Local

Carpinteria group reaches out to troubled teens

CAMILLA COHEE, NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

Facilitators Pete Afflerbach, second from left, and Debbie Gunther, with red scarf, advise Carpinteria teens.

- STEVE MALONE / NEWS-PRESS

March 6, 2006 7:22 AM

After a failed attempt at suicide once before, a 16-year-old Carpinteria girl ended her life last summer after allegedly warning friends repeatedly the days before.

The girl's death compelled a group of people in Carpinteria to examine the community's resources for teens who are hurting.

They soon discovered how easy it was for some to feel lost.

With few mental health services available in Carpinteria, a new group calling itself Carpinteria Cares for Youth is working to ensure that troubled teens have a place to go for help.

Local educators and mental health experts say the need is there. They're seeing more and more teens today battling depression, suicidal thoughts, alcohol and drug abuse, bullying, promiscuity and sometimes pregnancy, and an increasing sense of despair and apathy.

"A 15- or 16-year-old girl taking her own life is a reflection on the entire community," said Amrita Salm, a board member of the Carpinteria Unified School District who helped start the Carpinteria Cares task force. "We also became aware that this girl had attempted to kill herself once before, and had talked with her friends about doing it again. Yet, even with all this warning, the community was unable to prevent the tragedy."

The girl's death begged the question, Ms. Salm said, "What do teenagers do when their friends talk about these things? What are the signs? Where do they go? How do they get help?"

A first step for the group was inviting in the expertise of a Santa Barbara program known as the Academy of Healing Arts for teens, AHA, devoted to building character, imagination, emotional intelligence and a sense of social responsibility.

With help from the city, Carpinteria Cares was able to fund an AHA facilitator who now meets once a week with a small but growing group of local teens.

Carpinteria Cares' ultimate goal, however, is to build support and funds for a multipurpose satellite center in town that would be a base for many of the agencies already serving teens in Santa Barbara.

From there, the group hopes to put a spotlight on the kinds of issues overwhelming teens and their families today.

"We can't expect a depressed teen to take the initiative to take a bus to Santa Barbara for an appointment with a counselor or a support group," Ms. Salm said. "The support needs to be in our own town."

Founders of AHA say they're delighted to be reaching out to Carpinteria, and are looking to extend their programs elsewhere, as far as Compton.

"Teens in the program learn to set goals, stop bullying and hatred, support their peers and serve their community," said co-founder and therapist Rendy Freedman, who started AHA in Santa Barbara with another therapist, Jennifer Freed, following the Columbine shootings in 1999. "We find that the mastery of these emotional skills is the best predicator of success later in life."

Ms. Freed, a psychotherapist, praised Carpinteria's efforts in responding to a lack of services. She said in the past 25 years, teen suicides have tripled, and larger numbers of kids are going into rehab.

"Teens in Santa Barbara and elsewhere are suffering from a deep and wide sense of alienation," she said. "You've got kids who have committed suicide, kids hitting their heads against the wall, cutting themselves, girls giving (oral sex) because they don't care if they do. It's pathetic. Our mission is to create a community of people, adults and teens, who feel really impassioned about life. Kids feel like they don't have a voice, and that's why drugs and self-destructive behaviors are appealing."

AHA outreach coordinator Isis Castaneda, who refers teens along the South Coast into the program, echoed many of the observations made by Ms. Freed.

"Out of everything I'm seeing, I'm noticing a real disconnect," said Ms. Castaneda. "I think kids are disillusioned, saying 'What's the point?' They see the lies that adults tell in the world. You can understand their apathy. We're trying to bring their hope back by showing them 'What can you do, what is in your power and control.' "

Ms. Castaneda also corroborated the results of a recent Santa Barbara Fighting Back study that showed nearly one in four adolescents in Santa Barbara is abusing drugs or alcohol.

She said the use of crystal methamphetamine, and marijuana, is up.

"Marijuana has changed from when my parents smoked back in the '60s," she said. "It's much more potent, and we really don't know what the ramifications are. If a kid smokes pot on a weekend, they're in a fog for the whole week. The pot out there is so intense, they look like they have a hangover."

She said the AHA program is not "for students to come and get clean."

"We're a program where we support students' emotions and help them figure things out on their own," Ms. Castaneda said.

Some students who have participated in the program say it's given them a new perspective toward life.

"I was getting into fights, really close to getting involved in a gang, close to drugs again," said Carlos Zuniga, a Santa Barbara High School sophomore. "I started going to AHA, we talked about it, they gave me feedback, how to avoid it. You get to know other people's stories."

Another student attending AHA, Cinthia Perez, a senior, was dealing with family problems when Carlos invited her to the sessions, which include getting kids involved in activities like singing in front of a live audience at SOHO as part of an AHA fundraiser last fall.

"I never thought I would be able to be up there doing that," she said. "After, I felt like, if I can do that, I can do anything. Going to the sessions, I've heard stories from other people, things I would have never imagined that were going on at my own school. You get to know them, really open up."

e-mail: ccohee@newspress.com