June 10, 2021 Prevention campaigns are often seen as the answer to addressing substance use in the community. They are visible, wide reaching, and often meet the requirement to “do something about the substance use problem!” But just as often, campaigns can fail to produce the outcomes that are needed. APSI has invited Dr. William Crano of Claremont Graduate University and a member of APSI’s Science Advisory Board, to discuss a model called EQUIP, which is designed to help prevention and communications practitioners develop the most effective and persuasive messages. Strong messaging is important today to those of us working in prevention because of the wide array of media that are now deployed to reach populations at risk. Our communication efforts need to be based on a strong message that can be adapted to the appropriate channels for reaching the audience where it is. Dr. Crano will present the model and explain how its elements, namely, Engage, Question, Inform, Undermine, and Persuade--EQUIP, can be used to guide the development of effective and persuasive messages. Susan David, APSI Vice President, will join Dr. Crano in discussing some of the challenges in developing campaigns based on her experience in developing and evaluating campaigns at the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

May 6, 2021 The pathways to substance use and violent behavior often represent similar trajectories for many young people; so it is not so surprising that research has shown that evidence-based interventions are often successful at preventing both behavioral problems. To explore these successful interventions and other work related to violence prevention, APSI has invited Bobbi Beale, PsyD and Daniel J. Flannery, PhD from Case Western Reserve University to join the next Prevention Talk and discuss their work and research at the Begun Center for Violence Prevention and Research. During this Prevention Talk, you will hear about the community approach employed by the Begun Center to promote social justice and community development and focus their research on the causes of violence prevention. They will also discuss their approach to training different actors in the community such as social workers, teachers, law enforcement and other professionals, on the principles of effective violence prevention.

Youth suicide rates have increased approximately 40% over the past decade. There is a growing focus on the importance of upstream development of healthy networks and social connection to significantly reduce suicides. Both the most recent US Surgeon General’s call to action for national suicide prevention, and the CDC’s key strategies for suicide prevention emphasize the need for prevention work to move upstream, to create protective environments, and to promote connectedness; with the CDC specifically highlighting programs that target peer norms. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought into sharp relief the importance of healthy social connections, and the many challenges that come when these connections are disrupted. We invite you to this prevention talk to engage with the team from the University of Rochester, including Peter A Wyman (Academic Chief in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Division at the University of Rochester School of Medicine), PhD, Bryan Yates, BA (Senior Program Manager) and Chelsea Keller-Elliott, MS, LMFT (Senior Program Manager), around how Network Health Interventions can be used to prevent suicidal behaviors and associated risk factors including depression. This team has utilized analysis of peer networks and youth-adult networks to create a Network Health Diffusion Model for suicide prevention. They will describe two network-informed suicide prevention programs: Sources of Strength, which trains key opinion leaders within secondary schools to spread health in their schools; and Wingman-Connect, a group training for new Air Force trainees. This talk will describe and provide examples of how these 2 programs utilize network science mechanisms to effectively and efficiently bring prevention upstream and promote the growth of resilience at a population level. The University of Rochester team is also excited to share about their successes promoting social connection during the COVID-19 pandemic, and ideas for other prevention professionals to consider when undertaking this work during times of social distancing and beyond.

Growing a professional prevention workforce is a longstanding and evolving challenge. The recent articulation of a science foundation to prevention planning and programming has highlighted the need to establish the knowledge, skills and competencies needed to deliver highly effective prevention to communities around the world. Although there has been great progress in gaining recognition for professionalizing the field of prevention, there has been a long history of barriers to overcome. The limited recognition of prevention as a career option and a deficit in degree programs focused on prevention science and practice create early disadvantages. Furthermore, once professionals are working in the field, salary limitations, inadequate supervision, and limited advancement opportunities impede individual and systems development. Limited diversity within the prevention workforce and a lack of cognizance of prevention expertise and prevention credentials among other professionals, organizations, and communities create barriers, as well. Despite these challenges, prevention is increasingly valued among many systems, stakeholders, and communities, and younger populations’ increased exposure to prevention in recent years are promising signs for workforce development. We invite you to this Prevention Talk to engage in dialogue about workforce development. The February 11 Prevention Talk features Tracy Flinn, Ed.D., Senior Research Analyst, National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors, Inc. (NASADAD), Sandra Del Sesto, M.ED., ACPS, Delegate to and former Co-chair of the Prevention Committee of the International Certification and Reciprocity Consortium, member of the Advisory Boards of the Latino PTTC and the National PTTC, and Julie Stevens, MPS, ACPS, ICPS, Board Member of the International Certification and Reciprocity Consortium and Advisor to the Prevention Committee, Member of the Advisory Board of the National PTTC, Adjunct Professor, University of Oklahoma’s Masters of Prevention Science degree, and, Jim Ryan, APSI’s Director of Training, who will moderate the panel. Join us for an invigorating conversation on prevention workforce development.

