Preventing Youth Substance Use: Selecting Effective Interventions That Make Sense for Your Community

Schools and communities across the country are seeing concerning escalations of illicit drug use during the teen years. There has also been an increase in drug overdose deaths due to fentanyl among young people. The National Drug Control Strategy has a focus on addressing the factors that can put youth at increased risk for substance use, preventing use before it starts, preventing the escalation of use during the most critical period for substance use initiation, and preventing the significant risks posed by early onset of drug use. Preventing drug use before it starts is an important part of a comprehensive approach in reducing the damaging consequences of drug use generally and opioid use specifically.

The nation’s investment in prevention research shows that prevention and intervention services can have positive long-term effects in reducing substance use, including opioid use. Research has identified evidence-based prevention and intervention programs that make sense for communities and schools, establish parameters for effective implementation, and provide data to better understand the benefits and costs of prevention and intervention services.

This session will provide information that:
(1) Guides communities in selecting and implementing evidence-based interventions that make sense for them,
(2) Shows how school-based Student Assistance Programs (SAPs) can provide effective, comprehensive prevention services in addition to linkages to treatment and recovery, and
(3) Provides communities and policymakers with benefit-cost assessments of prevention programs and policies and inform decision-making.