Race for Recovery

Community High School is hosting its 7^th Annual Shelby Bottoms Boogie for Recovery Run & Walk. The event features 5k and 15k courses and is sponsored by Nashville Striders, City Paper, and 104.5 The Zone.

The race entry fee is $20. The race begins at 7:30 a.m. Saturday 9/30/2006 at Shelby Park.

Adolescent SA Grant Awarded for Tennessee

Centerstone has been awarded a grant to provide treatment for adolescents with substance use and/or co-occurring disorders.

Tennessee Centerstone Community Mental Health Centers, Inc., Nashville -- $300,000 in first-year funding will support implementation of the Adolescent Community Reinforcement Approach and Assertive Continuing Care models under Project SELF (Students Experiencing Life Free), a culturally sensitive, community-based treatment program serving a total of 144 adolescents, ages 12-18, with substance use disorders and/or co-occurring mental disorders, and their families. Project SELF will collaborate closely with the local school system, juvenile courts, and the recently funded SAMHSA/CMHS system of care grant (serving children, adolescents, and young adults, ages birth to 21 years) in the area.

Other grantees and program details are listed in the SAMHSA press release.

Consequences of Early-Onset Alcohol Dependence.

Board member Andy Finch forwards a link to an article on the consequences of early-onset alcoholism (before age 25) relative to late-onset alcoholism (after age 30). The article uses data from the NIAAA's National Epidemiologic Study of Alcohol Related Conditions (NESARC) and its Alcohol Use Disorder and Associated Disabilities Interview (DSM-IV version), a national probability sample of the U.S. in 2001-2002.

Among the consequences reported, those with early onset:

• were less likely to have sought treatment,
• had greater odds of multiple dependence episodes and episodes of greater than one year, and
• had more dependence symptoms.

More can be found in the article itself. Please feel free to discuss the implications of this research for treatment, intervention, or anything else related to adolescent substance abuse treatment and coordination in the comments.

Teen and Parent Attitudes to Substance Use

Nancy forwarded a link to the results of a recent survey of teens (ages 12-17) and parents on attitudes to substance use, availability of drugs, and risk factors for abuse. The file contains copies of the survey itself and responses.

The authors note that the survey under-represents 12-year-olds, which the analysts corrected for, and over-represents youth from two-parent families, which they did not. You may determine other strengths or limitations for yourself.