Coordinator Report 2/13/2020.
Many thank you’s and partnerships to celebrate this month!
First to those working on suicide prevention:
Thank you to Superintendent Kevin Garvey of Sublette #9 School District for sponsoring a QPR training for all 60 staff in Big Piney and La Barge school districts on January 13. Thank you to Mardy Sleight and Bill Lehr for their excellent teaching. We had great questions and interactions with the group, including the feedback that staff was grateful to be taught by Mardy and Bill, who are local and trusted in the community.
Thank you to Jenn Wilkinson of Pinedale High School who taught QPR to all 10th graders over the past several months. That’s 81 students!
Thank you to Emily Ray of SCRHCD for promoting QPR at monthly lunch and learn sessions. The next one is March 10 at Big Piney Library. We have been given permission to provide food to all QPR Gatekeeper trainings, please help us get that word out there.
Thank you to Mardy Sleight for taking on a Survivor of Suicide Loss support group in Big Piney. We have approximately 6-8 individuals interested. Mardy is working hard on a time that will work for everyone’s schedules.
Thank you especially to these dedicated individuals who meet once a month to work on these issues. Aaron Preece, Matt Daniels, Jackie Downie, Randy Belton, Bill Lehr, Melissa Harrison, John Kelly, Melinda Bobo and Mardy Sleight.
Thank you to Janna Lee and Robin Carnes from Public Health, Joan Mitchell from the Marbleton Senior Center, and Sheriff KC Lehr, for stepping up to help plan and staff the medication take back event for February 26. We think that providing free lunch will yield a lot of old meds to dispose of and keep them out of the hands of kids and others who would abuse. Thanks also to Kylah Bowers from Altitude Drug for her guidance and experience. There is a lot of conflicting info out there about these events but Kylah and Sheriff Lehr steered us down the right road.
Thank you to Patty Ellis at the Marbleton Clinic for taking our materials on opioid prescribing, and making sure they meet with provider’s best practices and offering to put them in the patient rooms. Also big thanks to Patty for being sure the youth My Life My Quit (quit vaping) resources are in the patient rooms, and available to providers to hand out to youth.
Thank you to Robin Schamber at Pinedale High School for hosting a youth advisory group “Lunch and Listen”. Thanks to Robin’s willingness and excellent promotion we had 20 students share their concerns about mental health, vaping, and other substance use, over pizza. Thank you to Joey Burke and Janna Lee for participating and for patiently moving this effort forward. These kids were thoughtful and articulate and best of all, they said we could come again! Most notable comments were:
“Mental health and vaping are our biggest health concerns, we need someone we can talk to face to face about our stresses, we don’t want a referral to a hotline. We want a safe place to get anonymous help for vaping and for mental health issues like anxiety and stress. We want to be able to talk to someone without getting in trouble or having things reported to our parents…”
This group is strictly a listening group at this point. It has no agenda, no obligation, no commitment. Over time we may be able to ask them to advise on the use of social media for prevention messages.
Thank you to Joey Burke for braving I-80 in January and traveling to Denver with me to get trained to facilitate and lead Dimensions Tobacco Free groups. Thank you to Skyline Principal David Shaw for requesting these groups for Skyline students. We are working out the logistics with Mr. Shaw and plan to start groups by March. Please talk to me or Joey if you're interested in learning more about tobacco cessation. We can’t wait to start groups! Our training allows us to train other Sublette residents to run these groups. We are especially excited to train youth to facilitate. Research shows that the best outcomes for youth quitting tobacco products/vapes are when they are in groups led by other youth. This is a great leadership opportunity for youth, as well as an excellent introduction to motivational interviewing, for any kids interested in going into health care. It will look good on college applications. Best group leaders will be kids/adults who have used tobacco/nicotine and can share their experiences and journey. It is even OK to learn to lead these groups if you are a current tobacco user and would like to quit.
Thank you to Albert Sommers for keeping vape legislation alive in the House this month. Rep Sommers recognizes the tobacco lobby’s “alternative facts” when he sees them. Thank you to Dr. Ali Harrist, WY State Epidemiologist for her very thorough and quick responses to Albert’s request for info and data.
Thank you Marlene Bauman and Robin Carnes for meeting with me to keep alcohol issues moving forward between task force meetings. We are cooking up some interesting activities for Rendezvous and The Brewfest that should be both fun and safety promoting. Thank you to Mayor Matt Murdock for keeping us informed about Town Council activity on the application to serve alcohol at special events.
Thank you to Peggy Weber and Sarah Murdock for sifting through a lot of data and media related to prescription pain medication to make recommendations on Sublette appropriate print media promoting safe alternatives to opiates for pain medication.
Media thank you’s: Thank you to Robert Galbreath for excellent reporting on health care and prevention issues, thank you D. Swain Design for demonstrating her extraordinary learning curve on all prevention related media, thank you to Travis Bingham of the Sheriff’s Office for sharing our posts, for collaborating, and for his expertise and intuition on all things social media.
WYSAC grant auditors and assessors are coming through Pinedale April 13 to do a coalition assessment focus group. They need 5-12 coalition members to show up and answer questions about coalition communication, transparency, effectiveness. and anything else members want to report.
Upcoming dates:
Feb 18: Communications and Data Team meeting
12 - 1 LUNCH PROVIDED
Pinedale Library Boardroom
Feb 26: Medication Take Back Day
11 - 1 LUNCH PROVIDED
Marbleton Senior Center
March 10 QPR Community Training
12 - 1 LUNCH PROVIDED
Big Piney Library
March 10 Alcohol Task Force
12 - 1 LUNCH PROVIDED
BOCES Room 148
March 12 SPC Full Meeting
12 - 1 LUNCH PROVIDED
BOCES Room 148