How to Get Teens to Engage in Treatment, and More: Bonus Roundup

Last week, I received too many links and resources to put in last week's roundup of links related to the juvenile justice system and adolescent substance abuse treatment.
So here's a bonus roundup - there's something here for everyone!
 
Mentoring At-Risk Teens

• I posted about this separately, but don't forget to check out the grants available to support mentoring for children with incarcerated parents from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB). Awards will also be made to states with high numbers of prisoners, and provisions for tribal entities in areas with high percentages of incarcerated Native Americans. Application deadline is July 30, 2010.
• Live in the Seattle area and want to work with teens in juvenile detention or in the psychiatric hospital? Pongo Teen Writing is looking for volunteers to work with them. We've featured writing from teens in the justice system and treatment from Pongo Teen Writing several times before.

 
Improving Adolescent Treatment

• Want to increase youth motivation and engagement in drug treatment? Follow the link for a promising practice toolkit from NIATx that can help you do exactly that by providing youth with an orientation to treatment. Amazingly simple, but it works (and not just for teens). The toolkit includes success stories from other providers, step-by-step instructions for replicating it in your agency, links to sample forms and tracking sheets, and links to other, related promising practices. (Want to see other providers talk about how big a difference NIATx made to their agencies? Check out this video on "The Power of Process Improvement.")
• The Addiction Technology Transfer Center concludes its three-part series on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) in the June 2010 issue of its e-newsletter, The Addiction Messenger. Treatment providers take note: you can obtain NAADAC contact hours for reading The Addiction Messenger's April-June 2010 series on CBT. To learn more, click on the logo at right. (Hat tip to Paul Savery for bringing the NAADAC contact hours to my attention.)

 
Crossover Youth News and Resources

• Crossover youth -- children and youth involved in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems -- are the focus of the March 2010 Judges' Pagenewsletter from CASA, produced in collaboration with the National Council for Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ).  Related post: Shay Bilchik of the Center for Juvenile Justice Reform wrote about addressing disproportionality in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems on this blog last January. His agency also recently produced a report on addressing the unmet educational needs of crossover youth.
• Psychotropic drugs are drastically overprescribed for youth in foster care, often without sufficient assessment of the child's needs, for uses that are not medically approved, and in dangerous and untested combinations -- with little oversight. (Hat tip to Policy for Results.)

 
Understanding and Preventing Risky Teen Behavior

• Check out these three recent research articles from a special issue of Developmental Psychobiology on adolescent risk-taking (hat tip to Jutta Butler at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration [SAMHSA]):

• The first, by Susan D. Calkins, introduces the issue with a quick overview of the research on teen development and the papers included in the issue.
• The second, by Laurence Steinberg, superstar researcher on adolescent development (follow link and scroll to second bullet), focuses on the rate at which teens develop the capacity to regulate their own behavior vs. taking risks. Steinberg concludes that reducing opportunities for teens to do risky things will be more "effective than attempts to make adolescents wiser, less impulsive, or less shortsighted. Some things just take time to develop, and mature judgment is probably one of them."
• In the third article, Daniel Romer appears to disagree with Steinberg when he argues that brain development matters less than experience when it comes to teaching teens not to engage in risky behavior. He writes that, "despite their greater risk taking, high-sensation seeking youth can learn from the consequences of their behavior and ultimately become less impatient than their less risky peers."
•  The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) has relaunched ts "Above the Influence" site designed to provide peer-to-peer support to help teens stay off drugs and alcohol. It includes video, podcasts, and written messages from real teens struggling with negative influences and talking about positive ones. Teens can get involved by contributing to the site; in addition, by participating in The Influence Project, teens can give their community a chance to receive "the 'ATI Experience' in their town, including an Above the Influence wall mural, a 'creation station' for teens to create their own versions of the Above the Influence symbol, advertising featuring artwork produced by local teens, and additional activities that support anti-drug choices." (Hat tips to Paul Savery and Jutta Butler.)
• Parents looking for help with positive parenting techniques might want to check out  Parentfurther, a comprehensive site offering tips, research, and an online community. The site is sponsored by the Search Institute, and is organized around its well-known 40 developmental assets. (Hat tip to Paul Savery.)

 
General Resources for Juvenile Justice and Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment

• You may remember HBO's thorough and groundbreaking series on addiction from 2006; Paul Savery called my attention to a short (26-minute) film focused on adolescent addiction (screenshot at right), which covers two young men and their treatment.
• Connect for Kids has launched a new website called SparkAction, which has a number of resources related to children and youth. Check out their intro video and this page devoted to juvenile justice issues.

 
Getting the Word Out for Teens Who Need Treatment

• Want to hold an event for teens in your area supporting recovery from drug and alcohol use? Then grab a copy of the SAMHSA Recovery Month Tool Kit for 2010 - everything you need is inside. It includes event planning and promotion tips, information on how to build community organizations, information on stress and substance use disorders in the family, and many other resources. You can also learn how to get involved with the national campaign online.)
• The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has a great fact sheet on the costs offset by providing addiction treatment -- it's adult-focused, but a good basis for discussion with policymakers. 
• Do you work for a small nonprofit that's trying to get the hang of social networking? The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has put together a webinar on strategic communications, a step-by-step guide to getting started on Twitter and Facebook, and a glossary of terms. And, while I'm on the topic of communications, it seems like a good time to remind folks of this Tip Sheet for Media Interviews, from Faces & Voices of Recovery.