While most opioid overdoses and deaths in the United States are in the transitional age youth or emerging adult population (18-26 years old), overwhelmingly, those who develop Substance Use Disorders (or SUDs) began their substance usage in their early to middle adolescent years. Interventions for young adults dealing with opioid and other SUD concerns are costly, reactive, and in short supply. Proactive and prevention-focused programs based in middle and high schools, led by trained clinicians, have a much greater potential to address the scourge of substance abuse and related mental health concerns in an effective manner. Unfortunately, historically psychology training programs have not required students to learn about substance abuse assessment and intervention, as it has not been a part of the licensure process (except for those working towards an LMHC license). Our next generation of clinicians need to be familiar with the individual, group, and system-wide interventions, as well as relevant family- and community-based interventions, to be more effective at helping pre-initiation and early-initiation youth related to substance use behaviors.
Many individuals with mental health concerns are also impacted by challenges linked to the use and abuse of legal and illicit substances. Due to additional stress from the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increase in substance abuse by young people and adults, and the need for psychological support in this area has grown even greater. Unfortunately, there is a shortage of psychologists equipped to deliver these needed services, both on the assessment and the intervention sides of the equation, especially for younger clients in the community, as the majority of clinicians trained to address dual-diagnosis concerns focus on adult patients or clients. Youth from traditionally underserved populations are at even greater risk, especially if there are language and cultural barriers not being addressed by providers who are limited in their training in these areas. One of the best ways to reach these at-risk youth is through school screening and interventions if there is proper awareness and training of evidence-based intervention tools and strategies designed to help youth.
More needs to be done at the school-based level to help clinicians be better trained to assess and treat risk behaviors before full substance use disorders develop, and greater awareness of screening tools for use in schools along with knowledge of ways to foster cultural/community connectedness can also prove key in helping reduce adolescent early initiation and usage rates.
Historical and recent psychological research has told us that youth who are “feeling connected” (e.g., school-, community-, cultural-connectedness) and supported have lower rates of risk engagement with a variety of self-destructive acts, including substance usage. Historically, many schools have offered frontal education programs on risks of substance abuse that have limited lasting impact, punishment-based interventions for students engaging in substance abuse behaviors, and reactive responses after problems have already developed. None of these foster connectedness effectively. Research has shown that proactive, preventative, and interactive models that promote resilience have a better chance of helping adolescents address their mental health and behavioral concerns more effectively than choosing to self-medicate.
In this session, we will look at methods and practices useful for decreasing the substance use risk of youth in schools from an overview perspective by looking at up-to-date, evidence-based research on motivations behind youth substance abuse behaviors and on strategic assessment and programmatic options to effectively address these concerns. We will also examine evidence-based ways of gaining information on key bilingual and bicultural factors impacting adolescent risk, protective factors, and the connectors to substance abuse risk. We will also touch on ways psychologists, and other school-based mental health professionals can make the best-combined use of substance abuse research and screening tools (e.g., CRAFFT-II, SASSS, ASAGC) and cultural values measures (e.g., Bicultural Self-Efficacy Scale, Cultural Values Scale) to help adolescents in need.
The hope is that participants will leave this training with awareness of key directions to move in to adopt strategies that can be used in schools to begin the crucial process of more effectively addressing substance abuse challenges facing our students in terms of proactive and protective treatment options.
Presenter is Dr. Daniel Jacobs.
To register: Sign up for TPN.health or log into profile, go to “Register for an Event”, search for this session and select by clicking “More Information”, then click “Register”
Approved for 1.5 CE clock hours in Diagnosis; no NBCC credit available for this program
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