Key Program Approaches
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Curriculum Details
The SIGNALS curriculum was developed to influence the positive growth and health of young people through screening and education. By completing the SIGNALS program, youth will experience a heightened awareness of the seriousness of substance use, abuse, and chemical dependence.
By completing the SIGNALS program, youth will also demonstrate a lowered resistance to a prevention message that advocates abstinence and emphasizes that ATOD usage is neither normal nor safe, but instead, constitutes brain poisoning. The reading and comprehension level is 6th grade. The lesson plans are described below.
Pre-Class Intervention / Interview: Screening tools are administered before the teaching sessions begin.
Lesson Plan 1: Begins with a presentation on the phases and stages of chemical dependence and helps the teen to understand that there is a predictable path towards addiction. The first lesson also discusses the reality of impairment episodes and that consequences can happen long before dependency. The first lesson starts a building block process of learning to analyze the many facets of substance abuse and addiction.
Lesson Plans 2-6: At the core of the SIGNALS curriculum are “Structured Storytelling” DVD presentations on five major categories of illegal drugs.The categories include Stimulants, Depressants, Hallucinogens, Inhalants and Marijuana. These intensive stories present material rarely seen outside the field of forensic pathology. A running narrative presents true case files that teach the youth the physiology involved in the case histories. The youth will complete a pretest and posttest on the five drug categories. From the results, any misinformation youth previously acquired and the science-based knowledge they have learned during the course can be determined. Using the information from the presentations as a reference, the youth will practice refusal skills by making convincing arguments on why there is danger in using alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. The link provided will send you to a internet web site with the original presentation by Dr. Joseph Rupp, M.D., Ph.D. The presentation is extremely graphic and not advised for preteens. The SIGNALS DVD version of Dr. Rupps material is a little less graphic but contains all of the narration and talking points.
WARNING: This site is unedited and contains autopsy and crime scene photography. Viewer discretion is advised. Drugs and Death by Dr. Joseph Rupp
Lesson Plan 7: The SIGNALS program also addresses environmental myths, such as the misleading advertisements of the alcohol and tobacco industry, consumerism skills are enhanced.
Lesson Plan 8: In addition to “Structured Storytelling”, the youth also complete a “Genetic Family Tree” worksheet designed to help them understand the influence of genetic predisposition. A “Chemical Use Pattern” worksheet is also completed and processed to assist the youth in understanding drug progression. Together these worksheets are used to aid the youth in completing a self-assessment of their risk level for substance abuse or chemical dependence.
Lesson Plans 9-10-11: Present activities that teach about denial and defense mechanisms and emphasize the importance of goal setting.
Lesson Plan 12: Ends the teaching sessions by helping the youth understand the phases and stages of recovery and the many ways people have found freedom from addiction. A review of the importance of self-preservation and protecting what you value is conducted.
Post-Class Assessment / Interview: Post assessments and interviews are conducted. Through the use of screening instruments and academic tests, the youth and family are informed of the positive knowledge the youth has acquired upon course completion. Through conference meetings between the program’s instructor, the parents, and the youth, strategic decisions are formulated for further services. A referral list of agencies and community resources for continuing care is provided.
Collectively these strategies create dissonance in the mind of the adolescent about the culturally promoted belief that alcohol, tobacco and other mind-altering drug usage is a normal and safe activity as well as, the notion that ATOD usage is an expected rite of passage to adulthood. Dissonance is a condition necessary to foster movement on the stages of change paradigm (e.g. pre-contemplation to contemplation).
Goals and Objectives
The SIGNALS program was specifically designed with the intent to help youth:
Establish an accurate understanding of their substance abuse risk level
Enhance their self-preservation awareness in order to lower their resistance to and increase their acceptance of a non-use prevention message
Sustain non-use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs or initiate movement towards an action of abstinence by better equipping them with an accurate knowledge base on the harm of ATOD use, lowering their risk perception deficit, addressing environmental myths, confronting defense postures and developing refusal skills.
After completing the program the youth will be able to:
Accurately evaluate their risk level for substance abuse
Demonstrate an enhanced self-preservation awareness resulting in a lowered resistance to a non-use prevention message
Demonstrate a lowered risk perception deficit
Recognize defensive postures
Identify environmental myths
Demonstrate an accurate knowledge base on the harm of ATOD use
Apply ATOD refusal skills
Sustain non-use of ATOD
