New App: Mobile MORE (My Ongoing Recovery Experience)
Hazelden Foundation announced as winner of the Behavioral Health Patient Empowerment Challenge for creating the Mobile MORE smartphone app, designed to assists persons through one year of recovery. Click here for more information about this app
MHA Lauches Campaign to Reduce Stigma
Help support MHA of Central Carolinas as they encourage community members to talk about mental illness, and break stigma one conversation at a time. Visit their website for information and take the pledge to break stigma.
NC Pregnancy and Opioid Exposure Professional Education Needs
Information and guidance is being sought to develop a North Carolina educational tool kit for multi-disciplinary professionals about pregnancy and opioid exposure. You are invited to participate in an anonymous electronic survey of professionals working with women of childbearing age who may be taking opioids (ex. methadone, buprenorphine, vicodin, oxycontin, or heroin), to determine the educational needs of professionals on this topic. No personally identifiable information will be recorded. Click here to participate in this important effort and for additional information about this study
Join the Partnership at Drugfree.org in Reducing Prescription Drug Abuse
Join in the effort to increase Congressional support for reducing prescription drug abuse. There is a group in Congress that works to raise awareness about prescription drug abuse and to advance treatment, prevention, law enforcement and research policy solutions at the federal level. Right now only 26 of the 435 Members of Congress are members of the Congressional Caucus on Prescription Drug Abuse. Click here to find out ways to help #EndMedicineAbuse
E-Cigs Are Trending Up…
The percentage of U.S. high school students who say they have tried e-cigarettes has doubled in the past year to 10%. They say it’s a troubling trend as no one knows yet how safe e-cigarettes are, although they are often marketed as a safer alternative to regular cigarettes. “E-cigarette experimentation and recent use doubled among U.S. middle and high school students during 2011–2012, resulting in an estimated 1.78 million students having ever used e-cigarettes as of 2012,” researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration wrote in a report. Check out the news…
Connection Between Adolescent Substance Use and the Risk for Dropout
Experts at the Institute for Behavior and Health, Inc. (IBH) and the Center on Young Adult Health and Development (CYAHD) at the University of Maryland School of Public Health investigated the connection between adolescent substance use and the risk for dropout in the U.S. There is compelling evidence that the association of academic difficulties and substance use is bidirectional. In some individuals, academic difficulties precede the onset of substance use, and in those cases, a vicious cycle can ensue—leading to even more severe academic difficulties and eventual dropout. In other cases, even controlling for individual background characteristics, substance use precedes…
September is Recovery Month 2013
Recovery Month promotes the societal benefits of prevention, treatment, and recovery for mental and substance use disorders, celebrates people in recovery, lauds the contributions of treatment and service providers, and promotes the message that recovery in all its forms is possible. Recovery Month spreads the positive message that behavioral health is essential to overall health, that prevention works, treatment is effective and people can and do recover. There’s still time to plan and register events in your area!
Early Discipline Tied to Less Use of Drugs, Alcohol in Teens
Correcting disruptive behavior in young children could help prevent them from using alcohol and drugs when they’re teens, researchers report. The findings suggest “that by selectively targeting disruptive behaviors in early childhood, and without addressing substance use directly, we could have long-term effects on substance use behaviors in later life,” Castellanos-Ryan said. “Our study shows that a two-year intervention aimed at key risk factors in disruptive kindergarten boys from low socioeconomic environments can effectively reduce substance use behaviors in adolescence — not only in early adolescence but up to the end of high school, eight years post-intervention,” study author Natalie…
Breaking Stigma One Conversation at a Time
The Mental Health Association launches a campaign to encourage open dialogue about mental health and reduce stigma. You can join the initiative by taking the pledge to break stigma one conversation at a time.