Blog: Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment

Juvenile Justice Reform with Tyler the Poodle and More; News Roundup

Juvenile Justice Reform

  • Summer Work Program Brings Change; Teens Congratulated for Personal Growth (JacksonSun.com)
    Jackson, Tennessee Mayor Jerry Gist’s Gang Prevention Task Force gave jobs to 43 "at-risk" youth between the ages of 15 and 18 at different locations across Madison County. The young people worked and received mentoring. The county has seen a much lower juvenile arrest rate during this same period.
  • Project to Help Juveniles Make Successful Transition (CarmiTimes.com)
    The Illinois Juvenile Justice Commission on Tuesday announced the start of a demonstration project to reduce the recidivism and improve the outcomes of juvenile offenders. The project will provide intensive reintegration services to help youth transition back into their communities.
  • Prosecutors Share Details of Juvenile Justice System (EnidNews.com)
    Juvenile justice is one of the most difficult parts of the law, but a necessary one designed to do what is in the best interests of the children involved.
  • Kids in Court Have a Friend in Tyler the Poodle (PNJ.com)
    Tyler [the poodle] is one of thousands of certified pet-therapy dogs nationwide, but rather than visiting people in hospitals, nursing homes, hospice centers, schools or libraries, he helps kids in the juvenile court system.
  • Ohio Delegation Visits NJ To Study Juvenile Detention Reform Efforts (NJToday.net)
    A delegation from the state of Ohio including judges, court administrators, representative from the Ohio Department of Youth Services, and other stakeholders, are in New Jersey to attend a two-day working session designed to help Ohio replicate New Jersey’s success in juvenile detention reform.

Caseload Limits a Win in Washington and More; News Roundup

Juvenile Justice Reform

Resiliency During Early Teen Years can Protect Against Later Alcohol, Drug Use

Resiliency is a measure of a person’s ability to flexibly adapt their behaviors to fit the surroundings in which they find themselves. Low resiliency during childhood has been linked to later alcohol/drug problems during the teenage years. A new study has examined brain function and connectivity to assess linkages between resiliency and working memory, finding that higher resiliency may be protective against later alcohol/drug use.
Results will be published in the August 2012 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View.
“Research in the 1980’s found that lower resiliency in children between three to four years old was related to subsequent adolescent drug usage,” said Barbara J. Weiland, a researcher at The University of Michigan and corresponding author for the study. “We subsequently found that low resiliency measured in preschoolers was associated with onset of alcohol use by age 14 and of drunkenness by age 17.”

SAMHSA, Local Communities Take Action to Curb Underage Drinking

This fall, SAMHSA plans to launch "Talk. They Hear You."—its third National Underage Drinking Campaign. With the help of a panel of experts to guide research, objectives, and strategies, SAMHSA has focused the campaign on engaging parents of youth ages 9 to 15 in prevention behaviors and motivating them to talk to their kids before there is a problem. The campaign aims to provide parents with practical advice, information, and tools to support their role as influencers on their child's decision not to drink.
Drinking alcohol under the age of 21 is illegal in the U.S., yet according to SAMHSA's National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), in 2010, approximately 10 million youth ages 12 to 20 reported drinking alcohol in the past month. Underage drinking increases the risk of academic failure, illicit drug use, and tobacco use. And as a leading contributor to death from injuries for people under age 21, underage drinking continues to be a public health concern with serious consequences for youth, their families, and their communities.
In 2006, Congress passed the Sober Truth on Preventing (STOP) Underage Drinking Act that requires the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish and enhance the efforts of the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking. It is through the STOP Underage Drinking Act that SAMHSA's Underage Drinking Prevention National Media Campaign is mandated.

Philanthropist's Grant to Expand Drug Training Programs in Illinois and More; News Roundup

Juvenile Justice Reform

  • Juvenile Justice: They're Just Kids (Hartford Courant)
    Teenagers under age 18 who are charged with misdemeanors can no longer be tried as adults in Connecticut. This overdue new law reflects a more nuanced societal understanding of adolescent development and psychology.
  • Gov. Deal Wants Review of Juvenile Justice System (The Augusta Chronicle)
    Gov. Nathan Deal urged judges, prosecutors, sheriffs and legislators serving on a criminal-justice reform commission Monday to consider every part of the juvenile justice system for overhaul.
  • CT Law Treating 17-Year-Olds as Children in Court Goes Into Effect (EastHampton-PortlandPatch)
    From now on, 17-year-olds arrested for non-felony crimes will be able to take advantage of more state rehabilitation programs rather than jail.
  • Opinion: N.J. Sets a Progressive Example for Juvenile Justice Reform (NJ.com)
    "As a juvenile justice advocate and student of legal history, it appears to me that the court’s holding seems obvious, but juvenile law reform has not gone far enough. The same rationale differentiating youth from adults when considering the harshest sentences also underpins other compelling legal questions," says Matthew M. House.
  • New Law Channeling Older Teens Into Juvenile Court (Hartford Courant)
    New "raise the age'' legislation introduced 17-year-olds into the juvenile court system for the first time on July 1, and by Tuesday, there were 25 of the older kids sitting in detention centers across the state.

