Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment

Juvenile Justice News

• Does Maryland really need a new juvenile detention facility? Not without a new population forecast, says the National Council on Crime & Delinquency (NCCD). (Hat tip to Policy for Results.)
• I’ve written before about “sexting” – when minors send sexually explicit pictures via cell phone - so it’s good to see that the Youth Online Safety Working Group has released recommendations on how education and legal professionals should handle sexting and work to prevent it.

Want to plan an event for teens celebrating and promoting recovery from substance abuse? Want ideas from others?
SAMHSA recently released a toolkit to help individuals and organizations plan recovery events in conjunction with Recovery Month 2010, and to provide you with tools and educational materials to distribute in your community.
As we discussed in a previous post, 2010 marks Recovery Month’s 21st year, and we are celebrating with the theme “Join the Voices of Recovery: Now More Than Ever!” The theme emphasizes how high levels of stress may contribute to or exacerbate alcohol or drug use, which can lead to a substance use disorder or relapse. The toolkit also raises awareness about the increasing level of stress in society and the impact it has on addiction.
 
The toolkit, available online and in hard copy, is divided into three sections: media outreach, targeted outreach, and resources. The media outreach section includes tips and template documents to help plan and promote your events. The targeted outreach section provides details about substance use disorders that are tailored for specific audiences. The resource section shares information to help you prepare for events and suggests organizations in which you could consider partnering.

Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment - News and Research Updates

• How the confidentiality of patients who obtain substance abuse treatment will be handled under health reform (and electronic health records in particular) continues to be the focus of controversy, according to Join Together. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has issued a document covering "frequently-asked questions," and will hold a stakeholders' meeting on August 4th to provide more clarification. Last February, I posted that some health reform advocates want to do away with federal confidentiality regulations under 42 CFR in favor of relevant HIPAA regulations. They say they're concerned that the burden of complying will discourage mainstream doctors from screening patients and providing brief intervention for alcohol and drug issues. 

Making your agency more effective at serving teens who need substance abuse treatment or mental health treatment (or both) is hard work. And even though in the past I’ve posted some of the resources here  that we have to help you, such as our free e-learning course on process improvement or our archived webinar on how to increase collections from insurance companies, you might not realize how many other things are available on the recently-redesigned NIATx web site.

• Have a question about implementing the NIATx model to improve access and retention in treatment? Head over to the NIATx Support Forum and browse the instant help FAQ for ideas and resources to address some common problems. Or, post a question to the forum and get help from over 4,000 provider participants, 100 coaches, and university staff.

Juvenile Justice Reform and Related News

• The Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention wants your input by August 9, 2010 on federal policies and practices in these areas:
  • education and at-risk youth
  • juvenile reentry and transitions into adulthood
  • racial/ethnic disparities in juvenile justice and related systems
  • tribal youth and juvenile justice.

The Council has published a detailed request and guidelines in the Federal Register.
Here's the tricky part: to submit your comments, type "Juvenile Council" into the search box here labelled "Enter Keyword or ID." You'll likely get more than one search result, but look for the one that says, "Request for Public Comments - Coordinating Council on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention." Don't click on it if you're ready to comment; instead, look over to the right, where you'll see a "Submit Comment" link. Click on that, and you'll be able to type in your comments. You can also scan other comments already submitted to the site. (If you can't submit your comments electronically, there are instructions in the guidelines for how to mail them in.)

Juvenile Justice Reform and Related News

• Right on the heels of a publication from the National Council of Family and Juvenile Court Judges (NCJFCJ) called, "10 Things Every Juvenile Court Judge Should Know about Trauma and Delinquency," comes a brief from the Justice Policy Institute, which also makes the case for investing in "trauma-informed care" for kids in the justice system. 
• The Sentencing Project has just launched a new page devoted to juvenile justice issues, including short summaries of recent news, research, and related resources. For example, check out the brief review of I Don’t Wish Nobody to Have a Life Like Mine: Tales of Kids in Adult Lockup, by David Chura. (Scroll down after following the link.)
• "What's the Matter with Kids Today?" The ABA Journal breaks down the emerging science on teen's developmental deficits, and how it's changing juvenile justice law. It also contains an in-depth examination of the recent Supreme Court case banning life without parole for juveniles who do not commit homicide. (Hat tip to Youth Today.)

[The following text is reposted with permission from the Join Together blog, where it first appeared on May 25, 2010. --Ed.]
 
The Rhode Island Closing the Addiction Treatment Gap initiative released its report this morning. They asked me to speak at the event. That got me thinking.
 
Why do we have this enormous gap? Why is such a complicated but treatable brain/behavioral disease treated mostly in a separate and unequal system where care is provided almost entirely without physicians by individuals with relatively modest formal training?

Teens on Drugs - How We Talk About it Matters

• Hat tip to Outreach for this piece on heroin use by teens in the suburbs from Robbie Woliver, the journalist who broke the story a year ago: "These kids just don't think it's a big deal one way or another -- there is no stigma any longer, nor is it a badge of honor. It doesn't make them 'cool.' It's just what everybody does. No big deal."

This is scary stuff, no doubt, but the coverage is troubling. Woliver wants everyone to wake up because suburban teens are using heroin -- teens who are not just "the lowest-life dregs of society in skid rows and downtrodden ghettos in the worst parts of urban areas," but who "have the same family values." Which makes me wonder what Woliver would think of the teens in the justice system, where substance abuse and addiction has been a common problem for years. Maybe what's needed isn't just alarm about middle-class white kids dying from heroin, tragic though that is. Maybe we need to start caring about all our kids. 

• Want to know what works when it comes to talking to the public about teens with drug and alcohol issues who are in trouble with the law? Check out the recommendations in Solutions Storytelling: Messaging to Mobilize Support for Children's Issues. (Hat tip to sparkaction.)

When you work with adolescents in substance abuse treatment, one of your biggest challenges is what happens after they complete treatment. Connecting teens with positive people who can help them maintain sobriety can be quite difficult. 
So it's great to see that Faces & Voices of Recovery has revamped and revitalized its Guide to Mutual Aid Resources, an online, one-stop resource of over 50 online and in-person mutual aid groups that are helping people find and sustain their recovery from addiction to alcohol and other drugs. According to a press release, "the groups are organized into practical, user-friendly categories like, 'Youth-Focused' or 'Medication-Assisted.'"

Last week, I received too many links and resources to put in last week's roundup of links related to the juvenile justice system and adolescent substance abuse treatment.
So here's a bonus roundup - there's something here for everyone!
 
Mentoring At-Risk Teens

• I posted about this separately, but don't forget to check out the grants available to support mentoring for children with incarcerated parents from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB). Awards will also be made to states with high numbers of prisoners, and provisions for tribal entities in areas with high percentages of incarcerated Native Americans. Application deadline is July 30, 2010.
• Live in the Seattle area and want to work with teens in juvenile detention or in the psychiatric hospital? Pongo Teen Writing is looking for volunteers to work with them. We've featured writing from teens in the justice system and treatment from Pongo Teen Writing several times before.