>   Practice   >   Tips and Tools for Social Workers   >   Tackling Substance Use in Schools: Current Challenges and Social Work Solutions

Tips and Tools for Social Workers - sharp pencil with jumbled letters behind it

Tackling Substance Use in Schools: Current Challenges and Social Work Solutions

By April Ferguson LCSW-C
Senior Practice Associate for Children and Adolescents
February 2024

The primary focus of school is to provide children and adolescents with a quality education. However, various factors can pose challenges in how students interact with and learn in the education system. Particularly, substance use in schools can lead to educational disruptions and cause emotional trauma for staff and students. Reported substance use among young people declined in 2021 and remained stable in 2022 but overdoses increased.[1] Contemporary societal changes have introduced three complicating factors in tackling substance use in schools: mental health challenges, social media utilization and the opioid crisis.

Mental Health Challenges

Students are in the middle of a mental health crisis and substance use is frequently a coping skill for poor mental health.[2] Today’s youth are having an exceptionally hard time after experiencing isolation, death and other challenges related to the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition, more than half of U.S children have experienced a traumatic event, and some self-medicate to alleviate trauma symptoms.[3] The National Child Traumatic Stress Network recognized that mental health and substance use are often correlated, and clients benefit when professionals are able to treat both problems. Addressing the co-occurring causes linked to substance use is vital to providing accurate care to students. [4]

Social workers have a unique skill set and education that recognizes the connection between trauma, mental health, and addiction. To improve mental health and address the role mental wellbeing plays in youth substance use, social workers can include the following into school service delivery:

  • Encourage collaboration with parents, students, and school staff to support youth experiencing mental health struggles
  • Make appropriate referrals to mental health and treatment services and follow up
  • Develop relationships with community organizations that support mental health and wellbeing of youth[5]
  • Educate school staff, parents, students concerning correlations between mental health, trauma, and substance use[6]
  • Advocate for evidenced based school interventions, practices, and policies[7]
  • Assist with implementing social, emotional, and behavioral interventions in the school setting
  • Help schools strengthen student engagement and connectedness[8]
  • Link students with continued education opportunities while completing substance use treatment
  • Provide caregivers access to reliable sources and data that educates them about social media and mental health
  • Allow parents to discuss the schools’ social media and online activity policies
  • Have regular conversations about mental health and social media during caregiver and school engagements, i.e. PTA meetings, back to school nights
  • Engage in discussions that outline the schools’ efforts to improve digital literacy for students

Social Media Utilization

According to a Journal of Adolescent Health publication by Caitlin R. Costello, M.D and Danielle E. Ramo, Ph.D, social media plays a role in youth substance use.[9] Social media offers youth access to content from peers and other influential figures, allowing peer pressure and influence to come from a larger online community. Posts and images from celebrities, relatives and peers using substances, normalizes that behavior for the youth.[10] Furthermore, harmful social media provocations such as peer “challenges” also encourage participation in dangerous and risky behaviors, like substance use. Social media is also linked to poor mental health which can contribute to substance use and self-medicating. Online activity may also cause low self-esteem, bullying, anxiety, and depression, especially since posts are altered, and present idealistic images of real life. This kind of distorted content can create a comparison culture that is problematic as youth are developing and learning how they view themselves and the world around them.[11]

Addressing social media’s role in substance use is distinctive in that managing online activity heavily relies on parent or guardian participation. The education system ought to provide online safety education[12], but students need appropriate parental controls to avoid and minimize exposure to harmful content. Parental boundaries and conversations with youth combined, help youth learn to manage their online activity.[13]

A Pearson playbook, How To Talk with Caregivers About Kids and Social Media, identifies important conversations that the education system should have with parents about social media. Information from the playbook can help social workers support schools to foster digital education that empowers parents and youth to make good decisions about social media use. Four concepts from the playbook are below.[14]

  • Provide caregivers access to reliable sources and data that educates them about social media and mental health
  • Allow parents to discuss the schools’ social media and online activity policies
  • Have regular conversations about mental health and social media during caregiver and school engagements, i.e. PTA meetings, back to school nights
  • Engage in discussions that outline the schools’ efforts to improve digital literacy for students

Another consideration for social workers is to screen youth’s social media use during assessments as part of information gathering.[15] There is still a need for research around standard methods and evaluation tools regarding social media.[16] However, the American Psychological Association recommended screening youth for problematic social media use that may contribute to psychological harms. Concerning behaviors include the inability to stop using social media, excessive attempts to access social media, cravings to use social media, spending more time than planned on social media, lying to access social media, or social/educational disruptions due to social media.[17] Identifying these behaviors further informs social workers’ plans to assist students and their families with managing social media use.

