Westborough – The Westborough community will host a special informational event about vaping and e-cigarettes and their effects – “Smoke and Mirrors: A Square One Panel Presentation on Vaping and E-Cigarettes.” The free program, open to all including teens, will be held Thursday, Oct. 3, at the Mill Pond School cafeteria, 6 Old Hickory Path, Westborough, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The event will include a panel presentation with small group discussion and question and answer session.
The event is sponsored by Westborough Youth & Family Services, Rotary Club of Westborough, Westborough Public Schools, and Westborough Connects. It is the third in a series of informational community meetings to shed light on the reality of vaping and e-cigarettes. In light of startling increases in the number of adolescents using vaping/e-cigarette products, these community groups are responding to public sentiment about the urgency of addressing the issue through awareness and education. This program aims to reach adolescents, their parents and adults who care about them, as well as educators and professionals in social services, behavior health and medicine.
Local community members have voiced a desire for more knowledge about what e-cigarettes look like, where and how they are obtained, what physical and psychological effects they have and how addictive they are. Panelists will address these issues, as well as options for helping adolescents who are already using these products. Rotary Club of Westborough has funded this panel presentation, which seeks to provide answers that the community is looking for.
The panel includes Jason Verhoosky, director of Wayland Youth and Family Services, and pediatrician Dr. Safdar Medina of UMass Memorial Medical Group. Verhoosky has worked in the field of youth development since 2001 and has focused on substance abuse prevention since 2008. Medina is assistant professor of pediatrics, University of Massachusetts Medical School, and a pediatrician at Tri River Family Heath Center in Uxbridge. He is also the Northborough/Southborough school district physician.
Free childcare (children must be potty-trained) is offered for participants who request it on pre-registration. Language interpretation will be provided upon request with pre-registration.
For more information and to register, visit www.westboroughconnects.com/programs.