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SAAS
State Associations of
Addiction Services
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E-News
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| Vol.
IV, No. 13 |
September
8, 2006
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| SAAS
UPDATE |
| SAAS
Opposes Treatment Provisions in Proposed TANF Regulation |
| SAAS,
the Legal Action Center, and 40 SAAS member state associations have
signed a letter to the US Department of Health and Services objecting
to proposed rules governing the eligibility of TANF recipients for
treatment of substance use disorders. The rules were issued to implement
legislation modifying the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF)
program. SAAS stated its concern that the classification of treatment
as a “job search and job readiness” activity – with
time limits of six weeks and no more than four consecutive weeks –
is contrary to clinically appropriate treatment and would have harmful
consequences not only for TANF families but also for public safety,
child welfare, and health care. In its letter, SAAS recommended that
the Department remove treatment for substance use disorders from the
“job search and job readiness” category and reclassify these
services in the more flexible “community services” category,
which would enable individuals and families to receive appropriate
care. |
| Recovery
Month Activities Underway |
| SAAS
is a member of the National Planning Committee for Recovery Month
and encourages participation in community activities. Many SAAS member
state associations sponsor or are involved in Recovery Month events.
For a list of community activities, see:
http://www.recoverymonth.gov/2006/events/default.aspx. |
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| NEWS |
| Congress
Reconvenes but Is Not Expected to Act on Appropriations Bills |
| Congress
has reconvened after a month’s recess but plans to recess again
at the beginning of October for campaigning leading up to the November
election. Most of the attention is expected to focus on legislation
related to homeland security, surveillance, and treatment of suspected
terrorists. There is a small possibility of action on immigration
legislation, but issues of interest to the addiction services field
– including prisoner reentry (the “Second Chance Act”)
and methamphetamine legislation, which have received some attention
– are not likely to pass in this session. Because of controversies
on amendments attached to the appropriations bill for Labor, Health
and Human Services, and Education, FY 2007 funding for SAMHSA and
other programs is not expected to be approved before the October 1
start of the fiscal year. Congress will have to pass a “continuing
resolution” to extend funding at current levels and then return
after the election to pass the regular appropriations bills. |
| National
Survey Shows Decline in Adolescent, Increase in Adult Use |
SAMHSA
has released the 2005 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH),
which shows that current illicit drug use among youth ages 12-17 continues
to decline. The rate has been moving downward from 11.6 percent
using drugs in the past month in 2002 to 9.9 percent in 2005.
The rate of current marijuana use among 12-17 year-olds declined from
8.2 percent in 2002 to 6.8 percent in 2005, and the average age of
first use of marijuana increased from under age 17 in 2003 to 17.4
years in 2005. Drinking among teens also declined, with 16.5
percent of youth ages 12-17 reporting current alcohol use and 9.9
percent reporting binge drinking. Among adults ages 50 to 59,
current illicit drug use increased from 2.7 percent to 4.4 percent
between 2002 and 2005. For young adults, ages 18-25, the picture is
mixed. While there were no significant changes in overall past
month use of any illicit drugs in this age group between 2002 and
2005, cocaine use increased from 2.0 percent in 2002 to 2.6 percent
in 2005. Past-month nonmedical use of prescription drugs, largely
narcotic pain relievers, among young adults increased from 5.4 percent
in 2002 to 6.3 percent in 2005. SAMHSA press release with detailed
summary of results: http://162.99.3.50/news/newsreleases/060907_nsduh.aspx.
Full report available at:
http://oas.samhsa.gov/NSDUHlatest.htm. |
| GAO
Questions Anti-Drug Media Campaign |
The
Government Accountability Office (GAO), an arm of Congress, has recommended
that Congress reduce funding for the anti-drug media campaign conducted
by the Office of National Drug Control Policy until ONDCP can provide
credible evidence that the campaign works. An evaluation conducted
by Westat for the GAO found that the campaign was not effective in
reducing drug use, either for the entire period of the campaign or
the 2002-04 period when the effort focused on marijuana use. While
both children and parents surveyed were able to recall seeing the
advertisements and had favorable impressions of them, the Westat study
was not able to find a correlation with decreased use. John Walters,
Director of ONDCP, has disputed the study’s findings. The ONDCP
media campaign is currently funded at $100 million.
See: http://www.csdp.org/research/d06818.pdf.
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| SAMHSA
Names Director of Services Improvement Division |
| Jack
B. Stein, PhD, has been named Director of SAMHSA’s Division of
Services Improvement in the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment.
