On December 8, 2012, Commissioner Gonz�lez-S�nchez was honored with the US Congressional Award by Congressman Edolphus Towns at the Concerned Women of Brooklyn, Inc.'s 33rd Annual Recognition  Celebration in Ridgewood, New York.  The event marked 33 years of women of varied backgrounds coming together to look at issues facing families throughout the New York City community. 

This year's honorees were people who exemplified a positive attitude despite their dire circumstances.  They are "overcomers" who have achieved against the odds, not only for themselves but for their families, friends and extended communities.  The Commissioner stated "I am extremely proud to be chosen as one of the individuals to receive this recognition and to share the podium with the other honorees representing the health, education and religion fields."  She acknowledged and thanked our partners in the field of addiction who were present for their encouragement and for ensuring that all New Yorkers receive the gold standard of care in prevention, treatment and recovery.

Congressman Towns had a summary of the Commissioner's biography entered into the Congressional Record on November 15, 2012.  To view the Congressional Record  for Commissioner Gonz�lez-S�nchez biography, visit The Library of Congress website.  

On December 5, 2012, OASAS Executive Deputy Commissioner Sean M. Byrne provided remarks on behalf of Commissioner Arlene Gonz�lez-S�nchez at the "Preparing for a Changing Primary and Behavioral Healthcare System: Cultivating Knowledge and Skills to Meet the Challenge" Conference held in New York City at the NYU Silver School of Social Work. The conference was attended by social workers; professional and peer counselors; educators; researchers; professional staff; and agency, organization and policy leaders. It provided the participants the opportunity to  increase the awareness of the challenges and opportunities associated with creating an integrated system of care that has implications for workforce development; the engagement and involvement of peers and family members; the use of information and data to promote quality and business efficiencies; the adoption of evidence-based practices; and the changing roles of primary and behavioral healthcare providers.

As part of the opening panel, Executive Deputy Commissioner Byrne presented alongside Adam Karpati, Executive Deputy Commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and Robert Myers, Senior Deputy Commissioner from the New York State Office of Mental Health. During his presentation, he covered topics on Care Management for All versus Fee-for-Services; Behavioral Health Organizations (BHOs); Health Homes; and Innovative Prevention, Intervention, and Treatment, Recovery strategies on the horizon; just to name a few.

This all-day conference included numerous presenters and panelists who discussed the challenges and opportunities associated with: creating an integrated system of care that has implications for workforce development; the engagement and involvement of peers and family members; the use of information and data to promote quality and business efficiencies; the adoption of evidence-based practices, and the changing roles of primary and behavioral healthcare providers.

For more information on the free workshop and the Department of Health scholarship, visit the Outreach Training Institute website.

A question that has often crossed my mind, while working in the substance abuse field for over thirty years, is "What if we could have identified the problems sooner and found a way to intervene with the father, mother, son, or daughter; could we have saved his or her marriage, career, family or life?" I did not have an answer until about eight years ago when I first became involved with a federal grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) called Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment - SBIRT. The approach was different from my formal clinical education and practice, but it fit well with my broad services research experience. SAMSHA's SBIRT program is a paradigm shift from the traditional Substance Use Disorders (SUD) model of treating those with diagnoses, usually with an acute care model, and providing prevention strategies to those who have not ever used tobacco, alcohol, or other substances. This model left out a very large group of people who use substances at risky levels but for whom use or misuse has not yet caused serious problems."

SBIRT is a comprehensive, integrated public health approach for providing early identification and intervention for people with risky alcohol and drug use and referral to more intensive treatment for those with SUDs. SBIRT has been around for over twenty five years and an ever growing body of evidence supports its efficacy for reducing tobacco and alcohol use. Current research shows that SBIRT is also effective in reducing illicit drug use.

SBIRT targets those who are drinking at harmful or hazardous levels but do not have an SUD diagnosis. The pyramid below shows the percentage of the U.S. population which fall into each category1 of alcohol use.   

The terms "hazardous drinking" and "harmful drinking" refer to drinking amounts that increase the risk of causing serious problems and amounts that actually cause serious problems, respectively. These risky behaviors and problems include motor vehicle crashes, physical health and/or mental health problems, violence, injuries, unsafe sex, and serious issues involving work, school, family, social relationships, and finances. If we only continue to treat those with SUD diagnoses, we will continue to miss the majority of people with risky alcohol use. In the table above, The NIAAA guidelines for moderate drinking specify the upper limits of low-risk drinking. Risky drinking levels are presented in the table below:

