The Travis County Youth Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition in partnership with Cardea announced first year update to their grant to prevent prescription and non-prescription opioid misuse among girls including webinars, webcasts and interviews with healthcare professionals and local media.
The project has accomplished the following in its first year:
- Conducted 20 informant interviews to identify extent of opioid misuse among adolescents, local trends, and existing educational/training efforts.
- Identified health professionals in schools and clinics to engage in CoP; and created YSAPC listserv with over 400 contacts.
- Identified training needs of health professionals in schools and clinics in regard to preventing opioid/substance misuse among adolescents.
- Updated YSAPC website and social media tools to enhance awareness of the CoP and YSAPC.
- Worked with media to enhance awareness of the project resulting in 2 news stories.
- Worked with CE, CNE and CME providers to develop training, marketing, and evaluation content for webinars and face to face trainings. Conducted face to face workshops, webcasts, webinars, focus groups, and technical assistance calls with health professionals that enhanced prevention practices.
In March of 2018, Dr. Lori Holleran Steiker, distinguished professor at the University of Texas at Austin Steve Hicks School of Social Work conducted a 3-hour workshop for school personnel. Over 20 school nurses and counselors participated. 75% of workshop participants reported that they intend to make changes to practices after the workshop. In June of 2018, an additional presentation was made to 107 school nurses at the Region 13 School Nurse Conference held at Dell Children’s Medical Center
WEBCASTS: Dr. Holleran Steiker recorded a webcast for Tools for Intervention that covers signs of misuse, screening tools, effective communication techniques when speaking with adolescents about opioid and substance misuse. This webcast is available at www.tcysapc.org.
WEBINARS: In May of 2018, Dr. Holleran Steiker conducted a webinar entitled Opioid Misuse in Adolescents: Prevention and Detection to an audience of health professionals from the Central Texas region and beyond. Over 230 health and other professionals registered, and 124 participated in the webinar. Health professionals included school nurses, counselors, medical assistants, case managers, social workers, therapists, peer support specialists, public health educators, youth recovery leaders, and others. About 70 attendees requested continuing education credits (33 CNEs, 35 SW/LPCs, 5 non-physician CMEs).
Feedback was positive. As a result of the webinar, 89% respondents increased their ability to describe the scale of the opioid epidemic, discuss how opioids affect the adolescent brain, screen adolescents for opioid misuse, and provide information on opioid misuse prevention and resources. Furthermore, 78% of webinar attendees indicated that they plan to make a change in their practice.
- 24 mentioned making changes to screening tools (e.g. using CRAFFT) and/or questions asked.
- 11 plan to provide resources, information or training to parents, co-workers or others.
- 16 indicated making changes in communication style with youth, such as using motivational interviewing techniques.
- Others plan to bring up the issue of opioids in their work places, promote use of less addictive medications, look into policies related to use of NARCAN, and use data to enhance awareness.
A recording of this webinar is available at www.tcysapc.org.
CoP Partners: Travis County Youth Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition, Cardea, Texas Education Agency Educational Service Center Region 13, Children’s Optimal Health, Dr. Lori Holleran Steiker, and Robin Peyson of RLP Consulting.