The Division, formerly headed by Mady Chalk, PhD, oversees a range
of discretionary grants to improve practice, including science-to-services
initiatives. Dr. Stein was Deputy Director of the Division of Epidemiology,
Services and Prevention Research at the National Institute on Drug
Abuse. He was significantly involved at NIDA in developing science-to-service
activities, and worked closely with SAMHSA in that capacity. SAAS
has collaborated with Dr. Stein on several initiatives, including
the recent, groundbreaking NIDA grant announcement for practice improvement
research conducted by providers. |
| DEA
Revises Rule on Prescribing Painkillers |
| The
Drug Enforcement Administration has reversed a two-year old policy
that pain specialists had claimed was limiting their ability to appropriately
treat chronically ill patients with narcotic painkillers. In a proposed
rule open for public review – with a deadline of November 6 for
comments – the DEA announced that it will allow physicians to
write up to three 30-day prescriptions in a single office visit –
two of them future-dated, to be filled one month apart. Physicians
had argued that the previous DEA policy and the threat of arrests
had led to the undertreatment of pain. At the same time, the DEA began
posting on its website what it calls the egregious cases of prescribing
practices that have led to prosecution. See:
http://www.dea.gov/. |
| NACoA
Will Maintain Alcohol and Drug Data Base |
| The
National Association for Children of Alcoholics (NACoA) will maintain
the tracking system for research materials and other references on
alcohol and drug addiction originally developed by SAMHSA. The
tracking system, developed over 20 years, will be updated by NACoA
and maintained on a site available to the public. The database contains
entries on over 100,000 research studies, prevention and treatment
materials, policy papers and speeches, each abstracted and indexed
according to a Drug and Alcohol Thesaurus developed by SAMHSA and
the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Full documents
are available for non-copyrighted studies, reports and papers and
the database is accessible at no charge. See: http://ida.nacoa.org.
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| CDC
Reports on Alcohol Advertising Targeted to Underage Youth |
| The
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a report
saying that the alcohol industry has not lived up to promises not
to advertise to youth. The alcohol industry ran about half of its
radio ads during youth-oriented programs in 2004, according to the
report, violating the industry’s voluntary standards that its
members would not run ads on shows with audiences comprised of 30
percent or more of underage listeners. The alcohol industry responded
to the report by saying that the 2004 ads reflected commitments made
before the voluntary standards were adopted. See: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5534a3.htm.
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| Checkups
Found Effective in Early Identification of Relapse |
Supplementing
regular recovery checkups with motivational interviewing and active
linking to treatment can get relapsing patients back into treatment
sooner and help them stay longer, according to NIDA-funded research.
In the two years following treatment, patients who received the additional
interventions were three times as likely to reenter treatment as others
who received assessments only. The study was published in the June
2005 issue of Drug and Alcohol Dependence and is summarized in NIDA
Notes at:
http://www.nida.nih.gov/NIDA_notes/NNvol20N6/Checkup.html.
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| Prevention
Programs in Rural Middle Schools Found Effective for Methamphetamine |
| The
first research on prevention programs aimed at methamphetamine shows
that prevention efforts conducted in middle school can reduce methamphetamine
use among rural adolescents years later. Two studies conducted in
Iowa on 6th and 7th graders found lower rates of use among those who
participated in the prevention program when those students were tracked
in 11th and 12th grades. The study was published in the September
2006 issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. See:
http://www.nida.nih.gov/newsroom/06/NR9-04.html.
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| Weekly
Prescribing of Buprenorphine Found Effective |
| Researchers
have found that weekly prescribing of buprenorphine in the physician’s
office, along with standard medical management, is equally effective
as prescriptions given three times per week with either standard or
enhanced medical management. After six months of treatment, 40-44
percent of patients had negative urine samples in all three study
groups. The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Abstract at:
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/355/4/365. |
| Early
Alcohol Dependence Linked to Lower Treatment-Seeking and More Severe
Dependence |
Individuals
who become alcohol dependent before age 25 are less likely to ever
seek treatment than those who become alcohol dependent at age 30 or
older, according to a new study supported by the National Institute
on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA). They also are more likely
to have multiple dependence episodes, of longer duration, and to meet
more dependence diagnostic criteria than those who become alcohol
dependent later in life. The study appears in the September 1, 2006
issue of Pediatrics and is summarized at:
http://www.niaaa.nih.gov/NewsEvents/NewsReleases/earlydependence.htm.
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| Long-Term
Alcohol Abstinence Resolves Many Neurocognitive Deficits |
New
research indicates that long-term abstinence from alcohol can resolve
many neurocognitive deficits, but not all, and the study’s authors
believe that the findings can be used to help individuals stay abstinent.
The study was published in the September 2006 issue of Alcoholism:
Clinical & Experimental Research and is summarized in the ATTC
“Addiction Science Made Easy” series at:
http://www.nattc.org/asme/details.asp?ID=0609d.
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| Genetic
Study May Help Identify Individuals at Risk for Alcoholism |
Researchers
at the National Institute on Drug Abuse have completed the most comprehensive
scan of the human genome to date, as part of ongoing efforts to identify
people most at risk for developing alcoholism. This study represents
the first time the new genomic technology has been used to comprehensively
identify genes linked to addiction. The study can be viewed online
and will be published in the December 2006 issue of the American Journal
of Medical Genetics Part B (Neuropsychiatric Genetics).