Teens More Likely to Try Substances During Summer

The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), a government sponsored study conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), found that teens were more like to try new substances for the first time during June and July. The study surveyed teens between the ages of 12 and 17 who reported trying a new substance within the previous year.
The average daily rates for first-time alcohol use range from 5,000-8,000 and 3,000- 4,000 for first-time cigarette and marijuana use. On an average day in June and July, first time alcohol users alone can reach up to approximately 11,000. In addition, during those two summer months, an average of 4,500 young adults sample cigarettes for the first time and 5,000 teens begin using marijuana.
While there are several possible reasons as to why this jump in first-time substance users occurs in the summer, the most likely are that adolescents have a sudden increase in their free time as well as less adult supervision and responsibilities that are present during the school year.

Is Your Teen Trying Drugs This Summer? News Roundup

Juvenile Justice Reform

  • Bradley County: Juvenile Court, Schools Join to Help Families (TimesFreePress.com)
    From campus courts to an elementary-level class at the county's Juvenile Justice Center, the goal is to keep kids from growing up and entering the adult justice system, officials said Tuesday.
  • Juveniles In Court: New Chief Judge Relies On 'Holistic' Nursing Approach (Hartford Courant)
    Appointed last month as Connecticut's chief administrative judge of juvenile matters, Wolven, whose five-year term will begin in September, said she sees the courts taking the same [holistic] approach when it comes to juvenile offenders.
  • Making an Impression in the Courtroom (JuvenileJusticeBlog.web.unc.edu)
    The senior administrative support specialist in the Pima County Public Defender’s Office maintains a clothes closet for defendants. Inside are more than 60 pairs of men’s and women’s shoes and dozens of slacks, blouses, dress shirts, suit coats and ties. [Vicki Broom] goes to the jail every week to measure defendants heading for trial. If she’s lucky, she’ll be able to find enough outfits to mix and match for the entire trial.

This is Your Teen on Drugs [infographic]

Good news: fewer teens are using drugs now than in the mid-1990s. In the University of Michigan's "Monitoring the Future" survey, 17% of teens reported using drugs in the 30 days before the survey, as compared to 20.6% in 1996. Alcohol, cigarette and smokeless tobacco use are also down, while marijuana is on the rise.

(Check out this interactive infographic based on the report's findings from GOOD Magazine.)
More specifically, the survey found:

$1.29 Million National Evaluation to Examine Juvenile Drug Courts Implementing Reclaiming Futures

New federal dollars will pay for a $1.29 million, multi-year evaluation in six juvenile drug courts implementing Reclaiming Futures, a national program that improves drug and alcohol treatment for teens in trouble with the law. This evaluation, the first of its kind, will examine the impact, processes and cost-effectiveness of Juvenile Drug Courts implementing the Reclaiming Futures model. Funded by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention through an interagency agreement with the Library of Congress, this evaluation will be conducted by the University of Arizona's Southwest Institute for Research on Women (SIROW).
"We know from a 2006 evaluation by the Urban Institute that Reclaiming Futures improves the lives of young people by changing the juvenile justice system for the better," says Susan Richardson, national executive director of Reclaiming Futures. "This new research will look at specific outcomes, such as recidivism, relapse rates, and costs." 

Families are the Frontline: Preventing, Treating and Recovering from Substance Use, Mental Disorders

Families can and do play an important role in preventing, treating and recovering from substance abuse. As part of the National Recovery Month's Road to Recovery video series, Ivette Torres (director for Consumer Affairs at the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment) speaks with doctors, advocates and treatment providers to find out just how families can support their struggling loved ones.

Panelists answer the following questions:

Teens with Mental Health Conditions More Likely to be Prescribed Long-Term Opioids for Chronic Pain

The Journal of Adolescent Health recently published a study in its June issue titled, Mental Health Disorders and Long-term Opioid Use Among Adolescents and Young Adults With Chronic Pain. This study concluded that adolescences and young adults with preexisting mental health conditions are 2.4 times more likely to be prescribed opioids over extended periods of time for chronic pain. The most common documented chronic pain complaints included back pain, neck pain, headache and arthritis or joint pain.

