ASPIRE Professionals is an organization of school-based substance abuse professionals funded, in part, by the Nassau County Department of Drug and Alcohol, NY State OASAS (Office of Substance Abuse Services) and by the individual school districts who employ these professionals. Most of the workers in the organization are social workers with M.S.W.'s who work in elementary, middle, and high schools in Nassau County. 75 ASPIRE professionals work in over 43 Nassau school districts.
The purpose of ASPIRE is to provide the best available substance abuse prevention services to students in Nassau County schools. ASPIRE provides its workers with training at monthly meetings, and opportunities to share ideas and projects with one another. Directors of youth and substance abuse service programs regularly make presentations to the ASPIRE workers at those meetings. ASPIRE also offers support and networking opportunities for its members.
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Evidence Based Programs
The National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP) is a searchable online registry of mental health and substance abuse interventions that have been reviewed and rated by independent reviewers. Currently the registry includes 151 interventions. Many of which are being utilized in our school districts. Click on the link below to find out if a program is evidence based.
http://www.nrepp.samhsa.gov/find.asp
Substance Abuse Screening May Help Teenage Trauma Patients Curb Risky Behavior (From HealthNewsDigest.com)
Researchers at the University of Michigan Health System believe one way to help protect teenagers is to do drug screening for all hospitalized pediatric trauma patients, and offer brief alcohol and substance abuse intervention programs to those who test positive. Their study revealed that nearly 40 percent of the pediatric trauma patients ages 14 to 17 screened for substance abuse tested positive. Of those patients, 29 percent of positive tests were for opiates like opium or heroin, 11.2 percent for alcohol, and 20 percent for cannabis, or marijuana. These findings, published in the May issue of the Journal of Pediatric Surgery, support the value of routine substance abuse screening for all injured teenage hospital patients regardless of age, gender or type of injury, says study lead author Peter F. Ehrlich, M.D., MHS, clinical associate professor, Department of Pediatric Surgery at the U-M Medical School. Perhaps this is an idea to put into practice in Nassau County?
Excellent website info on the Teen Brain & ALCOHOL:
http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/units/addiction/
Be sure to check out the Mouse Party! An excellent demonstration of how various drugs bond with different sites in the brain.
http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/units/addiction/drugs/mouse.cfm
