Blog: Evidence-Based Practices

I just got back from the 2010 Joint Meeting on Adolescent Treatment Effectiveness (JMATE) in Baltimore. I, along with other guest bloggers, will be passing on what was shared in the coming weeks. To start off, here's something Dr. Michael Dennis reminded me of while I was at the conference: Chestnut Health Systems has posted a ton of evidence-based, tested clinical protocols for treating adolescent substance abuse, all available for free download. 
Most treatment providers are aware of the Cannabis Youth Treatment (CYT) manuals:

• MET/CBT-5
• MET/CBT-7
• Family Support Network (FSN)
• Adolescent Community Reinforcement Approach (ACRA)
• Multi-Dimensional Family Therapy (MDFT) for Cannabis Users

>>Download them here.
Fewer are aware of the "Adolescent Treatment Models" research funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) that followed on the heels of the CYT research. The basic idea was to see whether home-grown programs (vs. models created external to a specific agency) were more effective than "treatment as usual."

• Helping Teens in Recovery Starts with a Simple Phone Call. The Science and Management of Addictions (SAMA) Foundation in Seattle is piloting a mentor-by-phone program that now supports 50 teens in recovery after completing substance abuse treatment. The pilot program, "The Recover2gether Project," offers weekly phone calls to teens and two other services. It's funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). 
• Also For Teens in Recovery: "Laughter Yoga." The idea is that laughter -- even fake laughter -- changes your breathing and mood in positive ways. Follow the link to watch teens in a sober high school in Oklahoma trying it out on video.   (Hat tip to the Association of Recovery Schools.)

Using evidence-based practices in the juvenile justice system reduces delinquency and avoids costs. Those of us in the field hear this regularly – but it can be hard to see their impact on a day-to-day basis. 
How do we know they work? Let's start at the beginning. What we commonly refer to as "evidence-based practices" in the juvenile justice field are based on over 40 years of research regarding what works to reduce juvenile crime. Unlike studies that look at single programs, this research looked at over a hundred studies and found what consistently worked to reduce crime versus what consistently made crime worse. [1]

 
Teens in Lockup - a Documentary and a Photo Project about Juveniles in the Justice System

• Click on the screen shot at right to check out four short clips from "Juvies," an award-winning documentary from 2004 focusing on youth in California's juvenile justice system who were tried as adults and received extremely harsh sentences (photo at right is of "Sandra). You might also be interested in the "syllabus" assembled by the filmmakers in response to frequent requests for additional classroom resources to supplement the film. 

• Photographer Ara Oshagan, who shot the B-roll for "Juvies," recently produced a documentary photo project called, "Juvies: a Collaborative Portrait of Juvenile Offenders," featuring youth in Los Angeles County Juvenile Hall, along with text written by the youth. You can learn more about Oshagan and how his experiences awakened an interest in juvenile justice reform here.

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has released additional funding opportunities for 2010 -- this time, focused on different aspects of data and evaluation.  
You can apply to: 

• Evaluate what works in addressing girls' delinquency. (There's a dearth of evidence now, so you have a chance to be a pioneer.) Amount: $200,000 to $400,000 for a project period of up to three years. Deadline: July 8, 2010. 
• Propose a research project to evaluate what works in responding to juvenile delinquency. Amount: $200,000 to $500,000 for project period of up to three years. Deadline: June 29, 2010. 
• Help OJJDP compile and disseminate statistics relevant to the juvenile justice field. Amount: up to $2.4 million, total, for three years. Deadline: July 6, 2010. 
• Establish a National Juvenile Justice Evaluation Center to assist OJJDP grantees (and communities in general) in building local capacity to effectively design and implement evaluations of juvenile justice interventions. Amount: up to $1.5 million for three years. Deadline: July 9, 2010. 

NIATx is working with selected adolescent treatment providers in Wisconsin to identify and remove barriers to the implementation of Teen Intervene. This evidence-based practice has not yet been used in Wisconsin. It is designed for use with teens that are experimenting with drugs and/or alcohol, but who are not “dependent”—a population that generally receives no services. 

To help organizations seeking a time- and cost-efficient assessment for adolescents, Inflexxion developed the Comprehensive Health Assessment for Teens, or CHAT, which has been found to be both valid and reliable in research funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).
The CHAT format is based on the ASI-MV Connect, a self-administered, multimedia version of the Addiction Severity Index (ASI) developed by Dr. A. Thomas McLellan. A number of treatment centers, such as the Center for Drug-Free Living in Orlando, Florida, are using the ASI-MV Connect as part of the NIATx campaign to streamline their assessment procedures [PDF].

Juvenile Justice Reform Stories

• Wyoming begins making progress on juvenile justice reform.
• Reclaiming Futures in action: a teen mom in our site in Dayton, Ohio, gets off drugs and alcohol and sets her sights on a brighter future. (Don't miss this earlier post on the juvenile drug court there.)
• A U.K. study recommends widespread use of restorative justice practices with juvenile offenders to cut recidivism rates, based on success seen in Northern Ireland.
• A Florida program is fast-tracking the court cases of teens who reoffend most often, mirroring some "frequent flyer" programs that have been tried out for adult chronic offenders in other cities. No mention in the article of alcohol and drug treatment, mental health treatment, or other services for teens in the program. (Hat tip to @justicestudies.)

Want help implementing evidence-based practices in your adolescent substance abuse treatment system?
1.  Check out The Change Book (available free from the ATTC); and
2.  Get a copy of Implementing Change in Substance Abuse Treatment Programs, a new free publication from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).