Welcome to YES Community Counseling Center’s PACT E-newsletter

delivering updates on all things PREVENTION!

Learn more about PACT at pactyes.org

Since 2019, the PACT (Partnering In Action and Change For Tomorrow) team has successfully administered community assessments, youth/young adult surveys and focus groups across Farmingdale, Levittown, Massapequa and Plainedge. Our data continues to provide a snapshot of what youth and young adult (ages 9-20) underage drinking and substance use looks like and how alcohol and substances are accessed in the home and community.

While data is essential to our understanding our youth substance use, equally important, is building relationships to support PACT's prevention efforts.

This summer, the PACT team visited over fifty pediatrician offices and provided 151 PACT Prevention Packets highlighting local underage drinking and substance use rates. Our outreach included tools regarding Screening and Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) on youth annual health visits as youth report using alcohol and substances as early as age eleven. In addition, they report only 54% of parents talk with their t(w)eens about the dangers of underage drinking and substance use. Pediatric healthcare professionals are critical for t(w)eens to navigate adolescence and young adulthood healthy and safe.

We are proud to announce a new collaboration with Northwell Health, to provide pediatricians and health professionals training to explore the value of SBIRT implementation on youth annual health visits. Working together, we can weave prevention through the fabric of our communities and ensure the health and safety of our children across Nassau County.

What can you do? Please join our initiative, Like us on Facebook, or visit our website to learn more about how you can change the environment by which underage drinking and youth substance use exists in our communities.

PACT's new partner, Northwell Health, will host health professionals' educational trainings throughout 2021-22 regarding the evidence based tool SBIRT. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends screening for substance use in children, starting as early as nine years of age.

The program, Exploring the Value of Addressing Substance Use for Today’s Pediatricians and Healthcare Professionals, features Sandeep Kapoor, MD and David Gregory Fagan, MD of Northwell Health, will be held virtually on Tuesday, October 19th from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 a.m. Click here to register.

The training will review how evidence-based tools, timely intervention, and access to resources can improve the health and lives of pediatric patients. It is part of an ongoing educational series to provide pediatricians and healthcare professionals with tools to ensure their patients experience a healthy adolescence and young adulthood. For additional questions regarding the educational series, call PACT at 516-799-3203 x230.

Our PACT Team recently trained the Farmingdale Fire Department in TIPS Alcohol Training Awareness Program. TIPS (Training Intervention ProcedureS) is an approved alcohol training awareness program by the New York State Liquor Authority. The training is part of YESCCC’s Partnering in Action Change for Tomorrow (PACT) federal grant initiative to reduce underage drinking, intoxication and drunk driving. TIPS is supported by the Chambers of Commerce in Farmingdale, Levittown, and Massapequa as well as the Town of Oyster Bay and the Nassau County Police Department. 

PACT's FREE training is available to businesses in Nassau County that serve and sell alcohol. The training is designed to enhance the fundamental “people skills" of servers, sellers and consumers of alcohol. TIPS training can also reduce exposure to alcohol liability lawsuits and reduce penalties for alcohol violations; lower insurance premiums; improve customer service and satisfaction; and promote community safety.

For more information, contact the PACT Team at 516-799-3203 x230 or email us at pact@yesccc.org.

In collaboration with the Long Island Prevention Resources Center (LIPRC), PACT will host Teen Intervene 2-day training on Tuesday, November 16th from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. (Part 1 of 2) and Wednesday, November 17th from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.(Part 2 of 2). The training is open to School Social Workers, Teachers, Guidance Counselors, Psychologists, Nurses, Coaches or licensed Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Providers. Please feel free to forward to professionals you feel will benefit from the training.

Click here for our flyer and more information regarding Social Work CEUS, CPP/CPS credentialing and CASAC credentialing hours. To register email PACT at pact@yesccc.org or call us at (516) 799- 3203 x 230.

AAA's Shifting Gears Health Curriculum is an online learning program to address teen attitudes and behaviors regarding marijuana and driving. The program explores the impact of marijuana on the developing teenage brain; demonstrates the potential consequences that can occur related to driving; provides evidence-based information about preconceived ideas about marijuana use; explains the physical and cognitive processes that are affected by marijuana; and why driving under the influence of marijuana is a crime.

According to AAA, researchers at Brown University's School of Public Health conducted a comprehensive review of the Shifting Gears curriculum and encourages high school health educators to implement the program to not only fulfill health education standards, but to address attitudes and behaviors that put teen drivers at great risk. Click here to learn more about AAA's Shifting Gears program.