Blog: Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment

• Join the CyberShoutout October 28: Making Smart Choices Kicking off National Drug Facts Week, the CyberShoutout is a day-long special event featuring discussions in social media by bloggers, organization leaders, and other stakeholders on the topic of youth drug abuse. The Shout is hosted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health.
• National Drug Facts Week is October 31-November 6
  Hosted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Drug Facts Week is a health observance week for teens that aims to shatter the myths about drugs and drug abuse. Through community-based events and activities on the Web, on TV, and through contests, NIDA is working to encourage teens to get factual answers from scientific experts about drugs and drug abuse.
• Abstracts Due November 1 for JMATE
  The Joint Meeting on Adolescent Treatment Effectiveness offers a unique opportunity for for practice, research and treatment communities to exchange ideas and data, thereby moving the field of adolescent treatment toward effective, evidence-based and promising practices. The conference is Tuesday, April 10 through Thursday, April 12, 2012 in Washington, DC.

• New National Poll: Strong Support for Youth Rehabilitation Over Incarceration
  Poll highlights critical and timely information on youth in the justice system, showing overwhelming public support for treatment and rehabilitation of youth over incarceration and automatic prosecution in adult criminal court. This survey, a sample of 1,000 American adults, was commissioned by the Campaign for Youth Justice.
• Sustainability: Impact Beyond Grant Programs
  These slides and guides from Pennsylvania State University are very helpful for juvenile justice programs and prevention work. (Hat tip to Paul Savery)
• Feds Tell California Marijuana Dispensaries to Shut Down
  U.S. attorneys say they will prosecute landlords who rent space to operators of medical marijuana dispensaries. The attorneys said they suspect these dispensaries of using the state’s medical marijuana law to profit from large-scale drug sales.

• Why Are All the Black Kids in Special Ed?
  Minority students (and especially Black students) are disproportionately diagnosed with disabilities and placed in special education or lowest-level courses. The Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia makes the case for seeking a second opinion.
• Lasting Drop in Smoking, Delinquency, Drug Use
  Study shows that tenth-graders in towns using Communities That Care, a prevention system developed by University of Washington researchers, are less likely to have tried drinking or smoking compared with teens living in towns that had not adopted the system. Delinquent behavior, including stealing, vandalism and physical fights, decreased too.
• Kids-for-Cash Sentencing Set for November 4
  Robert J. Powell, the former co-owner of two juvenile detention centers in Pennsylvania who testified he paid kickbacks to two judges, may serve 21 to 27 months in prison for failing to report a felony and abetting tax evasion.

Make access to alcohol more difficult and young adults are likely to commit fewer violent crimes. That’s what two studies by University of California at Riverside researchers showed recently, according to an article published by CBS Los Angeles.
The first study, which examined 91 of the largest American cities in 36 states, found a link between alcohol store density and violent crime among teens and young adults aged 13-24.
In the second study, researchers found higher rates of violent crimes in neighborhoods near alcohol outlets with more than 10 percent of freezer space for single-serve containers. The researchers described the effect as “modest,” yet crime did increase in areas with a higher percentage of single serve alcohol containers.

• NYT Editorial: Fewer Teenagers Locked Up in the US
  There are 25% fewer incarcerated young people than last decade. Learn more about that federal data from the Research and Evaluation Center at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and sustainability and strategy from Three Strategies for Changing Juvenile Justice, a previous post on www.reclaimingfutures.org.
• Restorative Justice: Hot Topic in SF District Attorney’s Race
  Candidates debate bringing together offenders, victims and community members to discuss the impact of a crime and help repair the damage through accountability and rehabilitation rather than punishment.
• Liquor Store Density Linked to Youth Homicides
  U.S. studies find a correlation between the density of alcohol outlets, availability of single-serve alcoholic beverages and violent crime rates among teens and young adults ages 13 to 24.

What does national health care reform mean for teens in the juvenile justice system who have substance abuse disorders?
On September 29, 2011 at 10:00am PDT / 1:00pm EDT, Doreen Cavanaugh, Ph.D., of the Health Policy Institute at Georgetown University, presented a webinar sponsored by Reclaiming Futures, titled, "Health Reform: Opportunities for Juvenile Justice Involved Youth with Substance Use Disorders and their Families."
Dr. Cavanaugh addressed the existing and upcoming changes in the U.S. health care system by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the health reform law.
She:

• identified existing funding sources supporting treatment and recovery services for youth with substance use disorders who are involved in the juvenile justice system;
• highlighted new opportunities for these youth and their families under health care reform;
• discussed ways to enhance collaborative relationships across the health and juvenile justice sectors; and
• detailed the steps to take now at state and local levels to improve access and quality of treatment and recovery services for youth in the juvenile justice system.

View the archived webinar: follow the link and scroll down for webinars under "Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment" (or search by title or the presenter's name).

 
 
 
Want to present at the 2012 Joint Meeting on Adolescent Treatment Effectiveness (JMATE)? The organizers have put out a call for abstracts. (They're due November 1, 2011). Here's the official announcement: 
 

We are thrilled to announce that the 2012 Joint Meeting on Adolescent Treatment Effectiveness (JMATE) is taking place April 10-12, 2012 in Washington, DC. 
 
We are currently seeking abstract submissions! The deadline for submission is November 1, 2011. For complete details and instructions on how to submit your abstract, please see the attached 2012 JMATE Call for Abstracts (PDF) or visit the Abstract Submission page of the JMATE Website at www.jmate.org/jmate2012/. 
 
If you have any questions or additional information needs, please contact us at JMATE-info@jbsinternational.com.  Thank you for your continued work on behalf of adolescent treatment and recovery!

>>Download the call for abstracts here.

Evidence-based practices and how to implement them is a priority for many substance abuse treatment organizations, including those treating adolescent.  
To help with this priority, NIATx has launched a new project, the Building a Sustainable National Infrastructure for Research and Dissemination of Improved Behavioral Treatment Practices, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). The informal title for this project is “The Network of Practice.”
Its aim? To build an internet-based community focused on adopting evidence-based clinical practices. The resulting tool may include features such as virtual cafes, a step-by-step guide to implementing an evidence-based practice, a library of practical information, and a cost-benefit calculator.
More than 500 organizations have completed an online survey for this project (and that number is growing). You can still complete the survey (which takes about five minutes to complete) by visiting: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/infra_survey
For more information about the project or to get involved in its development, please contact:
Anna Wheelock at anna.wheelock@chess.wisc.edu or
Kim Johnson at Kimberly.johnson@chess.wisc.edu

• Promising Practice: Helping Young People into Employment
  LA Fitness founder Fred Turok spearheaded "Transforming a Generation," a program that provides on the job training and has helped 1,400 young people into jobs or higher education.
• Two OJJDP Grants Cut for Lack of Funding
  The Comprehensive Anti-Gang Strategies and Programs and Evaluation of the Second Chance Act Juvenile Mentoring Initiatives were worth $750,000. Both grants were not awarded due to spending cuts in 2011. (Hat tip to Youth Today)
• NIATx Training: Billing Third-Party Payers
  This learning collaborative will focus on giving behavioral healthcare providers, including adolescent substance abuse treatment providers, the skills they need to bill third-party payers for their services. Application deadline has been extended to September 23.
• New Guide for Community Collaboration
  The National Collaboration for Youth has created "Invitation to the Big Picture: Implementing a Local Collaboration for Youth in Your Community," a guide to identifying or forming an association of local child- and youth-serving agencies. Please use and share this guide with your national and local networks. (Hat tip FYI)