Opioid Crisis

The opioid crisis is an ongoing problem and with the introduction of Fentanyl, the opioid crisis became more concerning. Fentanyl is 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than Heroin.[18] The National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics indicates that only 0.00025 grams of fentanyl is considered a “High risk of death.”[19] The crisis started impacting the education system as students gained access to this drug. There are instances where other illicit substances or pills unknowingly contained Fentanyl and youth experimenting with drugs consumed Fentanyl in error. After a student’s Fentanyl overdose, his parent stated “It used to be kids made mistakes and learned from them. With Fentanyl, if you make a mistake you die.”[20] Overdose deaths also have a significant impact on the mental health of students and staff. A former superintendent recounted that “it changed us forever” when discussing the overdose death of two 8th graders.[21]

Prevention efforts are key in responding to the opioid crisis in the school system. Prevention efforts should encourage student and school connectedness as building connectedness is one of the most important protective factors against substance use. Connectedness is defined as a students’ belief that peers and adults in the school care about their well-being. [22] The Center for Disease Control and Prevention developed the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child model that provides instructions to foster connectedness in schools. One component of the model is community involvement which includes student participation in service leaning activities.[23] Three notable examples in Virginia, California, and Kentucky, demonstrate the use of service learning in responding to the opioid crisis.

An Arlington, Virgina school district had to respond to the opioid crisis after a student died of an overdose on school grounds. The district consulted students, parents, and community partners for their feedback on addressing substance use. While prevention and community collaboration were identified as important practices, students requested to carry Naloxone. The school district collaborated with the county Department of Human Services and students were trained to use and carry Naloxone in school with parent permission.[24]

In Orange County, California youth were a part of planning and implementing a youth summit on substance use prevention. Students took leadership roles as event organizers, planners, and school representatives. The summit covered fentanyl awareness, prevention strategies and risks of using illicit substances. One student highlighted the benefits of “learning as a community” by participating in the summit.[25]

In rural Kentucky, students were involved in creating solutions to the opioid crisis. Students designed projects aimed at opioid awareness and developed specific community projects to meet the needs of first responders and residents. Some students were involved in building tiny homes that serve as transitional housing and some students assisted officials in creating a tool to remove drug paraphernalia from community spaces. Students reported feeling “empowered to do more” and “inspired to make a difference.”[26]

All three states’ methods incorporated strategies of prevention, collaboration, education, and training opportunities for students. The solutions were creative and addressed specific needs in their communities. As social workers tackle substance use in schools, it is important to partner with students to increase connectedness and allow students the autonomy to contribute to solutions that impact their educational experience.

Conclusion

As the mental health crisis, social media usage, and the opioid crisis impacts substance use in schools, it is imperative that social workers provide critical and ethical services that deliver positive outcomes for youth. Social work service delivery should aim to:

  • Improve and address student mental health and wellbeing
  • Understand and respond to the role social media plays in youth’s substance use
  • Incorporate students’ perspectives and lived experiences into solutions to build school connectedness in fighting the opioid crisis

Furthermore, social workers can support their own professionalism by attending substance use conferences and taking continuing education credits that highlight current issues related to substance use and schools. Social workers play a vital role in the education system and should be equipped to respond to increasing challenges related to youth substance use.

References

[1] NIH. (2022, December). Retrieved from National Institute on Drug Abuse: https://nida.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/2022/12/most-reported-substance-use-among-adolescents-held-steady-in-2022

[2] Langreo, L. (2023, June 19). Schools Face Big Challenges in Curbing Students’ Substance Abuse. Retrieved from Education Week: https://www.edweek.org/leadership/schools-face-big-challenges-in-curbing-students-substance-abuse/2023/06#:~:text=School%20health%20workers%20in%20most,based%20health%20professionals%20in%20March

[3] National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare. (2021). Working with Adolescents: Practice Tips and Resource Guide. Retrieved from National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare: https://ncsacw.acf.hhs.gov/topics/childhood-and-adolescence/working-with-adolescents-practice-tips-and-resource-guide/

[4] The National Child Traumatic Stress Network. (2008, June). Making the Connection: Trauma and Substance Use. Retrieved from The National Child Traumatic Stress Network: https://www.nctsn.org/resources/making-connection-trauma-and-substance-abuse

