The Conover Company - Substance Abuse Prevention

The Conover Company

The Substance Abuse Prevention Program is a positive self-assessment and skill enhancement system designed to directly benefit the user. Its focus is on what is healthy and right about a person and provides tangible suggestions and follow-up curriculum to improve skills that need to be further developed.

Personal change is difficult when a person lacks the opportunity to learn how to change in ways that are healthy and creative. At some time in our lives, most of us need help in learning more creative and skilled ways of viewing and of being in the world. In The Substance Abuse Prevention Program, mental health is seen on a continuum ranging from the lethal/destructive personality to the healthy and skilled personality. In the developmental process of personal growth, a person may shift from one end of the continuum to the other. The ability of a person to move toward mental health as a process of positive personal growth is dependent on developing skilled responses to the specific demands of daily living and replacing self-defeating life patterns with new skills in thinking, feeling, and behaving.

Assessment and Skill Enhancement

The assessment component consists of the following scales:

Self-Esteem
Interpersonal Assertion
Interpersonal Awareness
Empathy
Drive Strength/Motivation
Decision Making
Time Management
Sales Orientation/Leadership
Commitment Ethic
Stress Management
Physical Wellness

In this pattern, note how Self-Esteem, Stress Management, and Physical Wellness are low. Also note that Drive Strength, Sales Orientation, and Commitment Ethic are high. This individual is not accustomed to having low Self-Esteem. The low Stress Management and Physical Wellness scales indicate recent and unusual events in this person's life. Changes have taken place for this person recently, and something must be done soon to either correct or cope with the changes. If not dealt with, abusive catastrophic decision making could result from the situation. This person needs to acknowledge the stressors so that the situation can be consciously dealt with before it gets any worse. This individual does not have experience coping. The low scales of Self-Esteem, Stress Management, and Physical Wellness must be brought up or this person may become physically or emotionally ill as an outcome of not making personal changes. Many times a person does not recognize the need or time for making creative personal changes in his or her way of thinking, feeling, and behaving. One of the most important personal skills that a person can develop is the ability to recognize and know how and when to make creative personal changes (high Change Orientation).

After the assessment, appropriate skill enhancements are assigned. Each skill enhancement module consists of approximately 3-4 hours of interactive, learning activities, listening activities, and post assessments.

System Requirements

Windows 98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista
SVGA Graphics, 256 Color or better (16-bit recommended)
CD-ROM Drive (6X or better recommended)
Pentium or compatible processor (Pentium 4 processor recommended)
32 MB RAM minimum (128 MB recommended)
Sound card and speakers (16-bit sound recommended)
QuickTime 6.0
Printer

Education Version 1

The Education Version 1 has a reading comprehension level of 8th to 10th grade and includes full audio.

Education Version 2

The Education Version 2 has a reading comprehension level of 4th to 5th grade. The Education Version 2 has simplified concepts, less reading, and full audio. The Education Version 2 is for the audience with limited reading skills and attention span.

Symbolic Version

The Symbolic Version is a simple summary of each unit in the program with less reading and more graphics, intended to be projected on a wall for instructor-led activities. Each screen is referenced to follow a print version of the product.

Click here to see the difference between the different versions.

A companion CD-ROM for Printed Materials is included so that all user workbooks can be printed and distributed. The CD-ROM Print Materials are available as an option to the program and are licensed to the site or building.

Developing Healthy Relationships

Healthy persons are growth motivated and view living as a process of becoming all that they are capable of becoming. They are aware of their weaknesses and accept them as problems to solve. Healthy persons do not seem overly self-conscious or "stuck" on their problems. They seem to demonstrate spontaneity in their thinking, feeling, and behavior and they maintain a high degree of personal autonomy. The Substance Abuse Prevention Program can help develop healthy relationships and interpersonal communications, improve personal leadership, increase self-management in life, school and career, enhance intrapersonal development, and help individuals recognize potential problems, anxiety and dissatisfaction with self or current level of emotional skills. These three potential problem areas (aggression, deference and change orientation) can serve as early warning alarms. When people are able to identify and recognize potential problems in a timely manner, they can use this much needed information in a skilled and productive manner to remove abusive and destructive behaviors and replace them with healthy behaviors, while at the same time opening themselves up to learn new skills, adapt to change, and develop a healthy outlook on life.