Pubdate: Mon, 17 Jan 2005
Source: Register-Guard, The (OR)
Copyright: 2005 The Register-Guard
Contact:  http://www.registerguard.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/362
Author: Time Christie, The Register-Guard
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

BOOKLET COUNSELS YOUNG MINDS

While volunteering as an addiction counselor at the Serbu Youth Campus, 
Gordie Albi realized that the kids there had no clue how drugs were 
affecting their still-developing gray matter.

So with help from a couple of Serbu counselors, Albi set about writing an 
illustrated booklet, in prose that kids could understand but didn't 
condescend, explaining the inner workings of their brains and how drugs 
affect their thinking.

"It speaks directly to kids in language they understand," she said. "This 
book isn't going to cure anybody. All it can do is plant the seeds. They 
have a right to know about their brain."

Now the 48-page booklet, titled "Between Your Ears: A Guide to Living," is 
gaining national attention among addiction counselors, academics and educators.

A South Eugene High School teacher ordered 50 copies for her freshman 
health class. A university professor in Colorado bought 30 for an 
introduction to pharmacology class. And the National Association of 
Addiction Professionals is negotiating a deal with Albi to market the 
booklet to its members.

Perhaps most important, the kids at the Serbu lockup, whose criminal 
misdeeds are often entangled in illegal drugs, like it.

"I actually wanted to read it because I could understand it - it wasn't 
like a science book," said Chelsea, a sweet-faced 17-year-old with blonde 
pigtails. She's been at Serbu for a month for a probation violation and 
possession of drugs, and is waiting for a spot to open up in a drug 
treatment program.

"It taught me a lot about my brain, like how there's neurotransmitters that 
transmit chemicals in the brain to other parts of your body," she said.

Paul, a 16-year-old who gets out of Serbu after a month-long stint for 
probation violation, liked the book's straight-forward approach to the 
brain and drugs.

"It gives you the facts and leaves it up to you to make a choice," he said.

After Albi started volunteering at Serbu, she wanted to find a way to 
educate and support kids who were struggling with addiction. Collaborating 
with Serbu staff counselors Becky Watts and Greg Burns, they developed a 
16-session course on alcohol and drugs and their effect on the adolescent 
brain. The only thing the course was lacking was a text. She couldn't find 
one, so she wrote one.

"Kids don't know about their brains," she said. "How can they be expected 
to control their brains if they don't know about it."

It took her about three months to write it with help from Watts and Burns. 
She made a point not to be judgmental, but rather to present facts about 
how adolescent drug use can "re-wire" the brain forever.

"I tell them why they act the way they do," she said. "They like it because 
it's in their language. It's challenging. It's not insulting them. Most of 
the stuff in prevention is so pat and prettied up and that is kind of 
insulting to kids."

The Siletz Indian Tribe provided a $4,000 grant to print 2,000 copies. Albi 
put up some of her own money to have an extra 1,500 copies printed. The 
cover features an extreme close-up photograph of the brain, lobes, veins 
and all.

"Kids like ooey gooey," she said. "They like being repulsed."

While the booklet was put into use at Serbu, Albi had bigger ambitions for 
the publication. She took copies to a conference for addiction 
professionals last spring and soon word began to spread.

Anne Hatcher, director of the Center for Addiction Studies at Metropolitan 
State College of Denver, bought five copies of the booklet at the 
conference and then 25 more after getting a positive response from her 
students.

Hatcher said she liked the illustrations of the brain and neurotransmitters 
and plans to use it in her pharmacology classes.

"Most of our society is visual when they pick up information," she said. 
"You give them information in words and they have no idea what you're 
talking about. You give them a picture and they begin to get it."

Albi also made cold calls to local teachers. She dropped by South Eugene 
High School last year and gave a copy to Ann Hettick, who teaches a 
freshman health class.

"I said, 'Oh my gosh, this is exactly what I've been looking for,' " 
Hettick said. "Right off the bat, I knew it was good stuff."

Albi's explanation of how neurotransmitters work and how drugs affect the 
brain "really makes the connection" for students, she said.

Students also like the way the book is written, she said.

"It's written off-the-cuff, but all the information was there, regardless 
of the prose," she said. "It wasn't dry. It was real. It's not judgmental. 
It doesn't preach."

Addiction counselor is the latest hat worn by Albi, who in 1993 founded 
Amigos de los Sobrevivientes - Friends of the Survivors - a residential 
treatment center for torture survivors from Central and South America. She 
had to quit the center after suffering a small stroke, but she wasn't ready 
to stop helping people. So she became an addiction counselor about six 
years ago and started her own counseling practice, Interventions Northwest.

She started volunteering at Serbu because she figured it was a place where 
she might be able to make a difference.

"I seem to relate well to kids," she said. "I have a weird sense of humor 
and they seem to like that."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager