Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment

Just like the Transformer shown morphing above from a car into a robot, health reform will bring enormous changes for adolescent substance abuse treatment providers and behavioral healthcare agencies in general.
That's why it's important not to miss this one-hour webinar, "Medicaid Reform," on October 14, 2010 at noon PST / 3 pm EST. (Hat tip to Faces and Voices of Recovery.)
Sponsored by ACMHA (The College for Behavioral Healthcare Leadership), the webinar speaker will be Barbara Coulter Edwards, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Register here.
Questions? Email Kris Ericson, Executive Director of ACMHA.
Can't attend? Don't worry - all webinars will be archived with the rest of ACMHA's monthly webinar series on health reform legislation. 

I mentioned this in last week's roundup of news on the juvenile justice system and adolescent substance abuse treatment, but this deserves to be highlighted because it will guide the agency's work and funding priorities for years to come:
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) plans to organize its work into eight strategic initiatives, and you have the chance to give your own input (and vote on the merit of others' ideas) until October 22, 2010.  Here's the eight areas:

[The following is reposted with permission of the author and its original publisher, Phoenix House. --Ed.]
 
Once upon a time, in the 1990s, Ecstasy was a rave drug, surrounded by whirling glow-sticks and teenagers looking for a good time. When organizations like the Foundation for a Drug-Free World started spreading the word about Ecstasy’s hazards via public service announcements, the drug began to go out of style. As with most drugs, education is prevention. Today, the general population is well aware that users of Ecstasy, also known as MDMA, are at a high risk for dangerous side effects such as mental trauma, memory loss, seizure, stroke, and kidney failure. Dr. Caitlin Reed of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention puts it simply: “There are multiple mechanisms through which Ecstasy can cause death.”

Juvenile Justice System News and Speculation

For sheer breadth of coverage in the juvenile justice arena this week, you couldn't beat John Kelly of Youth Today.

1. First, Kelly covered a year-long, national survey on the use of psychotropic meds in juvenile justice facilities. Sixteen states participated; 17 didn't reply; the remainder did not comply for a variety of reasons, although it appeared that  many states did not track the drugs, or the diagnoses for which they were prescribed. Youth Today's coverage offered useful background on several of the most commonly-used drugs, and a point/counterpoint on whether they should be used as a first resort for behavior management, or whether their use helps make youth "treatment-ready."

Researchers have learned a great deal about what works in addiction treatment in the last ten years. But many organizations still have trouble translating research into practice -- so-called "technology transfer." 
So there couldn't be a better time for a webinar about the Addiction Technology Transfer Center (ATTC) Network's Technology Transfer Model, laid out in its Change Book.
Hosted by the ATTC Network's Director, Laurie Krom, M.S. (shown here), it'll be held October 21, 2010, 2pm - 3:30 pm EST. >>Register here.

• Learn more about the ATTC's Change Book: A Blueprint for Technology Transfer.
• Schedule of future iTrainings from ATTC Network.

Work for an adolescent substance abuse treatment and/or mental health treatment agency? Work with people who do? The training series described below from NIATx is not to be missed.  So pass it on! 
(Copy below taken with minor changes from the NIATx website.)
 

Will your Behavioral Health Organization Be Ready to Serve Patients in the New Environment Created by Health Reform?
The NIATx Accelerating Reform Collaborative (ARC) is a coaching/web-based learning program to help behavioral health providers prepare for health reform. It will help you:

• Assess your organization's readiness for health reform
• Fast track your thinking to plan for the future
• Find out what peers and experts are thinking and doing regarding health reform
• Receive valuable feedback from peers and experts on ideas you are considering
• Create a short/medium range action plan to help your organization adapt to a new way of doing business

Juvenile Justice News and Related News

• Raising alcohol taxes helps reduce crime, according to a new meta-analysis. I'm curious: would this also apply to crimes committed by teens? 
• This probation officer was once a juvenile offender herself -- a touching story of transformation, coincidentally set in Chicago, one of the original Reclaiming Futures sites. (Hat tip to @piper.)
• Social media is beginning to play a bigger role in the court room. Here's an article aimed at defense attorneys that gives examples (including at least one juvenile case) where what defendants share online is used against them; and where defendants have actively used Facebook and other media as a way to generate support for themselves. One implication: already overburdened defense attorneys must now monitor their clients' social media profiles for evidence that might be used against them. What's been your experience? Share a comment below. (Hat tip to Adriennce C. Barr via National Council of Juvenile and Famliy Court Judges.)

Improving the Substance Abuse Treatment System for Young People

What does it take to build a system of care for teens and young adults that's recovery-oriented? 
A few days ago, I posted about what the adults think it should like.  Now Uncle Sam wants to hear from young people. 
In fact, Uncle Sam -- in the form of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) - is inviting up to 50 young aduilts aged 18-25 to attend a Young People's Networking Dialogue on Recovery on December 13, 2010 in Baltimore.
All they need to do is follow the link and complete the application form. If their application is successful, their transportation and lodging will be covered. But hurry! Deadline to apply is October 13, 2010. 

Juvenile Justice System News

• We're glad to welcome a new juvenile justice reform organization to the national ring this week: Families and Friends Organizing for Reform for Juvenile Justice. It was founded by Tracy McClard, whose son committed suicide in an adult facility - you can see her testify at a legislative hearing here. (Hat tip to @wildclearing.)
• Last week, I posted an announcement from the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) on its first round of grand awards to support mentoring for youth in the juvenile justice system (see next to last bullet).

Turns out I should've linked to John Kelly's column in Youth Today, where he laid out a very long list of recent grant awards in the juvenile justice arena (subscription required) from the OJP's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA). Among other things, he reported on awards for a multi-state mentoring initiative, violence prevention, gang prevention, family drug courts, and more.

 
Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment and Research News and Resources

• An advisory group has recommended that the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National Institutes on Alcoholism and Aclohol Abuse (NIAAA) be merged, along with all other addiction research efforts conducted by the National Institutes of Health. The group said that a new Institute of Addictions would integrate addiction research more effectively. The idea still has a number of hoops to jump through before it becomes a reality, but I was pleased to see that the working group's report recommended (see page 8) that adolescent substance abuse treatment should be prioritized. (Full disclosure: I wrote the post for Join Together that I've linked to here.)