How are you addressing vaping use in your program?
By Brian Mathieson | March 2019
On March 18, 2019, the latest Washington Healthy Youth Survey (HYS) results were released. I encourage all school counselors to review their school and community results. The HYS is powerful school climate data that should be considered when we write program goals and core curriculum action plans. In most cases, the results are seen by your district superintendent or a designee. As a result, if you use the results of the HYS to drive your comprehensive program, you are often aligned to district goals for school improvement. View the latest HYS results.
The published summary highlights at least one concern that is affecting school communities across the state: “Use of vapor products (battery-operated devices that produce an aerosol by heating liquid) in the past 30 days among 10th graders increased from 13 percent in 2016 to 21 percent in 2018.” The report further notes, “More youth are vaping, but their knowledge of content of vaping products and its potential health impacts remains low. Only about a third of 10th graders thought vaping was harmful, according to the survey.” Vaping delivers nicotine and numerous other harmful substances into the body, potentially causing addiction, lung disease and other serious health problems. In short, vaping is an important risk factor that can negatively affect the developing minds and bodies of our students.
The first step for your school counseling program is using the HYS results to determine if vaping is a concern for your students. If so, consider disaggregating your student data. When does vaping use appear to be starting? Is it most prevalent in the 10th grade or some other grade? Can you investigate whether or not vaping is more prevalent among subgroups (e.g., race/ethnicity or gender) using tools at http://www.askhys.net/Reports?
From here, you can begin the process of writing a school counseling program goal. The first step is to identify any existing programs or activities designed to address (1) decreasing vaping use or (2) increasing understanding of the health effects of vaping. For instance, in some schools vaping may be addressed in health classes. Other schools may have prevention counselors and/or programs that are primarily responsible for preventing substance abuse and/or providing services to students. If this is the case, then the school counselors’ role may simply be to collaborate with the prevention counselor or assist in the program implementation.
If your research suggests students would benefit from additional Tier 1 (core curriculum) or Tier 2 (small group) work to prevent vaping use and increase vaping knowledge, you’d identify the ASCA Mindsets and Behaviors connected to this work. For example, “B-SMS 9. Demonstrate personal safety skills” and “B-SMS 2. Demonstrate self-discipline and self-control” are good places to start. Next, search for evidence-based curriculum or programs that could address vaping with those mindsets and behaviors in mind. If none exist, search for research-based or research-informed curriculum.
Aside from Tier 1 and Tier 2 work, school counselors may also provide short-term counseling to students who are vaping in Tier 3 or refer students to outside counseling or services. The key is that school counselors be aware of the concern, use data, and take appropriate action.
As Governor Jay Inslee stated, “Kids, families and communities in our state need to be aware of the dangers of vaping.” Washington school counselors should all be prepared to articulate what is being done in their school, whether it is directly or indirectly connected to the school counseling program.
Contact Brian Mathieson, Ed.D., NBCT, WSCA president, at brianmathiesonwsca@gmail.com or on Twitter at @MathiesonBri
The published summary highlights at least one concern that is affecting school communities across the state: “Use of vapor products (battery-operated devices that produce an aerosol by heating liquid) in the past 30 days among 10th graders increased from 13 percent in 2016 to 21 percent in 2018.” The report further notes, “More youth are vaping, but their knowledge of content of vaping products and its potential health impacts remains low. Only about a third of 10th graders thought vaping was harmful, according to the survey.” Vaping delivers nicotine and numerous other harmful substances into the body, potentially causing addiction, lung disease and other serious health problems. In short, vaping is an important risk factor that can negatively affect the developing minds and bodies of our students.
The first step for your school counseling program is using the HYS results to determine if vaping is a concern for your students. If so, consider disaggregating your student data. When does vaping use appear to be starting? Is it most prevalent in the 10th grade or some other grade? Can you investigate whether or not vaping is more prevalent among subgroups (e.g., race/ethnicity or gender) using tools at http://www.askhys.net/Reports?
From here, you can begin the process of writing a school counseling program goal. The first step is to identify any existing programs or activities designed to address (1) decreasing vaping use or (2) increasing understanding of the health effects of vaping. For instance, in some schools vaping may be addressed in health classes. Other schools may have prevention counselors and/or programs that are primarily responsible for preventing substance abuse and/or providing services to students. If this is the case, then the school counselors’ role may simply be to collaborate with the prevention counselor or assist in the program implementation.
If your research suggests students would benefit from additional Tier 1 (core curriculum) or Tier 2 (small group) work to prevent vaping use and increase vaping knowledge, you’d identify the ASCA Mindsets and Behaviors connected to this work. For example, “B-SMS 9. Demonstrate personal safety skills” and “B-SMS 2. Demonstrate self-discipline and self-control” are good places to start. Next, search for evidence-based curriculum or programs that could address vaping with those mindsets and behaviors in mind. If none exist, search for research-based or research-informed curriculum.
Aside from Tier 1 and Tier 2 work, school counselors may also provide short-term counseling to students who are vaping in Tier 3 or refer students to outside counseling or services. The key is that school counselors be aware of the concern, use data, and take appropriate action.
As Governor Jay Inslee stated, “Kids, families and communities in our state need to be aware of the dangers of vaping.” Washington school counselors should all be prepared to articulate what is being done in their school, whether it is directly or indirectly connected to the school counseling program.
Contact Brian Mathieson, Ed.D., NBCT, WSCA president, at brianmathiesonwsca@gmail.com or on Twitter at @MathiesonBri