However, there are people who should not drink alcohol at all: individuals in recovery from or who have ever been diagnosed with alcoholism or addiction; children and adolescents; women trying to get pregnant or are pregnant; people who operate machinery and are required to drive, to name a few. Other screening tools available to help identify misuse of other substances include the Drug Abuse Screening Tool (DAST), Alcohol, Smoking, and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST), and the Car, Relax, Alone, Friends, Forget, Trouble (CRAFFT) for adolescents. SBIRT's core elements provide a model for and guide clinical practice: 1) Universal Screening in non-treatment settings identifies the level of use, problems experienced as a consequence of this use, and indicates the needed level of intervention for patients unaware of their risky use and not seeking treatment; 2) A five to ten minute Brief Intervention raises awareness and motivates the patient toward acknowledging the problem and making changes. These sessions are patient-centered with shared decision making for which motivation to change must come from the patient, and the counselor must ask permission before providing clear, respectful advice without judgment or blame; 3) Brief Treatment uses cognitive behavioral techniques with those patients who acknowledge their risky behavior(s) and seek help; and 4) Referrals to Treatment are for patients with more serious SUD problems. SBIRT is relatively easy to learn for various providers, it can be integrated into current practice, and evaluations from SAMHSA cohorts demonstrate cost savings in potential health care utilization, automobile accidents, work absences, and criminal justice involvement.

The goal of this approach is to spread SBIRT services throughout the entire health care system. SAMHSA's grantees are part of the expansion of SBIRT services into other venues: hospital trauma units, primary care offices, school-based health centers, community health centers, and FQHCs. In New York, SAMSHA awarded the Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS) an $8.3 million grant for five years (2011 to 2016) to implement SBIRT. The NYSBIRT project has sites in six New York City's STD clinics and two sites in Watertown that target the active military, veterans, and their families in two hospital emergency departments. SBIRT programs and models provide the mechanism to identify patients who are unaware of their problematic use and not seeking out treatment, intervene early, increase problem awareness, prevent disability and premature death, and reduce cost to individuals, families, and their communities.
 

1Source: Babor, T.F., Higgins-Biddle, J.C., Saunders, J.B. and Monteiro, M.G. AUDIT The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test: Guidelines for Use in Primary Care. Second Edition. World Health Organization, Geneva,
 2001.2. Heather, N. Treatment

Shirley DeStafeno is the Project Manager of the New York Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (NYSBIRT) grant for NYS Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS). She has been a Project Manager and Evaluator for several federally-funded grants for over twenty  

years, with prior experience in clinical services and management information systems.

The New York State Office of Information Technology Services and the New York State Senate, in collaboration with the Center for Technology in Government, held Capitol Camp 2012, November 15-16, in Albany.  

This fourth annual "Unconference" and "Hackathon" brought  government technology stakeholders together from the public and private sectors to discuss how technology can foster a more transparent, efficient, and participatory government for all New York State citizens. 

As part of this event, the OASAS Communications Bureau, consisting of Jannette Rondo, Dora Ricci and Elizabeth Dunn, received recognition on behalf of OASAS for creating and managing the content on a Hurricane Sandy webpage published on the OASAS website to communicate about the hurricane efforts. Additionally, Facebook and Twitter were used to share information about the services available to those in need. 

During the 4th Annual Capitol Camp Technology Forum, several state agencies such as Deparment of Transportation (DOT), Department of Labor (DOL), Department of Health (DOH) and the Division of Homeland Security (DHSES) were also recognized for using these tools to help keep the public informed. The Capitol Camp brought together government technology stakeholders from the public and private sectors to discuss how technology can foster a more transparent, efficient and participatory government for all New York State citizens.

The OASAS Communications Department was pleased to have worked with Dominique Harrison who was an intern selected from The New New York Leaders: Student Intern Program. This first ever  statewide Student Intern Program, created by Governor Cuomo, was designed to renew the connection between the public and the state and ensure that state government is diverse, talented, and prepared to lead for decades to come.  

As an intern, Dominique did an excellent job in showing initiative, professionalism and a "can-do" attitude in all of the responsibilities that were presented to her.  She completed numerous assignments with excellence. Her duties included the November and December issues of the OASAS Communicator Newsletter; assisting with the preliminary planning of the upcoming Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Providers, Inc. (ASAP) Conference; helping to manage the Communications Bureau mailbox; participating on a quality assurance call with the NYS HOPEline to ensure that the system was working properly; as well as numerous other day-to-day tasks. In light of her dedication and diligence, the communications bureau presented her with an OASAS Making A Difference Award. 

Dominique is a recent graduate from SUNY Albany with a BS Degree in Communications. We wish Dominique much success in her future professional endeavors! We congratulate and thank her for her contributions to NYS OASAS, State Government and those we serve!

To learn more about the new New York Leaders: Student Intern Program, visit nysinternships.com/nnyl/intern.cfm.