SAMHSA Announces Availability of New Drug-Free Workplace Kit

Source: SAMHSA News Release 4/28/08
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has developed a Drug-Free Workplace Kit, suitable for all sizes of workplaces. The free kit provides public and private workplaces with practical evidence-based information, resources, and tools for producing and maintaining drug-free workplace policies and programs.

Read the entire Press release.

To access and download the online version of the kit, go to http://www.workplace.samhsa.gov/WPWorkit/index.html

The NSDUH Report: State Estimates of Persons Aged 18 or Older Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol or Illicit Drugs

SAMHSA’s Office of Applied Studies (OAS) has just released a 3 page short report based on data from the SAMHSA’s National Survey on Drug Use & Health (NSDUH) that provides the relative percentages among the States of adults who reported that in the past year they drove under the influence of alcohol or an illicit drug

Available at : http://oas.samhsa.gov/2k8/stateDUI/stateDUI.cfm

2007 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data available online

The 2007 BRFSS Annual Survey Data and 2007 BRFSS Prevalence Data are now available on CDC’s BRFSS website.

New Findings on Quantity and Frequency of Alcohol Use Among Underage Drinkers

Source: SAMHSA eNetwork, 4/11/2008
In 2006, a majority (53.9 percent) of American adolescents and young adults aged 12 to 20 had used an alcoholic beverage at least once in their lifetime. Young people aged 12 to 20 consumed approximately 11.2 percent of the alcoholic drinks consumed in the United States in the past month by persons aged 12 or older. Research shows that underage drinkers tend to consume more alcohol per occasion than those over the legal minimum drinking age of 21.
The following are brief findings from the report:

Combined 2005 and 2006 data indicate that an annual average of 28.3 percent of persons aged 12 to 20 in the United States (an estimated 10.8 million persons annually) drank alcohol in the past month.

Past-month alcohol users aged 12 to 20 drank on an average of 5.9 days in the past month and consumed an average of 4.9 drinks per day on the days they drank in the past month.
Underage drinkers aged 12 to 20 consumed, on average, more drinks per day on the days they drank in the past month than persons aged 21 or older (4.9 vs. 2.8 drinks).

Download NSDUH Report:
Quantity and Frequency of Alcohol Use among Underage Drinkers (256 KB)

Click to access underage.pdf

Smoking Early In Pregnancy Raises Risks Of Heart Defects In Newborns

Source: CDC Press Release, April 7, 2008:
Mothers who smoke early in pregnancy are more likely to give birth to infants with heart defects, according to a study funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Click here for the entire Press Release.
Click here for the Press Release in Spanish.

Featured Web Site : Anabolic Steroid Abuse

Source: NIH News in Health, April 2008
Anabolic Steroid Abuse Anabolic steroid abuse by professional athletes has been all over the news. Concerns about body image and athletic performance may lead teens, as well as adult men and women, to use steroids. This site was designed by NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse to alert the public to the fact that these are dangerous drugs.

Visit Anabolic Steroid abuse at http://www.steroidabuse.gov/

New Toolkit on Cultural and Linguistic Competence and Upcoming Teleconference

Might this be useful for ATOD prevention programs as well as other youth development programs not funded by SS/HS initiative?

Source: Center for Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence Prevention e-newsletter, March 2008
The National Center has published a toolkit on cultural and linguistic competence that is based on a model of three interconnected arches. These arches represent organizational structure, engagement, and services/activities/interventions. Together, the three arches provide the support to create a solid foundation for the Safe Schools/Healthy Students (SS/HS) initiative. The toolkit includes benchmarks that grantees can use to gauge their level of implementation in each of the three areas. It also includes corresponding resources that grantees can use to move their initiatives to the next level of implementation. The toolkit is now available at http://www.promoteprevent.org/Resources/clc.

On April 10, 2008, the National Center will host a teleconference to introduce grantees to the three arches framework and the various components of the toolkit. Invitations to this event have been e-mailed to SS/HS grantees. Registration is limited to 10 sites on a first come, first serve basis. Please contact Min Lin at mlin@edc.org with any questions regarding this event.

New Report : State Mandates for Treatment for Mental Illness and Substance Use Disorders

Source: SAMHSA eNetwork email,  4/2/08

A new report is available from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration’s (SAMHSA’s) Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS). The report focuses on state-mandated benefits, state laws regulating mental health and addiction treatment workers, and state-recognized mental health clinicians with authority to prescribe psychotropic medications.

The report is divided into three main sections. The first section describes the current status of state-mandated insurance coverage and identifies those states that require insurance companies to provide coverage for those they insure who have mental or substance use disorders. The second section outlines the type of coverage and diagnostic conditions to which the insurance applies. Finally, the third section provides an in-depth analysis of the authority granted by states to nurse practitioners and physician assistants to prescribe psychotropic medications.

Download/View the Report:
State Mandates for Treatment for Mental Health Illness and Substance Abuse Disorders  (536 KB)
Order Your Free Copy Now! (SMA07-4228)