COLLEGE OF THE CANYONS : Hot Line Offers Health, Stress Aid

College of the Canyons has started a new telephone hot line to help students and community members become aware of drug, alcohol and health risks ranging from smoking to stress, designer drugs to dieting.

The hot line, called the California Community College Awareness System, is a free, confidential and anonymous 24-hour telephone service that provides 88 tape-recorded messages on AIDS, cocaine, marijuana, tobacco, stress, weight and nutrition, mental health and other issues. Callers can listen to as many as three messages per call.

“They’re facts. What can happen, what the effects are,” said Marilyn Van Aken, coordinator of the college health center. “Sometimes that’s the beginning. You hear it and realize you need help.”

The messages, fully automated and accessible via any touch-tone phone, are provided by the Institute for Drug and Alcohol Prevention in San Marcos.

Of particular interest to student health centers is the fact that the new system also can be used to compile data on health or drug issues of concern to students and the community.

Van Aken, who began operating the system in October, said the 51 calls the system has received in little more than a month already reveal interest in certain issues.

The message “Marijuana: Facts and Fiction” received the most calls with six, while marijuana issues, with 17 calls, generated more interest than any other category. The AIDS and weight and nutrition categories drew eight calls each.

Although Van Aken would prefer a two- or three-month survey of calls before making an educational thrust related to certain issues, she said: “It’s exciting for me to have a way to map student interest and see where we need to get more education out.”

A sheet listing the phone number and recording codes is available at the health center and Associated Students offices.