Blog: Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment

Roundup: Most Teens Who Need Treatment Don't Get it, Rockefeller Drug Laws May be Repealed, and Much More

newspaper
Unsurprising news for those of us in Reclaiming Futures: a study funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that only about 10 percent of adolescents who have substance abuse problems actually enter treatment, partly because the nation lacks sufficient teen-only treatment services. Furthermore, of the adolescent treatment programs that are available, very few receive "high marks for quality." You can find the actual study in the March 2009 issue of the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment.
More news:

Key Attitudes on Addiction from National Survey

person filling out surveyA recent national survey of attitudes toward addiction performed by Hazelden contains some encouraging news: 

  • 77% of Americans agree that addiction treatment should be part of healthcare reform (though many are unsure if their own insurance plan covers it); and
  • 78% of Americans "understand that drug addiction is a chronic disease rather than a personal failing."

Protecting Youth in the Justice System from Self-Incrimination

Justice with scales and swordLourdes Rosado is a Senior Attorney for Juvenile Law Center. Below, she introduces a useful guide to help your community screen teens for behavioral health and drug problems while protecting their rights in and out of juvenile court. Juvenile Law Center is the oldest multi-issue public interest law firm in the country dedicated to advancing the rights and well-being of children in jeopardy.—Ed. 
In the last decade, states and localities have worked hard to identify and treat the large percentage of youth in the juvenile justice system who have mental health and substance abuse disorders.

Changing the Juvenile Court - How to Get Buy-In

Gregg Roth, Reclaiming Futures Nassau County, NY from Reclaiming Futures NPO on Vimeo.

[Gregg Roth is a prosecutor in the Nassau County Juvenile Drug Treatment Court and a member of the Nassau County Juvenile Drug Treatment Court/Reclaiming Futures Change Team. -Ed.]

Engage Families in Juvenile Justice System Reform and Advocacy - More Ideas

lightbulbA couple days ago, we posted six tips on engaging family members in your efforts to reform the juvenile justice system and how it works with teens with drug and alcohol problems. Grace Bauer, who authored the tips, wrote to say that some excellent additional resources are coming:

Teen Suicides in Justice System Often Unknown to State Regulators

Youth Today reports that the number of juveniles in the justice system who commit suicide while confined is higher than anyone thought -- worse yet, their deaths often go unreported to state authorities.
We know this because the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) commissioned a report, Characteristics of Juvenile Suicide in Confinement. Though the report was completed in 2004, it was only released yesterday. The author blames former top OJJDP administrator, J. Robert Flores for the delay. 
One takeaway: youth entering detention should be given mental health assessments as soon as possible. Over half of the youth who killed themselves in detention did so within the first six days, and only 35% had received a mental health assessment by then. Stands to reason that a youth's alcohol and drug use should also be assessed at the same time.

Six Tips for Engaging Families in Juvenile Justice System Reform and Advocacy

cartoon - 4 people fitting puzzle pieces Families can be one of the most powerful levers for changing how youth in the juvenile justice system access alcohol and drug treatment -- and improving its quality. But involving family members in reform work is difficult.
Fortunately, it's a skill that can be learned. To help you along, we're reprinting below a newsletter column written by Grace Bauer, Community Organizer for the Campaign for Youth Justice. --Ed.

 
Strategies for Engaging Families in
Advocacy and System Reform Efforts
by Grace Bauer

Juvenile Justice and Teen Substance Abuse Treatment - News Roundup

  • Teen alcohol and drug treatment is often paid for with funds from the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) funds. So it was especially good news to hear that 4 million more children will be covered by the federal program.
  • No word on who the permanent new Drug Czar will be. In the mean time, an interim Drug Czar was named by Obama.
  • Even alcohol and drug policy groups at the state level can be subject to politics: in New Jersey, the State Comptroller audited the Governor's Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse for the first time in its 20-year existence, and said its $10 million budget would never produce "measurable results."

When Are Teens Screened for Substance Abuse in Your Legal System? -- Survey Results

Person writing on paperRecently, we asked you to take a survey, in order to address some basic questions:

  • At what point in the legal process do you screen youth for alcohol and drug use/abuse? 
  • What screening tool are you using? How well do you think it works?
  • If you perform pre-adjudication screenings, how do you make sure the results do not interfere with the rights of the child in court?

Thanks to all who participated, so we can present our extremely unscientific results.

