Source: OJJDP JuvJust email, 11/17/09

OJJDP has created an online tool that teaches communities effective strategies to address local gang problems. The tool, provided by OJJDP and BJA’s National Gang Center, is called the Comprehensive Gang Model Overview. It provides a 23-minute discussion of OJJDP’s Model for identifying target areas with high levels of gang activity, locating gangs, and focusing appropriate resources on them. The tool also describes how communities can follow proven anti-gang strategies and how to implement the Model locally.
Resources:

To access the Comprehensive Gang Model Overview, visit www.nationalgangcenter.gov/Comprehensive-Gang-Model/Online-Overview.

Click the following link to see some of the resources the PIC has available for loan relating to gangs.

Source: SAMHSA News Release, 11/16/09

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) today announces the availability of a new Web site to help SAMHSA grantees, health professionals and the public address problems of homelessness and co-occurring substance abuse and mental health disorders. The site, http://chab.samhsa.gov/ features an on-line library of tools that are designed to advance the field and improve the effectiveness of prevention, treatment and recovery programs operated by SAMHSA’s Co-Occurring and Homeless Activities Branch (CHAB) and other service providers.

The new CHAB Web site provides a platform for creating an interactive community of providers, consumers, policymakers, researchers, and public agencies at federal, state, and local levels working to prevent and treat homelessness and co-occurring substance abuse and mental disorders.

Click here to read the rest of the press release

• Click the following links to see some of the resources the PIC has available for loan relating to homelessness and co-occurring disorders.

SAMHSA News email subscription

SAMHSA News is the national newsletter of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  It is available for subscription in print or online.   The newsletter and back issues can be accessd at http://www.samhsa.gov/samhsaNewsletter/ .

Tree-free, online subscriptions are now nicely formatted and easy to browse and access articles of interest.

The  Sept Oct 2009 (vol 17:5) issue focuses on Recovery.  Additional stories are available related to:

• Treatment
• Suicide
• Grants
• Communications
• Recovery Month
• New Survey Data
• Prevention
• Special Populations

Visit the SAMHSA News Homepage
Read or print SAMHSA Newsletter for Sept/Oct 2009 as a pdf

Source: SAMHSA eNetwork and others

Most military service members and veterans who see combat will not experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), substance abuse, or depression or have thoughts of suicide as a result of their experiences. For those who do have mental health and substance abuse needs, for their families, and for service providers, SAMHSA is dedicated to offering a variety of resources.

Selected SAMHSA Resources:

• Veterans Resource Guide (pdf)
• SAMHSA Veteran Resources Web Site

Available for Loan at the PIC:

PIC has a small collection of resources specifically related to veterans and active military as well as wide variety of information for prevention and treatment of: post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), substance abuse, depression, and suicide.

Source: Summit Daily News, 11/3/09

Breckenridge residents voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana and paraphernalia under town law. Unofficial results show 71 percent of voters approved the initiative.

“We’re done with the days people could laugh off marijuana reform,” said Sean McAllister, Breckenridge attorney and chair of reform group Sensible Breckenridge. “I believe the implicit implications are that we should have a dialogue about taxing marijuana.”

Tuesday’s vote means that effective Jan. 1, people 21 and up in Breckenridge will be able to legally possess one ounce or less of the drug. Possession remains illegal under state law, but Breckenridge Police Chief Rick Holman said his department will “still have the ability to exercise discretion.”

Click here to read the rest of the article

Source: CESAR FAX, 18(41), 10/19/2009

Youths whose parents set clear rules for them are less likely to report using illicit drugs, according to data from the 2008-09 PRIDE Survey. Middle and high school students* whose parents set clear rules for them “a lot” or “often” were less likely to report using illicit drugs in the past year (12% and 21%, respectively) than students whose parents never set clear rules (49%). Similar results were found for having parents who punish them for breaking these rules (data not shown). Previous studies have found that youths living in households where parents kept track of their whereabouts and set curfews were less likely to report heavy drinking (see CESAR FAX, Volume 17, Issue 31).

Source: MMWR Weekly,58(40); 1125-1126,  10/16/2009

Motor-vehicle injuries are the leading cause of death and the fourth leading cause of injury-related emergency department visits among teens aged 15–19 years. In 2007, approximately 4,200 teens in this age group died and an estimated 387,000 were treated in emergency departments for injuries sustained in motor-vehicle crashes in the United States (1,2). To reduce morbidity and mortality, 49 states and the District of Columbia have adopted three-stage graduated driver licensing (GDL) systems. GDL systems provide longer practice periods, restrict unsupervised driving during the initial independent driving stage, and require greater participation of parents in their teen’s learning-to-drive process. These systems have reduced the collision risk for novice teen drivers by 20%–40% (3).

This year, National Teen Driver Safety Week, October 18–24, highlights the importance of parents supervising their teen’s driving and establishing and enforcing rules of the road. Teens whose parents initially limit driving privileges have fewer traffic citations and collisions than teens whose parents do not restrict driving privileges (4). To increase awareness of the importance of parents in managing teen driver behavior and educating teens about high-risk activities that lead to motor-vehicle crashes, CDC has developed a communication campaign targeting the parents of novice teen drivers. The Parents Are the Key campaign is being pilot tested in central Arkansas and Columbus, Ohio. The campaign encourages parents to learn about and ensure that their teen adheres to their state’s GDL system requirements, establish rules of the road that limit novice teens’ nighttime driving and driving under other risky conditions, and enforce the rules with a parent-teen contract.

Information about teen driver safety and National Teen Driver Safety Week are available from CDC at http://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/teen_drivers/index.html, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration at http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov, and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia at http://stokes.chop.edu/programs/injury/our_research/ydri.php.

References

1. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) encyclopedia. Washington, DC: US Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; 2009. Available at http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov. Accessed October 13, 2009.
2. CDC. Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (WISQARS). Atlanta, GA: US Department of Health and Human Services, CDC; 2009. Available athttp://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/index.html. Accessed October 13, 2009.
3. Shope JT. Graduated driver licensing: review of evaluation results since 2002. J Safety Res 2007;38:165–75.
4. Simons-Morton B. Parent involvement in novice teen driving: rationale, evidence of effects, and potential for enhancing graduated driver licensing effectiveness. J Safety Res 2007;38:193–202.

Source: In The News, 10/15/09

Please see the attached PDF for the latest edition of “In the News”.

In the News is a weekly collection of Mental Health, Alcohol and Substance Abuse prevention articles, announcements, press releases, and publications that you can look forward to receiving every Thursday.

The formatting consist of hyper linked titles (plus date and source) placed in easy to skim categories.

Categories in this issue:

• General Community
• Alcohol
• Tobacco
• Substances (Other Drugs)
• Violence
• Cultural/Linguistic Competence
• Briefs, Reports, and Publications
• Recommendations/Strategies/Tools
• Health Communication/Promotion/Marketing
• Funding
• Events

Click here to Read: In the News, 10/15/09