Health Center Identifies Needs

Preferred Family Healthcare's ongoing Community Needs Survey identifies substance abuse as Kirksville's biggest problem, followed by underage drinking and poverty.

The results reflect that 40 percent of nearly 1,000 surveyed think drug abuse is the biggest problem in Kirksville, particularly the use of prescription drugs. 

Erica Supple, Preferred Family Healthcare's project coordinator for the Prevention Department, conducts projects like the Community Needs Survey to determine how to better serve Kirksville through school programs and a rehabilitation center for substance abuse and mental health, she said. 

Using the information they collect from surveys and questionnaires, Preferred Family Health provides middle schools, high schools and colleges in Adair County with information to create programs about underage drinking and drug abuse prevention. 

"We've seen, as a resource center, that prescription drugs are pretty big right now and synthetic drugs are emerging," Supple said. "It happens a lot. ... A drug becomes popular, then it's replaced by something else."

During the past, Preferred Family Health has conducted depression screenings at schools and taught sixth and seventh grade students to get messages regarding social problems across to the public through a program called Media Ready.

"They're taught to use billboard ads, to use newspapers, news stations ... basically how to develop a public service announcement," Supple said.

While underage drinking is always going to be an issue, the middle school seems stable, said Barbara Rice,Kirksville Middle School's Nurse. She said no students have been brought to her by a teacher with suspicion of drug abuse during the past, but prescription drug abuse is likely common.

"Sixth, seventh and eighth graders are a little bit more discreet about it," Rice said. "High schoolers may say, ‘Oh boy I went out last night,' but the younger kids talk in their little groups and are more discreet."

The abuse of certain drugs is more common in rural areas than metropolitan, Rice said. 

"I think it's more pain medication and medications that are prescribed for ADD and ADHD," Rice said. "Things that are happening in metropolitan areas take a while to get to the rural areas and sometimes it happens the other wayaround."

Higher poverty rates and lower educational attainment in rural areas can lead to problems similar to Kirksville's, said Michael Seipel, agricultural science professor. 

Relative isolation and the lack of access to opportunities like quality education, better job opportunities and more discreet rehabilitation are factors in determining why rural areas are more affected by these problems, Seipel said.

"The fact that everybody knows everybody's business complicates dealing with these issues," Seipel said. 

Preferred Family Healthcare's staff and coalitions of volunteers continue to build their Prevention Services based on projects like the Community Needs Survey. To take the survey or learn more about Preferred Family Healthcare's services, visit http://pfh.org/PreventionServices.htm.