Program tackles substance abuse

Several Norwich University students were selected and trained in October as part of an alcohol intervention program known as TIPS, according to the university's director of substance abuse education and prevention.

"TIPS stands for ‘Training for Intervention Procedures' and is a program designed to teach people at a university to intervene if someone is drinking dangerously," said Gail Mears, the program director.

The training was coordinated by Mears and certified TIPS instructors.

"The training was from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., about 10 hours long, and once it was done everyone got their certification," Mears said.

Certified TIPS instructors traveled from Massachusetts to train Norwich faculty and students.

"The TIPS program has trainers that come and teach people at universities all over the United States about what to do when someone is very intoxicated," Mears said.

General knowledge on how the body metabolizes alcohol and the levels of intoxication were part of the instruction given by TIPS trainers.

"The TIPS training teaches you to recognize what's in front of you, how intoxicated someone is, and what you can do to help them slow down," Mears said.

"If you look at a 125 pound girl, who somebody believes had a Four Loko, that's about four drinks right there, and we're learning what to do to intervene safely," Mears said.

The students who participated in the training were taught information about blood-alcohol content levels, such as what level a person would be at depending on how much they've had to drink in a certain time, according to Mears.

Additionally, at the training students were taught a variety of skills and techniques to use to intervene appropriately when someone has been drinking heavily.

Some of the skills taught, according to 21-year-old Johndrue Mabb, a senior history major from Germantown, N.Y., were "diverting the person's attention from the alcohol, getting the person to eat something, putting them to sleep and just anything to get their mind off of alcohol."

"A lot of what we learned is stuff that people already know how to do, but they don't really realize it until someone points it out to them," Mabb said.

The intervention training was focused on "preventing alcohol abuse" and "helping people out if they drink too much," Mabb said.

Some of the tools used to instruct the now-certified students included role-play activities and lecture instruction.

"We would do acting parts, where someone would act drunk, and another person would have to intervene using what they know and what they were taught," Mabb said.

According to Michael Delbello, a 21-year-old senior geology major from Fort Wayne, Ind., the role-playing taught the trainees what they could do in the event someone was heavily intoxicated.

"We watched videos of trained individuals helping out other students" and then "the person doing the training would show us what some of our options are," Delbello said.

Keeping students safe is one of the many reasons the TIPS program was brought to campus.

"We are able to help a person out, to keep them safe, and to watch over them until they're in a safe environment," Delbello said.

According to Mears, who is overseeing the project, "We don't want anyone [doing the intervening] getting hurt, and the trainers concentrate on that a lot."

Acting more like a concerned friend and less like an angry guardian is a key component of the TIPS training.

"If someone was in their room and had been drinking, I would make sure to find a friend to stay with them, or stay with them myself and make sure they were all right and didn't get into trouble," Delbello said.

"The people in charge know students are going to drink, and this is a step in the right direction to ensure everyone stays safe and secure," according to Cathleen Mallette, a 21-year-old senior psychology major from Ticonderoga, N.Y.

"If necessary, we would call someone else to come help us if the situation got out of hand, whether it's a friend of the person that's intoxicated, or one of our [own] friends," Mallette said.

The TIPS-certified students would rather keep someone safe from harm than punish them, Mallette said. "I'd want them to feel like they can trust us."

In addition, the training held in October is to serve as the foundation for future classes and workshops held on campus for any student who wishes to volunteer.

"The point of the training was to train other students, and we [the students] would teach the class, because now we're certified to teach," Mabb said.

According to Delbello, "Being certified means I can explain to other students how they can help their friends on campus or people at parties and it means everyone is watching out for each other."

"The students I train will have a three-year certification, not to teach, but to intervene with good skills and techniques," Mallette said.

Getting the information out to the students is a main priority, rather than trying to reduce the amount of drinking that occurs on or off campus, according to Mallette.

According to Mabb, TIPS certified students on campus aren't given any extra privileges or powers.

"We don't have any extra sense of authority, we can just teach a class now," Mabb said.

The students who participated were selected based on criteria less rigid than is the norm in a military environment.

"When you're talking about students interacting with other students when alcohol's involved, you're looking for different qualities," Mears said.

"Am I always looking for the most squared-away cadet? No. Am I always looking for the top student, academically? No. I'm looking for the student who may be a little rough around the edges, and understands different kinds of people equally, and is a little more socially savvy," Mears said.

When the TIPS students are at events or parties, they must be able to confidently act with discretion and independence, according to Mears.

"These students have to be able to stand alone sometimes; to not act like they're doing a job, but at the same time I'm looking for someone who is mentally strong," Mears said.

According to Mabb, "The people who took the training are just average people [around campus] that are trustworthy and know how to work well with other students."

All of the students chosen were volunteers, and "are all very social people," Delbello said.

At events and parties, the TIPS students would be assigned, if necessary, to check identification and serve as mock bouncers, according to Mears.

In the program's previous iteration, from 2005, "the students that were trained would go out wearing khaki pants and a maroon shirt and head out to the events to check IDs and take some of the pressure off the Sodexo crew working there," Mears said.

"Now, I don't think there will be as much identification checking, but they'll be there working through the crowds," Mears said.

Certain events will require "TIPS students to observe other students to see if it's necessary to step in and help someone out," according to Mears.

"Norwich bouncer," a term used by Mears, is a phrase the participants do not want students to think of when TIPS members are present at a school function.

"Bouncer isn't the word I would use, and we don't want people to get the wrong impression when that phrase gets tossed around," according to Mallette.

"If a student is trained appropriately and they're knowing what they're doing and what to say, students will respond favorably," Mears said.

Mears and the other TIPS certified students want the program to expand to a significant portion of the student body in the next few years.

"What I'm hoping is that this group of students takes over the TIPS training here on campus," Mears said.

According to Mallette, "If a student is interested in taking the class, they should stop by Gail Mears' office and talk to her about taking part the next time a class is offered."

"We want big expansion in the future with this specific program," Mears said. "I want to have a team of students who are really dedicated to the drinking issue, how it impacts campus, how to read a social situation, and how to affect change."