Provides practitioners with the information they need to prepare their communities for prevention programming & to select & implement drug abuse prevention strategies that effectively address the needs of their local communities. The target audience for this document includes prevention program administrators, prevention specialists, community volunteers, community activists, parents, teachers, counselors, etc. Contents: intro. to selective prevention; intro. to & key elements of the strengthening families program; & implementation of the strengthening families program. Appendixes on skills training programs for parents, children & families.

Provides an overview of the theory and research on which community-based substance abuse prevention programs are based. Intended for use by prevention practitioners who vary in training and experience in the field but who are interested in developing prevention programs in their communities. Includes a definition of prevention, descriptions of substance abuse risk and protective factors and a discussion of the key features of three prevention strategies -- universal, selective, and indicated -- that have proven effective. Also explains how prevention efforts can be strengthened by using knowledge gained through research.

In thirteen chapters, twenty-four authors share their analyses, concerns, and conclusions in several domains including the: meaning and dynamics of multiculturalism affecting prevention intervention, relative risks and knowledge gaps across ethnic groups, social trends affecting health risks and substance abuse, lessons learned from substance abuse research and prevention, role of the media, promises and limits of the new public health paradigm for assessment, policy development, assurance of preventive services, and social action and empowerment for prevention in partnership with the public.

Stay up-to-date in the continuing fight to assess and treat adolescent drug and alcohol abuse Adolescent Substance Abuse: New Frontiers in Assessment presents up-to-date research on the assessment, intervention, and treatment of alcohol and drug use behaviors in adolescents, using screening tools developed to accurately measure the extent and nature of the problem. This unique book provides evidence of how the field has matured over the past 20 years, highlighting the rapid growth in research with a focus on topics deserving of more study. Leading experts working in adolescent health and assessment examine treatment-oriented typologies, treatment matching, problem identification and referral, parent-report, self-report, and the compatibility of anonymous and confidential surveys. Recent advancements in the development and evaluation of research materials have led to vast improvements in the study of adolescent drug abuse. Counselors can now depend on user-friendly features and rigorous psychometric evidence in determining the important differences between adolescent and adult drug use; distinguishing between normative and severe-end drug use behaviors; detecting faking bad, faking good, and other sources of compromised self-reports; and developing a greater understanding of substance abuse disorders. Still, challenges remainthe validity of adolescent self-report tools is vital; there is a need for more precise identification of related psychosocial problems, and there is a lack of data of whether current assessment tools can identify distinct levels of a problem’s severity. Adolescent Substance Abuse works to meet those challenges. Adolescent Substance Abuse examines: how assessment can be used to identify treatment-oriented typologies to improve treatment matching how to use community readiness for drug abuse prevention how to use the psychometric data of a screening tool for problem identification urinalysis, parent report and self-report in working with American Indian youth parent-child concordance in assessment of substance use anonymous versus confidential survey formats in Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the United States gender differences in measuring substance abuse and much more Adolescent Substance Abuse is an essential professional resource for counselors and researchers working in the field of adolescent health, particularly drug abuse.

Problems stemming from the misuse and abuse of alcohol and other drugs are by no means a new phenomenon, although the face of the issues has changed in recent years. National trends indicate substantial increases in the abuse of prescription medications. These increases are particularly prominent within the military, a population that also continues to experience long-standing issues with alcohol abuse. The problem of substance abuse within the military has come under new scrutiny in the context of the two concurrent wars in which the United States has been engaged during the past decade-in Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom) and Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn). Increasing rates of alcohol and other drug misuse adversely affect military readiness, family readiness, and safety, thereby posing a significant public health problem for the Department of Defense (DoD). To better understand this problem, DoD requested that the Institute of Medicine (IOM) assess the adequacy of current protocols in place across DoD and the different branches of the military pertaining to the prevention, screening, diagnosis, and treatment of substance use disorders (SUDs). Substance Use Disorders in the U.S. Armed Forces reviews the IOM's task of assessing access to SUD care for service members, members of the National Guard and Reserves, and military dependents, as well as the education and credentialing of SUD care providers, and offers specific recommendations to DoD on where and how improvements in these areas could be made.

Learn to develop and assess comprehensive youth tobacco interventions!Preventing Youth Access to Tobacco examines the components of a preventive public health intervention directed at reducing the rate of youth tobacco use. This valuable book describes this innovative intervention, which involves making tobacco more difficult for young people to acquire and also calls for fines for possession of tobacco. It illustrates the rationale for this intervention and reviews the literature on the topic, pointing to findings that indicate that this kind of comprehensive intervention has been shown to be effective.From the editors: “The amount of human pain and suffering caused by tobacco use is immeasurable. Preventing youth smoking initiation of the most effective way of reducing long-term mortality from heart disease, chronic lung disease, and other tobacco-related disorders. Smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, killing over 400,000 people each year. This is more people than die of AIDS, homicide, suicide, automobile accidents, illegal drug use, and fires combined. Despite these facts, 22.9 of adult Americans and 13.8 of Americans under 18 smoke cigarettes.”This essential book can provide some much-needed answers, showing you: effective ways of reducing the rate of regular smoking among adolescents how to assess a community’s readiness to change how to gauge the effectiveness of tobacco laws directed toward youth how to judge the comprehensiveness of school-based tobacco interventions what factors influence illegal tobacco sales to minors why merchants sell tobacco to kids illegally and what the legal risks are for minors who try to buy tobacco