ONDCP and CSAP Announce FY 2010 Drug Free Communities Support Program

Source: JuvJust e-news,  2/8/2010

The Executive Office of the President’s Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) are accepting applications for the fiscal year (FY) 2010 Drug Free Communities Support Program.

The program’s purpose is to establish and strengthen collaboration to support the efforts of community coalitions working to prevent and reduce substance use among youth. Successful applicants will receive up to $125,000 per year over a 5-year period.

The application deadline is March 19, 2010.

Resources:

To obtain further information about the FY 2010 Drug Free Communities Support Program, see the Request for Applications at samhsa.gov/Grants/2010/SP-10-005.aspx.

Obama Proposes Increased Funding for Treatment and Prevention

Source: JoinTogether News Feature, 2/5/2010

The Obama administration’s first stab at crafting its own national drug-control budget priorities (PDF) adds new funding for addiction treatment and prevention, but does little to close the huge gap between spending on drug supply- and demand-reduction efforts despite promises of a “balanced” strategy.

The FY2011 National Drug Control Budget released by the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) on Feb. 1 includes a 13.4 percent increase in spending on alcohol and other drug prevention programs and a 3.7 percent increase for addiction treatment.

“The new budget proposal demonstrates the Obama administration’s commitment to a balanced and comprehensive drug strategy,” said ONDCP Director Gil Kerlikowske. “In a time of tight budgets and fiscal restraint, these new investments are targeted at reducing Americans’ drug use and the substantial costs associated with the health and social consequences of drug abuse.”

<<snip>>

However, the budget plan also calls for modest increases in spending on domestic law enforcement, interdiction, and international programs. So, the bottom line is that the Obama administration is proposing to spend 64 percent of its anti-drug budget on supply reduction efforts and just 36 percent on demand-reduction programs like drug treatment and prevention — numbers that are virtually indistinguishable from the ratio in the final drug budget produced under the Bush administration.

<<snip>>

The centerpiece of ONDCP’s demand-reduction plan is $150 million in “new funding for creating a national, community-based prevention system to protect adolescents; training and engaging primary health care to intervene in emerging cases of drug abuse; expanding and improving specialty addiction care; developing safe and efficient ways to manage drug-related offenders; and creating a permanent drug monitoring system.”

After years of declining budgets, the new prevention funding was welcomed by field advocates, although some found the allocation of resources somewhat puzzling. Notably, the budget plan calls for spending $9.5 million less on the Drug Free Communities (DFC) grant program, which had seen steady increases in recent years and is the most popular funding vehicle for community-based anti-drug coalitions nationally.

<<snip>>

The Obama administration is proposing a new “Successful, Safe and Healthy Students” grant program to replace the Department of Education’s Safe and Drug-Free Schools (SFDS) program, which has suffered significant funding cuts in recent years amid doubts about its effectiveness.

The new program — intended to create “an improved school climate that reduces drug use, violence, and harassment and improves school safety and students’ physical and mental well-being” –  would receive $283 million under the Obama plan, $107 million more than SFDS received in FY2010. Unlike the formula-based SDFS national grants, the Healthy Students grants will be awarded on a competitive basis to local education agencies.

<<snip>>

The budget would establish a $15-million Prevention Prepared Communities program, a pilot project intended to create a system of evidence-based youth prevention interventions lasting throughout adolescence. Another $5.6 million would be spent on supporting community prevention specialists who would assist in developing these projects in collaboration with the states, and $2 million would be used to evaluate the project.

Click here to read the entire story
Click here to read the “National Drug Control Budget FY 2011 Funding Highlights”
Click here for more information on the “Successful, Safe, and Healthy Students” grant program from DOE
Click here to read “Proposed FY 2011 Budget HHS Priority Programs” memo from NASADAD

Short video: Protecting Reputations Online in Plain English

Source: email from Common Craft, 1/6/2009

From the web site:

Aimed at young or inexperienced Web users, this video explains the long term risks of sharing inappropriate information online. Release Date: 1/6/09. Video Length: 02:42.

