Teen Drug Overdose Death Rate Doubles Over Last Decade; News Roundup

Every week Reclaiming Futures rounds up the latest news on juvenile justice reform, adolescent substance use treatment, and teen mental health. 

Teen Drug Overdose Death Rate Doubles Over Last Decade (Psychiatry Advisor)
Trust For America's Health released a new report with findings that the American drug overdose mortality rate has more than doubled over the last ten years, and especially among young men between the ages of 12 to 25 years old. Prescription drugs were found to be responsible for many of the overdoses, and were also found to be connected to heroin addictions in young people.

Holiday Homophobia Hurts (The Huffington Post)
Advocate and author, Derrick De Lise, highlights the experiences LGBTQIA+ adults and youth continue to undergo around the holidays, and ways to respond to family and the community. De Lise also encourages LGBTQIA+ adults to speak up for the sake of youth in their families who may be questioning their own sexuality, but haven't come out yet.

Focus on community programs leads to drop in juvenile lockups (The Columbus Dispatch)
In a new study conducted by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), the state of Ohio was was identified as a national leader in diverting justice-involved youth to "lower-cost community programs, instead of prison."

NY Children Get Involved in Action for Tamir Rice (Juvenile Justice Information Exchange)
One year has passed since 12 year old Tamir Rice was killed by Cleveland Police, and while there were demonstrations around the country this past week, a march in Manhattan caught national attention for being a "children's march," with participants' ages ranging from two to seventeen years old.

Native One-Stop Portal Makes Finding Benefits Easier (Indian Country Today)
In September Benefits.gov released its launch of Native One Stop, with a goal of improving the lives of Native American youth. American Indians and Alaska Natives may quickly and easily access Federal resources and programs. A pre-screening questionnaire is used to provide a personalization of information and resources to online visitors.

L.A. Unified sees success in counseling rather than arresting truants and kids who fight (Los Angeles Times)
While campus police around the country are generally considered part of the school-to-prison pipeline problem, L.A. Unified officers are doing things differently by collaborating with community organizations for major reforms that favor counseling over arrests.

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