Adolescent Treatment - Update on Two National Conferences

 
Normally at this time of year, we at the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) are busily preparing for the Joint Meeting on Adolescent Treatment Effectiveness (JMATE) – a national conference on teen substance abuse treatment. This would have been our 5th year for the conference, which has steadily grown in size and scope. Unfortunately, we’re not going to be able to hold the meeting this year, for reasons beyond our control. We do expect, however, to be able to have the meeting again in 2010. 
 
For those of you who may not be familiar with JMATE, you can still view the website from last year, where many of the presentations can be downloaded for your use. There are also links to the earlier meetings and their presentations.

High School Seniors as Likely to Smoke Marijuana as Cigarettes

Thumbnail of graph showing cigarette and marijuana use According to data culled by the Center for Substance Abuse Research (CESAR) from the University of Michigan's ongoing Monitoring the Future study, high school seniors are now about as likely to smoke marijuana as cigarettes: 19.4% reported using marijuana in the last 30 days, vs. the 20.4% lof seniors who reported smoking cigarettes. 
Both cigarette use and marijuana use by seniors have been declining since 1997 -- but cigarette use has dropped much more quickly. 
This is the first time since the early 1980s that cigarette and marijuana use have paralleled each other so closely. (Click on the image for a closer look at the numbers.)

Reclaiming Futures on Comcast Newsmakers

  • Want a quick orientation to Reclaiming Futures?
  • Work for a Reclaiming Futures initiative, and wonder how to do an "elevator speech" about it? 

Check out Dr. Laura Nissen, National Director of Reclaiming Futures, in this brief, 4-minute interview on Comcast Newsmakers. It aired in a break on Comcast's CNN Headline News in late December.

Take Our Survey: When Are Teens Screened for Substance Abuse in Your Legal System?

Judge BordersJudge Bettina Borders has some questions for you.
Judge Borders is first justice of the Bristol County Juvenile Court at the Reclaiming Futures site in Bristol County, MA. Her site is in the process of developing a uniform drug screening tool.* As part of the process, the judge would like to hear from other jurisdictions about the following:

Roundup: Only 10% of U.S. High Schools Use Evidence-Based Prevention Programs, and More

  • Thumbnail of graph from Childrens' Defense Fund reportThe Children's Defense Fund has issued its State of America's Children Report for 2008, and it paints a stark picture, indeed. For example, see p. 49 for a graphic representation of how black youth are disproportionately arrested for drug offenses, even though other data indicates they use drugs at the same rate or less than most other teens.

Washington State's Strategic Plan for Improving Adolescent Treatment

Front cover of Washington State Adolescent Treatment Strategic PlanDoes your state have a plan for improving treatment for teens with substance abuse problems?

Jim Vollendroff and I had the privilege to attend numerous meetings and contribute to the creation of a Washington State strategic plan on adolescent substance abuse treatment. (Jim is the Chemical Dependency Coordinator for King County, WA, and a Reclaiming Futures Treatment Fellow.) The Reclaiming Futures Model was our concrete framework to assure that the entire group focused on system areas that need to be addressed and/or changed. 
Here's an introduction to the plan from David Jefferson, the former CSAT Grant Coordinator housed at the Washington State's Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse (DASA):

Resource Guide for the Justice System on Evidence-Based Approaches to Address Substance Abuse

Cover of resource guidePhysicians and Lawyers for National Drug Policy (PLNDP) has partnered with the National Judicial College to create Alcohol and Other Drug Problems: a Public Health and Public Safety Priority, A Resource Guide for the Justice System on Evidence-Based Approaches. (Order free copies for yourself and your team; download the PDF; or access it on the web.)

How to Educate Your Representatives about Teen Treatment in Four Easy Steps-Part 2

Oregon Capitol Building[This is the second part of a two-part post. See first post here.]
3. Be prepared for the unexpected. You can't plan for every contingency, but plan for the worst, so you'll be as prepared as you can be.

  • What happens if someone you were counting on to testify comes down with pneumonia?
  • What if one of your partners adds an extra speaker you didn't plan for?
  • What if several legislators on the committee you were scheduled to testify before are unable to attend the hearing, due to family emergencies and other crucial commitments? 

How to Educate Your Representatives about Teen Treatment in Four Easy Steps-Part 1

Oregon Capitol Building(This is the first part of a two-part post. Read the second post here.)
Last week, Laura Nissen of Reclaiming Futures and other experts on drug and alcohol treatment were invited to testify at a hearing by the Oregon State Senate Health and Human Services Committee. Legislators rarely get the chance to learn about adolescent substance abuse in depth, and this was a great opportunity to help them understand the problem -- and possible solutions.
You can do this, too. Here's how organizers made it happen in Oregon:

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