Robert Crown hosting open house this Saturday
When it comes to drug prevention, experts say parents often don't know how to discuss the topic with their kids.
The Robert Crown Center for Health Education is offering a simple solution to that problem this weekend by sponsoring an open house in observance of National Drug Facts Week.
Families, teachers, civic leaders and community members are welcome to attend the event from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the center, 21 Salt Creek Lane in Hinsdale.
"Walking in the door is just an opportunity to start the conversation," said Robert Crown Director of Communications Katherine Leibforth. "Whether people have five minutes or an hour to pop in, there'll be something cool for them to see."
Three rooms at the center will be dedicated to educational presentations on combating drug use and addiction. One will be dedicated to prescription pain pills, another to heroin and a third to tobacco, alcohol and marijuana.
"Addiction is a disease and prevention education is the first and easiest and cheapest way in combating that disease," Leibforth said, adding that the presentations will each last about seven minutes.
Information about health risks for student athletes, specifically the risks involved with taking prescription pain pills for injury and pain management, will be on display, too.
A mock teen bedroom set up in the center - called "Hidden in Plain Sight" - will give parents a chance to learn about more than 100 items that may indicate their child is at risk. The display includes a bed, dresser, books and other items that make up a typical teen bedroom, along with a variety of look-a-like drugs and drug paraphernalia.
Preteens and teens, on the other hand, may be more drawn to an art installation called "In My Shoes." The traveling display features white-painted shoes that were decorated by teens going through recovery with help from Rosecrance treatment centers. The illustrations, Leibforth said, depict the teens' feelings through addiction and recovery.
Leibforth said she believes the art will provide an opportunity for young open house attendees to "empathize with another young person's journey." Students from three area middle schools also made their own shoes that will be put on display in conjunction with the exhibit.
Additionally, a student-made documentary called "Out of Reach" will be aired in a video screening room, along with some other videos about substance abuse prevention.
"It talks about the growing problem of students taking drugs from their parents' and friends' parents' medicine chests," Leibforth said of "Out of Reach."
Aside from all the activities, representatives from the center will be on hand to discuss the results of the second year of a pilot heroin prevention program that has been introduced in schools throughout the suburbs.
"The first step was to make people aware of how common the use was, how the stereotypes were being broken down," Leibforth said, adding that now it appears students who have completed the program are not only learning more about heroin but also demonstrating a "better ability to resistance behaviors."
While many parents may think the open house isn't something they need to attend, Leibforth said everyone who visits will walk away with a greater knowledge of how to support drug prevention.
"I hope they'll have an increased awareness of what the risks are and some skills on how to combat them," she said of people who attend the open house. "There are hundreds of different ways kids get high now. Good students, athletes, happy, good kids - they're still at risk."