Article by Alexa Eggleston, Former Senior Program Officer, Domestic Programs
National Recovery Month focuses on bringing awareness to mental health and substance use disorders and celebrating those who are in recovery.
September brings with it not only back-to-school sentiments, but also the opportunity to celebrate National Recovery Month. Sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, National Recovery Month focuses on bringing awareness to mental health and substance use disorders and celebrating those who are in recovery. Recovery month provides an important platform to emphasize that substance use disorders are preventable and treatable health conditions and that people do recover.
As part of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation’s Substance Use Prevention strategic initiative, we are helping to facilitate dialogue and forge partnerships to strengthen the entire continuum of care that serves young people—whether they have never used alcohol or other drugs, are engaging in risky use, need treatment, or are in recovery. As public health approaches to prevent and reduce substance use among youth and young adults gain traction, there is a clear need to revisit how the various systems that serve youth can do more to engage young people in conversations about their health and well-being. Given that young people spend most of their time in school, it is a logical place to implement ‘upstream’ approaches that screen and intervene early to address health issues such as substance use as early as possible. Transitioning in and out of high school and college can be a stressful time for young people and too often the transitions are unfortunately marked by increases in substance use and other risky behaviors. For example, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism reports that the first 6 weeks of freshman year is an especially vulnerable time for heavy drinking and alcohol related consequences. Another recent studycalled attention to the different times during that year that use spikes among college student. Among high-school youth there is a significant increase in substance use between freshman and senior year (Fox, McManus, & Arnold, 2012). These points of transition can provide an obvious opportunity for parents, health care providers and other youth practitioners to talk to young people in a meaningful way about how they are managing the stressors in their lives. We are just beginning to explore how Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) can be a framework to help facilitate these conversations.
The Foundation is partnering with organizations across the country to strengthen the ability of schools to provide screening and early intervention programs to address youth substance use. In Massachusetts, through a partnership with Community Catalyst, the Children’s Mental Health Campaign is working with other advocates to promote legislation that adds substance use to the list of health screenings currently conducted by all public school nurses (e.g., vision, hearing, and scoliosis) as part of routine care. The Foundation is working in partnership with the School-Based Health Alliance to test SBIRT in a number of their member organizations and supporting efforts in states like New York, New Mexico, and Ohio, to build understanding about how SBIRT may be integrated into school-based health clinics.
There is also increased attention on building school-based supports for young people in recovery. One organization, Transforming Youth Recovery, is helping to lead the way in supporting young adults in recovery within post-secondary educational settings through the development of collegiate recovery programs. Ivana Grahovac, the executive director, indicated, “A number of colleges and universities have begun to strengthen their support systems to address substance use disorders and support young people in recovery. Collegiate recovery programs provide students with a safe space on campus where they can sustain their recovery and achieve the merits they need in order to graduate.” Another Foundation partner, the Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Drug Misuse, Prevention, and Recovery, at Ohio State University is engaging colleges and universities in conversations about how to strengthen their approaches for managing alcohol and drug use on campus and providing the tools and resources needed to launch alcohol and drug prevention and recovery programs. “The Higher Education Center is working hard with our partners to establish a national agenda around preventing alcohol and drug misuse among college students and supporting students in recovery,” said John Clapp, director at the Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention and Recovery at the Ohio State University. “We are focusing on several critical areas including moving science into the practice world faster, developing user-friendly and sustainable interventions, and getting this issue on the federal funding radar.”
This September, as we celebrate the millions of people in recovery, it is important to recognize the actions foundations and other organizations can take to strengthen the entire continuum of services for youth, particularly in educational settings where young people spend so much of their time. By investing in new approaches to engage youth in decision-making about alcohol and drug use, we hope to generate new learning about how schools can be a partner in promoting the health and well-being of our young people.