Researchers from Seattle Children’s Research Institute and the University of Washington looked at 13 to 24 year-olds across the West, Midwest and Southwest United States to examine the association between long-term opioid use and mental health disorders. They found that older male youth who live in low-income communities with fewer residents who attended college, were even more likely to use opioids for extended periods.

Study Finds Teen Drinkers More Likely to Feel Like Social Outcasts

A study recently published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior found that adolescents who engage in teenage drinking not only perform poorer academically than their non-drinking peers, but also have much higher tendencies to feel like social outcasts. This is due to the social stress caused by underage drinking.
According to the American Sociological Association, researchers from the University of Texas at Austin and Michigan State University conducted their study, “Drinking, Socioemotional Functioning, and Academic Progress in Secondary School,” by closely examining the data collected from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Add Health began in 1994 and is the largest comprehensive survey of health-related behavior among adolescents between grades 7 and 12.
In addition to the initial findings that underage drinking is linked to feelings of ostracism and poor academic performance, researchers concluded that these feelings of loneliness and social stress are greatly increased in school environments with student populations that tend to form close-knit cliques and do not abuse alcohol.

Discussion of Supreme Court Ban of Life Without Parole for Juveniles and more; news roundup

Juvenile Justice Reform

  • High court ruling on juvenile life sentences means a chance at freedom (Orlando Sentenial)
    In more than two-dozen states, lawyers can now ask for new sentences. And judges will have discretion to look beyond the crime at other factors such as a prisoner's age at the time of the offense, the person's background and perhaps evidence that an inmate has changed while incarcerated.
  • RExO Grants: Reduce Recidivism and Build Lives (Huffington Post)
    This month, the Department of Labor announced grants of nearly $50 million to 25 organizations under two different grant programs that serve juveniles under our Re-Integration of Ex-Offenders initiative.
  • Juvenile Justice: A Move Away From Detention For Some (NorthEscambia.com)
    Florida law enforcement and criminal justice officials say the use of civil citations for troubled youth, rather than a lock-up, is slashing costs, and giving kids a better chance of a turn-around, and they want the practice to become more widespread.
  • L.A. School Police, District Agree to Rethink Court Citations of Students (Juvenile Justice Information Exchange)
    In the wake of critical news reports, Los Angeles school police and administrators have agreed to rethink enforcement tactics that have led to thousands of court citations yearly for young students in low-income, mostly minority neighborhoods.
  • Officials: Mentally ill children who don't get help can end up in criminal justice system (CrownPointCommunity.com)
    To child welfare advocates, the plights of families with mentally ill children demonstrate the state's failure to protect its most vulnerable children. Parents, judges, prosecutors, and other officials in Indiana say there is a multi-agency failure to provide mental health services to the children who need it most.
  • Juvenile justice changes cutting costs (Herald Tribune Politics)
    Florida law enforcement and criminal justice officials say the use of civil citations for troubled youth, rather than a lock-up, is slashing costs, and giving kids a better chance of a turn-around, and they want the practice to become more widespread.

Live Facebook Chat: Amy Winehouse's Father on Substance Abuse

At 3 pm ET, Mitch Winehouse (father of late singer Amy Winehouse) is participating in a live Facebook Q&A chat on substance abuse and how it affected Amy's life. Hosted by the Partnership at Drugfree.org, Mitch will answer questions and discuss his new book, Amy, My Daughter, the inside story of Amy Winehouse's life and career.
Amy Winehouse was a five time Grammy-winning English singer and songwriter. She was the first British female to win five Grammys, including "Best New Artist," "Record of the Year" and "Song of the Year." She struggled with substance abuse and ultimately died of alcohol poisoning in 2011 at the age of 27. 
From the Partnership at Drugfree's announcement:

Cost of addiction on families and more; news roundup

Juvenile Justice Reform

  • $15 million complex 
to open in August, avoids jail-like setting (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)  The new facility is a reflection of a collaborative effort among police, schools and the court that has made Clayton a national model for keeping kids out of jail.
  • Illinois lawmakers raise high school drop out age (wrex.com) Belvidere Superintendent Michael Houselog says he wants to see kids in schools, and that the district is working to accomplish that goal. Guilford High School rising senior Max James says students will pick school over breaking the law.
  • At-risk youths achieve in San Angelo, Texas (gosanangelo.com)  A $154,000 grant was awarded to the Tom Green County Juvenile Justice Department earlier this year to address the needs of children ages 6 through 13. The goal was to identify problems in school or the household before students ended up on juvenile probation.

