What does that mean for McCall? Yeah good morning Dale I’m really excited to be here today.

0:00:37
So tobacco-free agency means that all staff clients and visitors who kind of visit our premises are not permitted to use tobacco but this also means that we’re encouraging our clients to also kind of engage in whole person recovery and kind of really be in a space where their health is being supported the environment is you know is just all about supporting their physical, mental, and emotional health.

0:01:05
So with a tobacco-free campus, this comes within the line that really all substances that can cause a dependency, and given the mission of what McCall is about anyway, this just makes good common sense toward your end game here.

0:01:21
Yes, 100%, all about like investing in a person and supporting their whole person recovery. But we about like investing in a person and supporting their whole person recovery. But we also know that when a person is quitting all substances at once, their terms and like end goal for their recovery outcome, it increases. So they have better successes for long-term recovery if they quit all substances at once.

0:01:45
When we talk about tobacco, you know, I’ve been doing interviews for years with you folks from McCall, and we’ve hit some pretty heavy topics. Fentanyl, heroin, alcohol, personal trauma.

0:02:02
Tobacco seems like a minor player in all this, but it’s really part and parcel, isn’t it?

0:02:04
Yeah, it definitely plays a huge impact. I would say, especially for our youth and adolescents in the community, we run different groups at various schools within Litchfield County in general. And we see that on both ends of the spectrum.

0:02:24
The big tobacco companies, how they’re targeting youth specifically within their marketing, but then from the youth perspective of like how they’re truly being impacted by this and like the degree of misinformation that truly exists around vaping and part of what we do in prevention specifically is just providing that education and awareness and kind of empowering the kids to make healthy choices and decisions for themselves.

0:02:42
When we talk about vaping, there’s long been that myth out there that it is not harmful, that this is somehow a safe alternative to tobacco cigarettes and the like, but that’s not the case is it?

0:02:58
It’s not the case for people who weren’t smokers initially. I think that vaping was kind of created as a harm reduction device specifically for adult smokers initially. I think that vaping was kind of created as a harm reduction device, specifically for adult smokers. But unfortunately, we’ve seen kind of a change in the trajectory. And we’re seeing a lot of youth becoming

0:03:15
dependent on nicotine. And we know that their brains are still fully, they’re not fully developed until age 25. So specifically with nicotine, it impacts the parts of the brain that are responsible like for mood control, learning, attention span, regulation, and all sorts of different things like that.

0:03:25
So really educating the kids and giving them those snippets of information that allows them to think deeper and and really you know think about their choices and if this is setting them up for long-term success in the future. And a lot of the times it’s successful just providing those points of education. Like the word vapor was very intentionally selected.

0:03:52
There’s nothing about water that is in that product. If anything, it’s more compared to like an aerosol can, hairspray, air freshener. There’s nothing that’s really clean about ingesting, you know, various chemicals that are composed to create different flavors and have different effects on people. So it’s definitely concerning.

0:04:15
Vaping is not new. And I remember our local school district right down the road here, you know, having gatherings of students and parents and trying to get out the truth about vaping. It sounds like we still got some work to do here. Yes, I think

0:04:28
there’s always going to be continuous work, but we love to educate and provide awareness to people. Here at McCall, we offer, you know, family recovery support. We offer, you know, youth and adolescent support. So there’s lots of different kind of places along the continuum of support and health that we can help provide people. Even if it’s just with education and truly wanting to break down like what what is a vape, we can do we can do that 100%.

0:04:55
And when it comes to teens, they talk amongst themselves. You’ve got a case in point about a teen and what a strong factor, strong peer support is in this fight.

0:05:06
Yeah, it was actually really inspiring and we had a teen in one of our support groups that kind of made the choice to quit all of their substances at once, which you know it goes back to that initial topic that we talked about, whole person recovery, and they were met with ample support and like from their peers and it was just it’s awesome to see that because a lot of parents may think that, you know this is a super concerning thing.

0:05:29
Everybody is vaping. If my kid is vaping, you know their friends are just going to encourage it and continue it. But it’s actually really amazing to see the teens hold each other accountable and really just like they do different things.

0:05:42
Like sometimes they’ll pay one of my students like would pay a dollar each time they were tempted to like hit a vape, but that held them accountable. And like that’s, it’s just like, it’s different what works for each person. And so it’s, it’s really heartwarming to see them just come together and support one another.

0:05:58
And like you said, too, we were talking a little bit before the interview and there’s a quote that’s worth remembering that connection is the opposite of addiction and that we need those connections because they help reinforce our well-being which can help us get past the substance addiction because you don’t need it so much anymore when you’ve got the support of those around you.

0:06:18
100% it’s also about like connecting with people that are experiencing similar challenges as you and just hearing like how they give advice to each other and how they support each other with things that they’ve experienced It’s it’s really really amazing to see a lot of kids are off school.

0:06:35
So they may not be in school and maybe hearing this broadcast or parents may be hearing it as well a message to families when we talk about tobacco when when we talk about vaping. Just a final statement or a summation in giving folks the tools to get past this stuff.

0:06:51
Yeah, I would say for parents, not every kid is vaping, but definitely talk to your kids like early and often about your expectations and the harms that substance use can have on a developing brain. It’s also a reminder that a lot of kids are making good choices and they support each other, you know, when they are in the process of making a change. But then reach out to us at McCall if you need any support. If you’re trying to quit nicotine or tobacco or you’re concerned about a teen or a peer or a friend, visit our website, give us a call.

0:07:22
We’ll be more than happy to figure out how we can support you. Darian, great having you on the show.

0:07:28
Appreciate your time and best to everyone at McCall Behavioral Health. Thank you so much, Dale. Have a great day. Darian Groves is a Prevention Program Supervisor with the McCall Behavioral Health Network and again they’ve got Supervisor with the McCall Behavioral Health Network and again they’ve got lots of great information to help you along in these matters.