"Catching Up With COSSUP" Newsletter - Third Issue 2023. Read and share with colleagues! No images? Click here Supported by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) as part of the Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Use Program (COSSUP), the Catching Up With COSSUP newsletter collects articles (many original to this publication), resources, and training announcements with the express goal of informing and engaging those dedicated to reversing the tide of America's substance misuse crisis. Children and youth are the forgotten victims of substance use, too often lacking the voice, agency, or resources to change their circumstances. When those circumstances include incarceration, their prospects can become truly bleak: for the more than five million youth in the United States who have currently or formerly incarcerated parents, research has found a positive relationship between parental incarceration and increased drug use in both adolescence and adulthood. Add to that the mental health crisis currently afflicting American youth, which criminal justice and behavioral health systems are ill-equipped to treat adequately (approximately 70 percent of young people in correctional settings have a preexisting mental health disorder), and the stakes become clear: concerted action is required, and now. Fortunately, communities across the country are rising to this challenge, adapting approaches such as deflection to the needs of youth and adopting correctional practices to repair relationships between incarcerated parents and their children. Two such initiatives are profiled in this issue. In Menomonie, Wisconsin, Project Hope is deflecting youth away from justice system involvement through school-based intervention and a juvenile review team that contacts at-risk youth and their families to arrange services such as mentoring, counseling/therapy, food resources, shelter assistance, case management, and academic tutoring. Since starting Project Hope in 2020, the Menomonie Police Department now averages approximately 50 juvenile referrals per year. In Tennessee, Father’s Day Out, a project of the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office, allows fathers who are incarcerated and have a history of substance use disorder (SUD) to connect with their children in a supervised community setting; they also participate in SUD treatment and parenting classes provided by community partners. In the few short months since the program began in November 2022, participating fathers have demonstrated dramatic improvements in their behavior, attitudes, and parental style, making a significant difference in their lives and those of their children. “Even if it hasn’t been that long since a child has seen their father, they will run and wrap their arms around their dads so fast. And it’s not just the first time; it’s every time,” says program administrator Shreeti Bickett. “It’s a huge incentive to be involved in this program. I have yet to see anyone get written up that is in this program. Not only that, we’ve heard from their case managers, counselors, and other people how their attitudes have changed. We see it as well. We see them growing.” Juvenile Deflection: Meeting Youth Where They Are Experts consider youth in America to be in the middle of a mental health crisis, impacted negatively not only by the COVID-19 pandemic and the related lack of prosocial activities but also by negative interactions experienced through technology. And even prior to the pandemic, behavioral health systems in the United States had not kept up with the demand for adequate care and treatment. But there is light at the end of the tunnel: law enforcement and juvenile justice systems have started to focus their attention and resources on the underlying factors impacting youth mental health, substance use, and co-occurring behavioral health disorders. Read how Project Hope in Menomonie, Wisconsin, is doing just that in Juvenile Deflection: Meeting Youth Where Going Above and Beyond While Out and About: The Development of Davidson County, Tennessee, Sheriff’s Office’s Father’s Day Out Program More than five million youth in the United States have parents who are currently or were formerly incarcerated. The Davidson County, Tennessee, Sheriff’s Office is striving to interrupt the cycle of intergenerational incarceration and limit adverse childhood experiences with an innovative new initiative called Father’s Day Out. To learn how fathers in the program have demonstrated dramatic improvements in their behaviors, attitudes, and parental styles, read Going Above and Beyond While Out and
About: The Development of Best Practices for Retaining Peer Recovery Support Specialists Agencies that aspire to a recovery-oriented system of care should think about retaining and supporting peer specialists even before the hiring process begins to ensure longevity and staff cohesiveness. For valuable tips on retaining peer specialists from the Rimrock Foundation of Billings, Montana, the largest treatment provider for mental health and substance use disorders in the Rocky Mountain West region, which has been providing information on the sustainability of peer support programs since 2017, read Best Practices for Retaining Peer Recovery Support Specialists. Supporting Statewide Evaluation: Multisite Study of Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion in North Carolina Rigorous evaluation is an important, although sometimes overlooked, feature of program longevity. While there are numerous evaluation models in place, a key component is designing a data collection strategy that can support this process. States can play a key role in spearheading evaluation efforts by engaging with local researchers and reviewing existing evaluations to guide data collection efforts that inform statewide efforts. Learn how stakeholders designed and implemented a multisite evaluation of a pre-arrest Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program that was launched in Drug Disposal Program Wraps Successfully, The nine grantees of the Comprehensive Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Program, a COSSUP demonstration project, collected 67 tons of medication—equal to the weight of the Space Shuttle or half the weight of the Statue of Liberty—between late 2022 and early 2023, removing millions of pills from the medicine cabinets of American homes that might otherwise have been diverted for harmful uses. Demonstrating innovation, resourcefulness, and persistence, the grantees presented a template for communities nationwide looking to add drug take-back programs to their substance use responses. Read how they also opened new avenues for the future of drug disposal in Drug Disposal Program Wraps Successfully, Points Way to New Possibilities. New Overdose Reversal Spray and Opioid Outcomes Predictive Model, Academic Detailing Top Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Highlights for June 2023 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently approved a new, easy-to-use nasal spray that can reverse fentanyl and other opioid overdoses. For that story, plus news about academic detailing—a form of educational outreach that provides tailored, evidence-based information to health care providers—as well as a machine learning model that can predict the risk of adverse outcomes from prescription opioids and other updates from the prescription drug monitoring field, read New Overdose Reversal Spray and Opioid Outcomes Predictive Model, Academic Detailing Top Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Highlights for June 2023. COSSUP Facebook and Twitter Pages: The Place to Follow the Latest Program News COSSUP’s Facebook and Twitter pages are the first line of real-time notification about new COSSUP publications regarding innovative strategies being employed by COSSUP grantees and others, as well as current funding opportunities and upcoming events. The pages are updated weekly with grantee success stories (including Champions of Recovery), helpful articles, and content shared by BJA and other federal agencies, as well as by COSSUP training and technical assistance providers. Catching Up With COSSUP readers are invited to follow both accounts and to share posts with their own followers. BJA Funding Opportunities Planning Initiative to Build Bridges to Increase Access to Opioid Use Disorder Treatment Options in the Nation’s Jails Federal Agency Updates Men Died of Overdose at 2−3 Times Greater a Rate Than Women in the U.S. in 2020−2021 Only 1 in 4 Adolescent Treatment
Facilities Offer Buprenorphine for Opioid Use Disorder Publications Guidelines for Managing Substance Withdrawal in Jails: A Tool for Local Government Officials, Jail Administrators, Correctional Officers, and Health Care Professionals Post-traumatic Stress Disorder as a Risk Factor
for Substance Use Disorder: Review and Recommendations for Intervention Model Drug Take-Back and Disposal Program Act Help Is Available: COSSUP TTA for Grantees and the Field at Large Don’t forget: The COSSUP Training and Technical Assistance (TTA) Program stands ready to support you—grantee or not! An easy online process matches your request with a TTA provider (or team of providers) with the right mix of expertise. The TTA services are provided to requestors free of charge. Learn more here; jump right to the TTA request form here. BJA’s COSSUP is a collaborative effort that includes the training and technical assistance teams from Advocates for Human Potential, Inc.; the Altarum Institute; the Center for Health and Justice at Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities; the Institute for Intergovernmental Research; the National Criminal Justice Training Center of Fox Valley Technical College; the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program Training and Technical Assistance Center; and RTI International. |