[5] IBID

[6]IBID

[7] U.S. Department of Education. (n.d.). Preventing and Reducing Youth and Young Adult Substance Misuse: Schools, Students, Families. Retrieved from Home U.S. Department of Education: https://www.ed.gov/opioids/

[8] Álvarez, B. (2018, March 12). All Hands on Deck: School-Based Programs to Stem Substance Abuse. Retrieved from NEA Today: https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/all-hands-deck-school-based-programs-stem-substance-abuse#:~:text=NEA%20Today%20Magazines-,All%20Hands%20on%20Deck%3A%20School%2DBased%20Programs%20to%20Stem%20Substance,their%20drug%20abuse%20education%20pr

[9] Costello M.D, C., & Ramo Ph.D, D. (2017). Social Media and Substance Use: What Should We Be Recommending to Teens and Their Parents? Journal of Adolescent Health , 629-630. Retrieved from https://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X(17)30158-1/fulltext

[10] Kolmac Integrated Behavioral Health Centers. (2020, July 1). How Does Social Media Affect Teen Substance Use? Retrieved from Kolmac Integrated Behavioral Health Centers: https://www.kolmac.com/how-does-social-media-affect-teen-substance-use/

[11] Costello M.D, C., & Ramo Ph.D, D. (2017). Social Media and Substance Use: What Should We Be Recommending to Teens and Their Parents? (see footnote 9)

[12] Office of the Surgeon General. (2023). Social Media and Youth Mental Health: The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory. Retrieved from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Surgeon General : https://www.hhs.gov/surgeongeneral/priorities/youth-mental-health/social-media/index.html

[13] American Psychological Association. (2023, May). Health advisory on social media use in adolescence. Retrieved from American Psychological Association: https://www.apa.org/topics/social-media-internet/health-advisory-adolescent-social-media-use

[14] Pearson, K-12 Dive. (n.d.). How To Talk With Caregivers About Kids and Social Media. Retrieved from K-12 Dive: https://resources.industrydive.com/how-to-talk-with-caregivers-about-kids-and-social-media?utm_source=K12&utm_medium=Library&utm_campaign=Pearson.

[15] Costello M.D, C., & Ramo Ph.D, D. (2017). Social Media and Substance Use: What Should We Be Recommending to Teens and Their Parents? (see footnote 9)

[16] Office of the Surgeon General. (2023). Social Media and Youth Mental Health (see footnote 12)

[17] American Psychological Association. (2023, May). Health advisory on social media use in adolescence (see footnote 13)

[18] Arundel, K., Lucas, S., & Ye Han, J. (2022, October 26). Fighting fentanyl: Schools tackle opioid crisis head-on. Retrieved from K-12 Dive: https://www.k12dive.com/news/fighting-fentanyl-schools-tackle-opioid-crisis-head-on/634647/#:~:text=Some%20schools%20are%20explicitly%20teaching,that%20of%20a%20loved%20one.

[19] National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics. (n.d.). Drug Use Among Youth: Facts & Statistics. Retrieved from National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics: https://drugabusestatistics.org/fentanyl-abuse-statistics/

[20] Beaverton School District. (2021, April 20). Fake and Fatal: Cal's Story. Retrieved from Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvtuVX627ow&t=445s

[21] Arundel, K., Lucas, S., & Ye Han, J. (2022, October 26). Fighting fentanyl: Schools tackle opioid crisis head-on. See footnote 18)

[22] Álvarez, B. (2018, March 12). All Hands on Deck: School-Based Programs to Stem Substance Abuse (see footnote 8)

[23] The Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021, March 23). Components of the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC). Retrieved from The Center for Disease Control and Prevention: https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/wscc/components.htm

[24] Langreo, L. (2023, June 23). Why This District Equips High School Students With Naloxone. Retrieved from Education Week: https://www.edweek.org/leadership/why-this-district-equips-high-school-students-with-naloxone/2023/06

[25] Hanigan, I. (2023, October 10). Orange County youth tackle substance abuse and more at 2023 FNL Youth Summit. Retrieved from OCDE Newsroom: https://newsroom.ocde.us/orange-county-youth-tackle-substance-abuse-and-more-at-2023-fnl-youth-summit/

[26] The National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments. (2018, December 19). The Opioid Crisis and K-12 Schools: Supporting Students at School. Retrieved from The National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments: https://safesupportivelearning.ed.gov/events/webinar/opioid-crisis-and-k-12-schools-supporting-students-school