As prevention professionals, we are fortunate today to have a collection of evidence-based strategies and interventions that have been shown to work effectively to prevent substance use and other problem behaviors. The origins of this effective prevention toolbox are the result of over 30 years prevention research, which has provided rigorous scientific evidence of prevention methods that can achieve the best outcomes. Further, based on the evidence, we have seen the development of a series of standards to guide programming and practice in the prevention field around the world. Three key documents have been developed that define the knowledge base of prevention science, the standards for prevention practice, and the evolving interventions, strategies and community systems that constitute evidence-based prevention: Society for Prevention Research Standards of Knowledge for the Science of Prevention https://www.preventionresearch.org/Society%20for%20Prevention%20Research%20Standards%20of%20Knowledge.pdf The European Drug Prevention Quality Standards. https://www.emcdda.europa.eu/publications/adhoc/prevention-standard_en The International Standards for Drug Use Prevention of the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime. https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/prevention/prevention-standards.html We invite you to this Prevention Talk to meet with two of the international prevention experts who coordinated the development of these documents: Ms. Giovanna Campello, Chief of the UNODC Prevention, Treatment & Rehabilitation Section and Dr. Gregor Burkhart, Principal Scientific Analyst — Prevention, Support to Practice Sector, Public Health Unit at the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction. Moderating the panel we will have APSI's president Dr. Zili Sloboda, who was also involved in the development of this documents and is a founding member of the Society for Prevention Research and a member of the task force who developed the Standards of Knowledge for the Science of Prevention and lead researcher in the UNODC International Standards for Drug Use Prevention. Do not miss this enlightening talk that we are sure will provide key elements to consider in your prevention practice and your professional development in prevention.

Family life all over the world has dramatically changed over the past several months as we all have faced the COVID-19 pandemic. As families are the most important proximal influence on the health and well-being of children and youth, the stress of changing family structures and interactions has the potential of profoundly influencing the behavioral choices that youth make, specifically, as to whether to use substances or engage in risky behaviors. Parents are struggling to work from home while caring for and homeschooling children; and many are facing job loss or job insecurity or food insecurity. At the same time, children and youth face their own struggles as they are missing out being in school with their peers and experiencing those transitions or “rites of passage” that are very important to their social and emotional development. Family-based prevention interventions have demonstrated effectiveness with a strong level of evidence to address substance use in the family by providing and building parenting skills to raise and nurture children so that they are resilient and display prosocial behavior. But, in the midst of the pandemic and with these new added stresses, how can these programs reach parents with COVID-19 protective approaches—e.g., through virtual platforms? What can prevention professionals do to reach out to parents, acknowledge and address these new circumstances, and provide these very necessary parenting skills? What new skills and practices can help them face the challenges wrought by the global pandemic? Please join us for this Prevention Talk, where Douglas Coatsworth, PhD (Betsey R. Bush Endowed Professor in Behavioral Health and Associate Dean for Research in the College of Social Work at the University of Tennessee), Cathy Hockaday, PhD (Human Sciences Specialist/SFP 10-14 Program Manager) and Wadih Maalouf, PhD (Program Manager at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Vienna - UNODC) will discuss how current research and practice in family prevention interventions can address the challenges that families are experiencing all over the world in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.