Is everybody doing it? When it comes to illegal substances, most students in north Big Horn County are not doing it, and their parents do not approve if their kids are thinking about it.


That’s the message being told in a multi-media campaign being launched through the Big Horn County Health Coalition this new year. The so-called Social Norms Project is funded by a federal Drug Free Communities Grant funneled through the Health Coalition.


Coalition Director Chad Lindsay and Community Advisory Board Chairman Meredith Despain said the Coalition is taking their lead from the Park County Prevention Coalition, which has been focusing on a positive message in order to get the word out about illegal substance abuse.


“Survey after survey says that a significant majority of young people in Big Horn County are not using illegal substances,” Despain said.


It’s not a matter of sugar-coating the problem, she said, it’s a matter of using positive reinforcement to tackle the problem.


“The majority of parents do not condone the use of illegal substances by their children,” Lindsay added. “The majority of parents believe that law enforcement should enforce laws regarding illegal substances and underage use.


“In Park County, correcting the misconception regarding youth and illegal substance abuse has decreased the use by these youth even further.”


The Park County campaign began in 2003 and has disseminated information through a variety of media including billboards and a radio campaign.


“For the Big Horn County Health Coalition, our intention with the social norms campaign is to commend the majority of students for their positive choices and the majority of parents for their promotion of healthy lifestyles,” Lindsay said.


Data for the campaign was obtained from the statewide Prevention Needs Assessment (PNA), Lindsay said, which is conducted on even years by surveying sixth-, eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders. The data for the campaign was obtained in 2006, and the assessment will be conducted again this spring. The self-reporting PNA includes a validation process to make sure the assessment is an actual reflection of student behavior.


“District One and Two results are very comparable to Big Horn County results, which are comparable to Park County results, which are comparable to statewide results,” Lindsay added. “They correlate very closely.”


A random telephone survey was conducted to assess parental and community attitudes.


The Drug Free Communities Grant paid $96,500 to the project in fiscal year 2007 and will pay $95,514 in fiscal years 2008-11, Lindsay said.

PNAs are tracked from year to year, and the numbers for substance use have actually been dropping in recent years, Despain said. She said the assessment can also be adjusted to reflect current trends, such as when huffing or the abuse of prescription drugs becomes prevalent.


The good news, Lindsay emphasized, is that students in Districts One and Two are not using substances as often as students in the rest of Wyoming.


“We’re not sugar-coating it,” Despain added. “There’s still a small minority of kids who are using.”


The Prevention Needs Assessment provided statistics on the use of alcohol, cigarettes, smokeless tobacco, marijuana, inhalants, cocaine, LSD and other hallucinogens, methamphetamine, sedatives, heroin, steroids and Ecstacy.


With the numbers at hand, the idea behind the social norms campaign is to show, for instance, that 98 percent of Lovell 12th-grade students do not use methamphetamine in a typical month, or that 94.5 percent of Burlington and Rocky Mountain eighth-grade students do not smoke cigarettes in a typical month.


It’s positive reinforcement, Lindsay said, designed to correct misperceptions.


The multi-media campaign has begun with two billboards, so far: a billboard about LHS students and cigarette smoking just west of the Red Eagle store and a billboard about Rocky Mountain and Burlington students and cigarette smoking at the Oasis Junction.


The Health Coalition is also working with teachers and students at the three high schools to develop student-driven media to be used for billboards, newspaper inserts, TCT West local channels, posters, fliers for programs and radio ads.


Will the positive reinforcement work? Organizers of the social norms campaign believe it will.


“Misperception promotes misuse,” Lindsay said. “When a culture thinks everyone is doing something, it makes those who aren’t more likely to engage in that behavior.”


“The numbers show it’s making a difference,” Despain added. “There’s always going to be use. The target goal is to minimize that use.”


Another key, District One School Psychologist Matt McNiven said, is to get a handle on the problem in young people because of proven consequences of substance abuse in early adolescence.


“We are quick to place blame on kids, but we don’t always praise them for the good choices they make,” Lindsay noted. “It’s no different than praising them for good grades or athletic success.”