See: http://www.nida.nih.gov/newsroom/06/NR8-24.html.
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| GRANT
OPPORTUNITIES |
| Corporation
for National and Community Service |
The
federal Corporation for National and Community Service expects to
award up to $88 million in AmeriCorps State and National Grants in
2007, including state and territorial competitive grants. Program
priorities for this round of grantmaking include: “mobilizing
more volunteers, ensuring a brighter future for all of America's youth,
engaging students in communities, and harnessing baby boomers’
experience.” Applicants for the state and territorial grants
must be nominated by governor-appointed state commissions. Funds are
used for participants’ living expenses and program costs. The
Corporation anticipates that at least 15 percent of the funds will
support applicants that have not received an AmeriCorps State or National
operational grant in the last five years. Deadline: January 25, 2007.
See: http://www.nationalservice.org/for_organizations/funding/nofa_detail.asp?tbl_nofa_id=31.
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| RWJF:
Substance Abuse Policy Research Program |
| The
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has announced Round XI for small and
large grants under its Substance Abuse Policy Research Program. The
grants go to experts in public health, law, political science, medicine,
sociology, criminal justice, economics, psychology and other behavioral
and policy sciences who address issues related to substance use. Projects
should “increase understanding of public and private policy interventions
to prevent, treat and reduce the harm caused by the use of tobacco,
alcohol and other drugs.” Up to $4 million in grants will be
awarded. Deadline for brief proposals: November 14, 2006. See: http://saprp.org/.
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| NIH:
Health Risk Behavior Change in Children and Adolescents |
| Treatment
and prevention providers may have the opportunity to collaborate with
research institutions to apply for support from the National Institutes
of Health for studies that enhance understanding of the factors and
mechanisms that determine changes in health risk behaviors during
childhood and adolescence. Interdisciplinary research is sought to
explore the biological, genetic, physiological, psychological, and
social/environmental factors and mechanisms that influence health
risk behavior change in children and adolescents. Deadline: Ongoing.
See: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PA-06-298.html.
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| William
T. Grant Foundation: Improving Youth Services |
| The
William T. Grant Foundation will support intervention research to
improve youth-serving organizations, such as schools and community-based
organizations. Addiction services providers may want to collaborate
with local education agencies or schools in submitting applications.
Up to $4 million will be awarded. Deadline for letters of inquiry:
October 30, 2006. See: http://www.wtgrantfoundation.org/info-url_nocat3042/info-url_nocat_show.htm?doc_id=287117&attrib_id=11707.
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| Youth
Service America: Volunteer Opportunities for High-Risk Youth |
Youth
Service America and the US Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention have announced the YouthRising program, offering grants
of $2,000 for organizations to engage high risk and/or gang-involved
youth in volunteer service to their communities. Community-based organizations,
local government agencies, schools, and faith-based groups that have
prior experience and documented success working with high-risk and/or
gang-involved youth are eligible to apply. A significant portion of
the project must take place on National and Global Youth Service Day,
April 20-22, 2007. Deadline: October 12, 2006.
See: http://www.ysa.org/Awards/doc/final.youthrisingapplaandguidelines.doc. |
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| RESOURCES |
| SAMHSA:
Conference Materials on Services for Veterans |
| In
March, SAMHSA sponsored “The Road Home: The National Behavioral
Health Conference on Returning Veterans and Their Families.”
Presentations from the conference are now available at: http://presentations.samhsa.gov/va_conference/index.html.
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| NIAAA:
Focus on Youth and Young Adult Drinking |
| The
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism has published a
new issue of Frontlines: Linking Alcohol Services Research & Practice.
The newsletter focuses on drinking among youth and young adults and
the impact that heavy drinking which begins at such an early age has
on youth, their families, and the community. See: http://www.academyhealth.org/publications/frontlines/jun06.pdf. |
| NIDA
Notes |
The
latest issue of NIDA Notes summarizes recent research, including studies
on the effectiveness of frequent checkups and on court-mandated vs.
voluntary treatment.
See: http://www.nida.nih.gov/NIDA_notes/NNvol20N6/.
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| Alcohol
and Health: Current Evidence |
The
latest issue of Alcohol and Health: Current Evidence summarizes recent
research and includes an article entitled: “Why Do People Enter
Specialty Treatment for Alcohol Problems?”
See: http://www.bu.edu/act/alcoholandhealth/index.html.
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| Online
Course: Methamphetamine Addiction |
| An
online course on the neurobiology and pharmacology of methamphetamine
addiction is available through the National ATTC Office. See: http://www.nattc.org/addictionEd/courseDetail.asp?CourseID=1055.
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