Seasons Greetings...

from the T-ACT team.

Positive Psychology

This does not specifically related to substance abuse treatment, however I thought some might find it useful....

This link takes you to Dr. Martin Seligman's Authentic Happiness website at the University of Pennsylvania. The site contains some potentially useful surveys that address character strengths and emotional happiness. If you have been looking for a way to measure "persistence" or "optimism" or other positive traits to help your clients, these may be useful tools.

Select Committee on Children & Youth Hearings

The Select Committee on Children & Youth will be holding hearings the next two days related to children's mental health and child welfare:

On Tuesday, December 12, 2006 from 1:30-3:30 p.m. the SJR 799 Mental Health Subcommittee will meet to hear testimony from experts on barriers to providing mental health care for children.

On Wednesday, December 13, 2006 from 9:30 a.m.-noon, the full Select Committee on Children and Youth will meet to continue hearing testimony on child welfare indicators. The committee will also hear from the Comptrollers Office of Research and Education Accountability concerning several reports issued during the past year. Video streaming for the December 13th meeting can be accessed at: www.legislature.state.tn.us/joint/JVideo.html or
www.legislature.state.tn.us/joint/Committees/jschedule.htm.

Both meetings will be held in 12 Legislative Plaza, Nashville, Tennessee.

Please feel free to contact the office of the Select Committee on Children and Youth with any questions you may have.

Debbie Gazzaway
Legislative Aide
Select Committee on Children and Youth
3rd Floor, James K. Polk Bldg.
Nashville, TN 37243
#615-741-6239
#615-741-5471 (fax)
debbie.gazzaway@legislature.state.tn.us

This may be of interest to those concerned about co-occurring disorders or who suspect the barriers to mental health treatment may overlap with those to substance use treatment. Also, you may wish to inquire about having a similar hearing focused on substance use.

Magellan Newsletters

Posted at the archive is a recent issue of Magellan's member newsletter. (The two copies are identical except that one is sent to Premier enrollees and uses Premier's contact information and the other is for TBH enrollees.)

The first article covers co-occurring disorders. The second talks about youth suicide; the third, coping with loss. Given that youth with substance disorders may have histories of suicidal ideation or attempts or possible loss of significant people in their lives, all the articles have relevance.

State Co-occurring Disorders Page

TDMHDD's Office of Special Populations and Minority Services has a co-occurring disorders home page. On that page, you can find training materials on co-occurring disorders, a treatment resource directory, and other links.

Among those other links is one to the Dual Recovery Anonymous webpage, which has a listing of meeting locations. In fact, Alcoholics Anoynmous has contact information for local AA organizations. Some of those local organizations include searchable meetings, including the ability to subset by age (adolescent and youth programs). Narcotics Anonymous has contact information for regional offices to call to find local meetings. I will add these links to the right-hand side of the blog.