Palmer Drug Abuse Program of Lea County
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Children are affected by drug and/or alcohol abuse in their family, but are normally left out of the recovery process. That is why we started special people.
Our main goals in Special People are:
· To provide education that chemical dependency is a family illness. · To help develop in the child a healthier personal outlook so they can recognize and deal appropriately with their feelings. · To teach kids alternative ways of responding to life. · To build self-esteem and self-awareness. · To help prevent future dependency problems in high-risk children.
Special People receive a wooden butterfly necklace for attending meetings for 8 weeks and individual counseling is available for them through out the week. They also have a counselor available to them 24 hours a day, so they have some one to call at night, or on the weekends.
Through education in weekly meetings we teach them a variety of things such as:
· Stages of Chemical Dependency · Stages of the Family Illness · How to identify and Deal with Feelings · How to make healthy Decisions · How to achieve Goals, etc. The meetings provide a safe place for them to share their thoughts and feelings, and support each other. Games and exercises are used to make learning fun and interesting. Each child will be faced with the decision to use or not use mind changing chemicals at some point. He or she must usually make that decision alone, generally under pressure from his or her peers. Our hope is to prepare the child to make a healthy choice. |