Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment

• Above is a one-minute video from the Campaign for Youth Justice (CFYJ) on jailing kids in adult prisons (follow the link and scroll to last item) that was picked up by 191 broadcasters, according to Youth Today. Congratulations to CFYJ on getting the message out.

Think about this: would an adult’s continuing care plan for recovery include returning to his or her favorite bar five days a week for six hours a day?  If so, what are the chances that this adult would remain abstinent? 
 
In essence, this is what is being asked of students in recovery when they return to their previous academic settings. For some students, their previous academic settings are their “bars.”

The Department of Justice's ongoing work to integrate juvenile drug courts and the Reclaiming Futures model was highlighted by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder when he addressed the opening session of a conference held by the National Association of Drug Court Professionals (NADCP) on June 3, 2010. If you click on the video above, you'll see he speaks briefly about the administration's overall efforts to draw on innovative approaches to adolescent substance abuse around 14:40.
In the same segment, he indicates that three more juvenile drug court awards will be made this fall jointly with the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) -- and he also mentions that a summit on adolescent recovery is planned for this fall. Looking forward to that! 

Reclaiming Futures sites have been appealing to their communities for caring adults to help teens with drug and alcohol problems who are in trouble with the law. A community event in Forsyth County, NC recently made the TV news (the Honorable William B. Reingold is pictured at left), the paper, and also netted a positive editorial from the Winston-Salem Journal.  [LATER: Reclaiming Futures Forsyth County also appeared in a second paper, the Winston-Salem Chronicle. To see it, follow the link, then click on "Archive" and choose the paper for June 17, 2010. Then navigate to page 3. The article is titled, "A Different Approach."]
And our Bristol County, MA site also made the paper a few weeks ago with a community meeting of its own on helping drug-involved youth. 
Great work, everyone!
P.S. Want to bring attention to juvenile justice reform in your community? Check out this communications toolkit for justice initiatives from the Center for Court Innovation and the Bureau of Justice Affairs.

Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment

• Ever wish you had a good guide to give parents of teens with alcohol and drug abuse issues about what treatment is, how to find the right treatment program, how to pay for it, and how to cope? Now you can link folks up with the Treatment Guide e-Book, a great guide from The Partnership for a Drug-Free America. A good supplement is the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment's (CSAT), "A Quick Guide to Finding Effective Alcohol and Drug Addiction Treatment" (via SAMHSA's Recovery Month).
• Now that teen heroin use has suburban parents all freaked out (or should), the media is finally discovering how big a barrier insurance (or lack of funds) can be to providing youth with addiction treatment they desperately need (via Portland Prevention).
• The annual National Youth Risk Behavior Survey administered by the Centers for Disease Control survey found that an alarming 1 in 5 high school students said they'd abused prescription drugs, i.e., taken them without a prescription. Nevertheless, alcohol (72%) and marijuana (37%) are still the favorites.

For those of you in the adolescent substance abuse treatment field or the juvenile justice system who are trying to implement an evidence-based practice (EBP), here's a synthesis of EBP implementation research from the National Implementation Research Network (NIRN). It covers stages of implementation, research on core implementation components ... and more.
 
What's more, NIRN has also posted presentations on implementation research and online guides to different aspects of what works in implementing innovative evidence-based programming.
 
And be sure to check out these related posts:

• Implementing Evidence-Based Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment? Try The Change Book.
• Handy Reference List for Evidence-Based Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment Models
  

 
(Hat tip to Paul Savery, Adolescent Substance Abuse Treatment Co-ordinator at the North Carolina Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services.)
 

The only national conference to focus exclusively on adolescent substance abuse treatment -- the Joint Meeting on Adolescent Treatment Effectiveness -- has extended the deadline for submitting presentation proposal abstracts from June 4, 2010 to July 1, 2010.  
You can learn more about the conference on its web site or in our recent posts:

• JMATE Call for Presentations and More, by Michael Dennis, Ph.D.
• Find JMATE on Facebook.

Photo: energeticspell under CC license.

With funding from the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), NIATx and its research partner, the Center for Health Enhancement Systems Studies, are developing and testing a mobile phone-based relapse prevention system that is currently being tested in a randomized controlled clinical trial.

Named Addiction CHESS (ACHESS), the system will be delivered through a smart-phone and will focus on providing information and resources to alcohol-dependent patients leaving residential care. Using the latest communications technology holds great potential to support people in recovery, particularly for young people who have come to rely on the internet and cell phones for information, entertainment, and social support.

The Joint Meeting on Adolescent Treatment Effectiveness (JMATE) - the only national conference specifically devoted to adolescent substance abuse treatment -- is coming up in December. JMATE has issued a call for papers, registration opens June 1st, and now you can follow JMATE on Facebook.
Reclaiming Futures is one of the co-sponsors, but even if it weren't, I'd be encouraging you to go. I've been to several JMATEs and they were all excellent, informative events. (Also, it's great to be at a treatment conference and never have to ask after a presentation, "Say, does your research apply to teens as well as adults?")

Juvenile Justice System and Adolescent Behavioral Health News

• Despite years of attention being drawn to the problem, mental health issues are still rife among teens in the juvenile justice system, according to a post from Center on Juvenile & Criminal Justice. What's more, a recent study in Pediatrics indicates that youth in juvenile detention may be four times more likely to die than youth in the general population, and this risk factor is higher for youth of color and for girls. 
• Juvenile courts and adult courts are struggling with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), which may afflict many of their clients. Individuals with FASD may appear able to understand the consequences of their actions, but cannot; awareness among juvenile court staff is recommended as a first step. Meanwhile, the American Academy of Pediatricians has recommended that all youth should be screened for alcohol beginning in middle school.
• A detailed update by Youth Today from Luzerne County, PA on the judges involved in the kids-for-cash scandal, and what the government plans to prove at trial. 
• It's About Time Department: economists and educators argue that policy makers need to start preparing alternatives for kids who aren't going to college.
• An interesting review of two books on a topic you don't see much about in young adult books: life in the juvenile justice system.