From the email:

If you’re a regular user of sites like Facebook or Twitter, you’ve seen the things people share in public.  Often, especially among the young or inexperienced, the risks aren’t known.  This video is aimed at them and helps to explain the long term risks of sharing inappropriate photos, videos and stories on the Web. It’s about understanding what it means to lose control of an image once it’s shared and how they can help protect their reputation and those of their friends.
This video will be a part of our forthcoming “Internet Safety” pack.

Check it out at: http://www.commoncraft.com/protecting-reputations-video

Guide Offers Communities Ways To Prevent and Respond to School Violence

Source: OJJDP JUVJUST, 12/16/2009 (email)

The Office of Justice Programs’ Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), in coordination with the International Association of Chiefs of Police, has published a new edition of its “Guide for Preventing and Responding to School Violence.”

Designed to assist local communities, the guide describes the roles of the school, community, families, law enforcement, and justice system in working together to take effective action to address school violence.

Resources:

BJA’s “Guide for Preventing and Responding to School Violence” is available online atwww.ojp.usdoj.gov/BJA/pdf/IACP_School_Violence.pdf.

National Survey Tracks Rates of Common Mental Disorders Among American Youth

Source: NIH News 12/14/2009

Only about half of American children and teenagers who have certain mental disorders receive professional services, according to a nationally representative survey funded in part by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The survey also provides a comprehensive look at the prevalence of common mental disorders.

The results are part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), a collaboration between NIMH and the National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The survey conducted from 2001 to 2004 had 3,042 participants. These most recent results include data from children and adolescents ages 8 to 15, and were published online ahead of print December 14, 2009, in the journal Pediatrics.

<<snip>>

Overall, 13 percent of respondents met criteria for having at least one of the six mental disorders within the last year. About 1.8 percent of the respondents had more than one disorder, usually a combination of ADHD and conduct disorder. Among the specific disorders,

• 8.6 percent had ADHD, with males more likely than females to have the disorder;
• 3.7 percent had depression, with females more likely than males to have the disorder;
• 2.1 percent had conduct disorder;
• 0.7 percent had an anxiety disorder (GAD or panic disorder);
• 0.1 percent had an eating disorder (anorexia or bulimia).

“With the exception of ADHD, the prevalence rates reported here are generally lower than those reported in other published findings of mental disorders in children, but they are comparable to other studies that employed similar methods and criteria,”said lead author Kathleen Merikangas, Ph.D., of NIMH.

Those of a lower socioeconomic status were more likely to report any disorder, particularly ADHD, while those of a higher socioeconomic status were more likely to report having an anxiety disorder. Mexican-Americans had significantly higher rates of mood disorders than whites or African-Americans, but overall, few ethnic differences in rates of disorders emerged.

Merikangas and colleagues also found that overall, 55 percent of those with a disorder had consulted with a mental health professional, confirming the trend of an increase in service use for childhood mental disorders, especially ADHD. However, only 32 percent of youth with an anxiety disorder sought treatment, a finding consistent with other studies. Moreover, African-Americans and Mexican-Americans were significantly less likely to seek treatment than whites, reiterating the need to identify and remove barriers to treatment for minority youth, noted the researchers.

<<snip>>

Click here to read the complete story

Click here to access the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) homepage

MTF confirms Pride Survey findings: Use is up

Source: Pride Surveys news release, 12/14/2009 (received via email)

Results of the 2009 Monitoring the Future Surveys, released this morning in Washington, confirm findings reported in September by Pride Surveys: Youth drug use is on the rise.

“Not only is use rising, but a key belief about the degree of risk associated with marijuana use has been in decline among young people even longer, “ said Lloyd Johnston, the MTF’s principal investigator.

Just as the Pride Survey showed, increases in drug use found by MTF were minor, but persistent over the past few years.

“So far, we have not seen any dramatic rise in marijuana use, but the upward trending of the past two or three years stands in stark contrast to the steady decline that preceded it for nearly a decade,” Johnston said.

Marijuana is the most widely used of all illicit drugs among adolescents.

“The 2009 Monitoring the Future study is a warning sign, and the continued erosion in youth attitudes and behavior toward substance abuse should give pause to all parents and policymakers,” said Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

In August Pride Surveys president Doug Hall briefed congressional staff and administration officials on the upturn in teen drug use.

