More than 1,500 substance abuse prevention and treatment specialists from across the country convened in Indianapolis this week for CADCA\u2019s\u00a02015 Mid-Year Training Institute.\u00a0The week-long training, held at the JW Marriott, taught participants how to address one of our nation\u2019s biggest public health challenges \u2013 youth drug use.<\/p>\n
CADCA will send first-time attendee Lee Jack Alirez home, revved up and ready to implement new ideas as an \u201cAgent of Change\u201d in Truth or Consequences, NM. A new police chief\u00a0there, but a veteran law enforcement officer, Alirez said, \u201cWhat an amazing group of national and international professionals committed to improving quality of life and health for others. I\u2019m honored to be considered among them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mid-week, participants got to hear from and interact with Michael Botticelli, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. He released Drug-Free Communities evaluation data that showed coalitions are effective. Read a blog penned by Botticelli and CADCA\u2019s Chairman and CEO Gen. Arthur Dean about this \u201cCombattre la consommation de m\u00e9dicaments sur ordonnance chez les jeunes par le biais de coalitions<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Botticelli spent an afternoon with CADCA\u2019s\u00a0200 youth from around the country who participated in CADCA\u2019s youth-led, adult guided training, the National Youth Leadership Initiative (NYLI), where they learned how to become drug prevention advocates and powerful community leaders. Later, and Administrator Helen Hernandez addressed both adults and youth at a Town Hall meeting.<\/p>\n L'Institut de formation de mi-ann\u00e9e de CADCA est une opportunit\u00e9 de formation intensive unique en son genre, offrant plus de 70 cours d'une demi-journ\u00e9e et de deux jours destin\u00e9s \u00e0 aider les participants \u00e0 trouver des solutions aux probl\u00e8mes de toxicomanie les plus difficiles de leur communaut\u00e9.<\/p>\n “The Mid-Year is a unique professional development opportunity for anyone trying to prevent and reduce drug abuse, and its related problems, in their community,\u201d said General Arthur T. Dean, CADCA’s Chairman and CEO. \u201cAfter four days of intensive training, we hope participants return to their communities with new skills and strategies, and a clearer roadmap to create environments where young people can thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n CADCA\u2019s Mid-Year covered a wide range of topics \u2013 everything from how to prevent prescription drug abuse and reduce heroin use to how to create tobacco-free environments, reduce impaired driving and develop policies to reduce marijuana use, synthetic drug use and underage drinking.<\/p>\n Two digital publications were debuted at the conference. An\u00a0impaired driving prevention online toolkit<\/a>\u00a0that CADCA worked on in partnership with the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) was popular among attendees. And CADCA\u2019s latest Strategizer was released. Produced jointly\u00a0with the Center for Alcohol Marketing and Youth,\u00a0\u00a0Strategizer 57:\u00a0Reducing Alcohol-Related Harms Through Commercial Host Liability<\/a>\u00a0introduces public health depart\u00adments, community coalitions and other interested organizations and individuals to commercial host liability as a public health intervention to reduce the health and social problems associated with excessive alcohol use.\u00a0<\/p>\n Keynote speakers included Kana Enomoto, Deputy Principal Administrator for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and and Karla Sneegas, Branch Chief for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Office of Smoking and Health.<\/p>\n In addition, participants heard from a number of renown experts in the field of drug use prevention, treatment and research such as Dr. Ruben Baylor, Health Science Administrator for the National Institute on Drug Abuse; Fran Harding, Director of SAMHSA\u2019s Center for Substance Abuse Prevention; Dr. Ralph Hingson, Director of the Division of Epidemiology and Prevention Research for the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism;\u00a0 Dr. David Jernigan, Associate Professor, Department of Health, Behavior and Society and Director, Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; Joe Rannazzisi, Deputy Assistant Administrator, Office of Diversion Control, Drug Enforcement Administration; and many others.<\/p>\n CADCA welcomed 33 international guests representing 12 countries as well as a delegation from the Navajo Nation. More than 50 coalition members, including youth, spent one evening volunteering to paint, organize and scrub a home for local people in recovery as part of a community service project. Others walked along Indy\u2019s canal as part of CADCA\u2019s Healthy Happy Hour. For the first time, CADCA offered an Advanced Coalition Academy and a special track for law enforcement personnel.<\/p>\n Attendees can download presentations from the app or from\u00a0www.cadca.org\/myti.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" More than 1,500 substance abuse prevention and treatment specialists from across the country convened in Indianapolis this week for CADCA\u2019s\u00a02015<\/p>","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"template":"","resource_type":[281],"drug_specific_issues":[],"action_to_do":[],"class_list":["post-17766","resource","type-resource","status-publish","hentry","resource_type-coalitions-online"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n