What is Denver Juvenile and Family Justice Doing Right? Teamwork

They were the recipients of the 2012 JMATE Evidence-Based Practice Program Award for demonstrating a consistent commitment and movement towards evidence-based practice in adolescent substance abuse treatment. What is Denver doing right? Turns out it's good old fashioned teamwork.
We recently spoke with Juvenile Court Presiding Judge Karen M. Ashby about what Denver is doing to break the cycle of drugs, alcohol and crime.  

Note: Review criteria for the JMATE reward included evidence of: (1) using evidence-based manuals, protocols, knowledge, and technologies, and using data to improve implementation, management, and fidelity; (2) a sustained commitment to evidence-based practices; and (3) a specific focus on adolescent treatment and recovery.

Program fosters trust between youth, police and more; news roundup

Juvenile Justice Reform

Teens Turn Corner with Jury of Peers and More: News Roundup

Juvenile Justice Reform
Teens turn corner with jury of their peers (News Star) The teen court program in Ouachita Parish, Louisiana, in operation since 1986, allows juveniles who have been found guilty of nonviolent misdemeanors to go in front of a group of their peers for a second chance.
Revised court rules protect juveniles (Post-Gazette) Revamped juvenile court procedures in Pennsylvania will prevent schools from taking additional disciplinary measures when a child gets in legal trouble outside of school.

Criminal justice podcast with David Onek (Berkeley Law) Probation Officer Scott MacDonald discusses reducing racial disparities in the juvenile justice system, partnering with the community, using data to drive decision-making, sustaining reforms through leadership transitions, and more.
Five questions for Wansley Walters, head of Florida’s Department of Juvenile Justice (FlaglerLive.com) In Miami-Dade, Walters spear-headed the use of civil citations and other diversion programs with generally applauded results. From 1998 to 2008, juvenile arrests dropped by 51 percent there, juvenile detention by 66 percent and re-arrests by 80 percent. It’s estimated that Miami-Dade saved more than $20 million as a result.

PODCAST: Larry Henry and Susan Richardson Have a Heart-to-Heart

Larry Henry of Substance Abuse 411 talks with National Executive Director Susan Richardson about how Reclaiming Futures can help in your community.

In this podcast, Larry asks Susan Richardson about the Reclaiming Futures model and how it unites juvenile courts, probation, adolescent substance abuse treatment, and the community to reclaim youth.
Substance Abuse 411 was created because of Larry's personal family experience with substance abuse and the search for answers to so many unanswered questions.
Together, they discuss ways to improve drug and alcohol treatment and connect teens to positive activities and caring adults.
  
 

Juvenile Justice Reform and Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment News Roundup

Juvenile Justice Reform

  • Mentally ill children who don't get help can end up in criminal justice system (Northwest Indiana Times)  Parents, judges, prosecutors, and other officials in Indiana say there is a multi-agency failure to provide mental health services to the children who need it most.
  • Are too many kids being sent to court for minor offenses? (Southern California Public Radio)  A growing wave of juvenile justice experts say school districts send too many students to court for minor offenses. Usually those kids are African American or Latino. A nonprofit’s effort to track school citations within Los Angeles Unified School District indicates that the district is following that pattern.
  • Director of troubled youth agency to retire (Texas Tribune)  Cherie Townsend, the executive director of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department, announced Tuesday that she will retire at the end of June after nearly four years leading the state's institutions for youth offenders.

Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment

  • New report: Health care costs drop if adolescent substance abusers use 12-step programs (University of Wisconsin-Madison) The use of 12-step programs, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, by adolescents with a history of drug and alcohol abuse not only reduces the risk of relapse but also leads to lower health care costs, according to research by the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.
  • Spotting depression in kids is essential (Albert Lea Tribune) There is a common misconception that many of the symptoms of depression, such as irritability and mood swings, are a normal part of adolescence. This is not the case and should be taken into account if there are other symptoms.
  • A vaccination for depression (Chicago Tribune) Dr. Benjamin Van Voorhees, who is chief of general pediatrics at Children's Hospital University of Illinois, and his team identify kids at risk and then use a combination of traditional counseling and Internet-based learning to stave off mental disorders so they don't fall into substance abuse.

Jobs, Grants, Events and Webinars
Please share the Reclaiming Futures Opportunity Board with your colleagues in the juvenile justice, adolescent substance abuse and teen mental health areas. It's free to browse and post!

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