“Our message then was the same message being delivered today: if we take our eyes off the problem, there is a danger teen drug use could spiral out of control in the next few years,” Hall said.

Monitoring the Future news release

ONDCP news release

2009 Pride Survey National Summary

Teen Methamphetamine Use, Cigarette Smoking at Lowest Levels in NIDA’s 2009 Monitoring the Future Survey

Source: NIH News, 12/14/2009

Methamphetamine use among teens appears to have dropped significantly in recent years, according to NIDA’s annual Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey, released today at a news conference at the National Press Club in Washington. However, declines in marijuana use have stalled, and prescription drug abuse remains high, the survey reported.

Click here to read the entire press release.

Visit the Monitoring the Future web site.

Colorado DBH: notification of upcoming RFP for Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Federal Block Grant Prevention

The Department of Human Services (CDHS), Division of Procurement, will issue three Requests for Proposals (RFPs) for the benefit of the Division of Behavioral Health Community Prevention Programs in mid-January, 2010.

The general announcement of anticipation of releaseof a new RFP is available online at:
https://www.gssa.state.co.us/BdSols.nsf/OByCats/58376f180d9ae58e872576890073a9bd?OpenDocument

Teleconference: The History of the Mental Health Consumer Movement: Thursday, December 17, 2009 12-1:30 MST

Source: SAMHSA’s Resource Center to Promote Acceptance web site

SAMHSA’s Resource Center to Promote Acceptance, Dignity and Social Inclusion Associated with Mental Health (ADS Center) is offering the following web based teleconference on Thursday, December 17, 2009 12-1:30 MST:

What is the mental health consumer movement? Why is it important to understand its origins? Coinciding with the emergence of other civil rights movements, the consumer movement arose from the need to advocate for changes in the way society viewed and treated people with mental health problems.

<<snip>>

This training will provide:

• a framework for understanding the origins and importance of the consumer movement, including the role of the arts and social inclusion’s connection to history;
• information about the challenges and obstacles the consumer movement has encountered and how they have been, and continue to be, overcome; and
• an understanding of the movement’s accomplishments and next steps.

Click here for more information.

HIV Infection Among Injection-Drug Users: 34 States, 2004-2007

Source: MMWR Weekly, November 27, 2009 / 58(46);1291-1295

<<SNIP>>

During 2004–2007, a total of 152,917 persons received a diagnosis of HIV infection in the 34 states, including 19,687 (12.9%) IDUs. The majority of HIV-infected IDUs (62.2%) were males (Table 1). By age group, the highest percentage of HIV diagnoses among IDUs (33.2%) was observed among persons aged 35–44 years. By race/ethnicity,^¶ blacks or African Americans accounted for 11,321 (57.5%) of HIV-infected IDUs, whites for 4,216 (21.4%), Hispanics or Latinos for 3,764 (19.1%), American Indians or Alaska Natives for 117 (0.6%), Asians for 79 (0.4%), and Native Hawaiians or Other Pacific Islanders for 10 (0.1%). The average annual rate of new HIV infection diagnosis per 100,000 general population during 2004–2007 was 11.0 for black or African American IDUs, 4.9 per 100,000 for Hispanics or Latinos, and 0.9 per 100,000 for whites (Table 1).

By area of residence, 14,726 (74.8%) IDUs with a new HIV diagnosis lived in urban areas (Table 1). By race/ethnicity and sex, male blacks or African Americans (17.3) had the highest average annual rate of new HIV diagnosis per 100,000 general population during 2004–2007, followed by female black or African Americans (9.3), male Hispanics or Latinos (7.0), and female Hispanics or Latinos (2.7) (Figure).

During 2004–2006, approximately 40% of the estimated 14,715 IDUs with HIV received late diagnoses. In each of the three racial/ethnic populations analyzed (whites, blacks or African Americans, and Hispanics or Latinos), higher percentages of males received a late diagnosis than females (Table 2). Compared with persons aged 13–24 years, higher percentages of persons in older age groups received a late diagnosis of HIV infection (Table 2).

<<SNIP>>

Click here to read the entire article.

Click here to access resources related to HIV/AIDS that are available for loan to Colorado residents from the Prevention Information Center.