Youth Living in Balance: A Curriculum for Adolescents

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Substance abuse among youth is now recognized as a national public health concern (Stevens & Mortal 2003). The 2002 National Survey on Drug Use and Health reported the rate of substance dependence or abuse as 9 percent for youth (agesl2 to 17) and 22 percent for young adults (ages 18 to 25) (SAMHSA 2003). In 2002, only 186,000 (8.2 percent) of the 2.3 million youth who needed addiction treatment actually received it, leaving an estimated 2.1 million adolescents without assistance. Despite the rising number of youth needing services, insufficient attention has been paid to their specific addiction treatment needs. Overall, the field lacks research-based, manualized approaches to adolescent substance abuse that can be replicated, evaluated, disseminated and easily integrated into existing youth treatment programs (Dennis et al 2003). Due to this shortfall, a fraction of adolescent treatment centers use approaches designed for adolescents (SAMHSA 2002). Instead, the majority of substance abuse treatment centers use adult models with their youth populations, generating poor to mixed outcome results at best. It is imperative for adolescent treatment programs to understand the relationship between adolescent development and substance abuse and to use treatment approaches that address these factors, rather than using downward extensions of empirically-validated adult models (CSAT 2002; Kaminer 2001). In response to this Danya International, Inc. proposes to develop and evaluate Youth Living in Balance (Youth LIB) - an innovative, comprehensive psychoeducational program for counselors to use with adolescents with problems related to alcohol or other substances. The proposed product will consist of a facilitator's guide and a relaxation and guided imagery audiotape/CD. The facilitator's guide will include an introduction to the program and skills training, motivational enhancement techniques, and counselor and participant materials for 24 sessions. Youth LIB will be designed for counselors and other professionals (therapists, psychologists, case managers) to use with adolescents presenting for substance abuse services in diverse treatment settings. Youth in substance abuse treatment and treatment staff will be involved in the development and production of the proposed program. Phase I will focus on product development. Phase II will focus on finalizing the products and evaluating the Youth LIB program.