New resource helps adults speak with children about addiction

PLATTSBURGH | According to the National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare, an estimated one in eight children are living with an adult who has an active substance use disorder. In New York State, that is more than half a million children. Public media stations across New York State, including Mountain Lake PBS, partnered with THIRTEEN PBS to hold a free virtual event, Sesame Street in Communities: Supporting Families Facing Addiction May 9. Guest speakers discussed how children are affected by living with someone who struggles with addiction and looked at the resources Sesame Workshop provides to help caregivers talk with children about it. Experts in the field spoke about the topic and answered attendees' questions. The attendees were predominantly support service staff from entities like DSS, schools and nonprofits. Victor Rose, an associate in instructional services in school social work at the New York State Education Department, began the discussion. He started his remarks by recognizing May as National Foster Care Month and noting that "addiction is a complex and chronic brain disease and like any disease, it does have symptoms and it requires treatment that can be ongoing and continuous." "I also recognize that parents who use substances unconditionally love their children and children unconditionally love their parents, even in the worst circumstances," Rose said. He discussed how when someone has experienced trauma and pain, sickness is easier to achieve than healthiness because to achieve sickness only requires access to the substance they are dependent on. "That cycle continues and continues for many parents throughout the state and throughout the country," Rose said. He went over how children can internalize and react to their family member's addictions. "It is my hope that we will continue to work extensively as a system to get to the root causes," Rose said. "That takes an investment of money and resources and a mindset shift that we're seeing here in New York and in parts of the country." Antonio Freitas, director of educational experiences, U.S. social impact team at Sesame Workshop spoke next, about the free videos, printables, articles, games and webinars Sesame Workshop provides. He asked audience members to reflect on the individuals they serve and share what challenges they are facing in their communities. Some of the answers included bias and judgment, getting parents involved and families overwhelmed by chronic stress derived from trying to make ends meet. A question that several audience members asked was "What can I do for older children, in their teens?" Freitas said that although Sesame Workshop's target audience is birth through eight, the same resources could be used for older children, with some adjustments. "I don't know how excited a 16-year-old would be to learn from Elmo as much as a four-year-old, right?" Freitas said. "So it's thinking about how you take the concepts and not necessarily the delivery of those concepts." Rose gave the example of using play to apply the concepts, to talk to older children about their experiences without retraumatizing them. "Maybe we're not playing Elmo, maybe now we're playing basketball or doing dance and TikToks and all that stuff that children love doing," Rose said. "That's a way that we can creatively develop a relationship with young people in order to begin to unpack what has happened to them in their lives." For more information, visit https://sesameworkshop.org/.

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New resource helps adults speak with children about addiction

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