by Megan Barnes, The Beach Reporter
It’s no secret that teens in affluent communities turn to alcohol and drugs to cope with high academic pressures—but wellness experts want parents in the beach cities to stop treating it that way.
Beach Cities Health District and Manhattan Beach-based nonprofit South Bay Families Connected have started a monthly series of workshops aimed at linking parents with resources and combating stigma.
CEO Susan Burden said the organization is partnering with South Bay Families Connected because, when it comes to teen mental health and addiction, studies increasingly place importance on the role of parents.
“We’ve known the numbers in Redondo Beach and Manhattan Beach are too high—higher than surrounding areas—and we’ve been struggling for the last 10 years to find out the right strategies to address it,” she said.
According to the California Healthy Kids Survey, 42 percent of 11th-graders in Manhattan Beach Unified and 38 percent in Redondo Unified reported current alcohol and drug use—compared to 30 percent of juniors in the Los Angeles Unified School District and a 35.2 percent state average.
Parents need to make a better effort to connect with their children, Burden said, but they must also be clear role models.
“It’s very commonly believed that ‘if I let my kids drink in my own home, then it’ll be fine and safe,’ but that strategy actually increases the risk, it doesn’t decrease or delay it,” Burden said. “These kids are very bright, so parents have every reason to trust them with their lives, but if you have no oversight and don’t have a guiding voice in your life, kids are left to their own devices.”
In April, Hermosa Beach created a social host ordinance to curb parents from providing their kids with alcohol. The first offense is $2,500, and goes up in subsequent offenses. The fines are higher than Manhattan Beach, which passed a similar ordinance in 2007.
South Bay Families Connected, formed by parents in August 2015, recently sponsored workshops at Pages bookstore in Manhattan Beach. The group also offers parents resources and shared experiences on its website.
Founder Laura Short McIntire said that although workshops this summer drew a few dozen attendees each, the website has had 9,000 unique visitors, showing that parents are turning to the site for expert resources in the comfort of their own homes.
“We want to try to encourage parents to get past that veneer of perfection,” McIntire said. “Everyone’s dealing with some challenge somewhere on the scale and it’s so beneficial to reach out and connect with other parents.”
Greg Allen, a marriage and family therapist whose nonprofit, Freedom4U, serves South Bay youth, will facilitate the next workshop on Oct. 27 titled “Grit: Raising Resilient Kids.”
A third workshop Nov. 14, “Forgive for Good: A Proven Prescription for Health and Happiness,” will feature Fred Luskin, director of the Stanford University Forgiveness Projects.
Allen said drinking and drug use are only symptoms of bigger mental health and wellness issues for teens, including feeling disconnected from parents.
“I think in Southern California and the beach cities, we’re basically a culture that is externally focused versus internally,” he said. “Parents are competing with other parents raising these super kids.”
Allowing children to make mistakes, taking a step back and not doing everything for them, and emphasizing character over grades is key, he said.
“It’s about letting them trip and fall and learn,” Allen said. “Mistakes are tremendous learning opportunities.”
Reporter Kelcie Pegher contributed to this story.
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