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‘They Died Because They Tried It Once’: A US High School was Ravaged by Fentanyl – and Came Back from the Brink
From his small, windowless office across from the teachers’ lounge at Dana Hills high school in Orange county, California, Mike Darnold has witnessed first-hand the rise of fentanyl as a brutal teen killer. Darnold, 80, is a former police officer and recovering alcoholic. He’s spent the last 16 years helping save students whose lives have veered out of control because of drugs and alcohol. But it wasn’t until recently that his job became such an immediate life-and-death battle. Before 2020, Darnold had rarely heard of students dying of drug overdoses. But since then, drug deaths – mostly caused by counterfeit pills spiked with fentanyl – have become one the leading killers of 14- to 18-year-olds nationwide. At Dana Hills high, there have been five deaths in the last four years alone. One teenager was a popular and ambitious cheerleader in her junior year; another was a freshman football player. One was an incoming high school student who never made it to the first day. Read more here.
Related: How social media became a storefront for deadly fake pills laced with fentanyl
Fentanyl was killing their friends – and no one was talking about it. So these teens stepped up
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Instagram, Facing Pressure Over Child Safety Online, Unveils Sweeping Changes
Instagram unveiled a sweeping overhaul on Tuesday to beef up privacy and limit social media’s intrusive effects for users who are younger than 18, as the app faces intensifying pressure over children’s safety online. Instagram said the accounts of users younger than 18 will be made private by default in the coming weeks, which means that only followers approved by an account-holder may see their posts. The app, owned by Meta, also plans to stop notifications to minors from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. to promote sleep. In addition, Instagram will introduce more supervision tools for adults, including a feature that allows parents to see the accounts that their teenager recently messaged. Read more here.
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Governor Hochul Announces $36 Million Awarded to Create Permanent Supportive Housing Across New York State
Governor Kathy Hochul last Friday announced that $36 million has been awarded to five projects across New York State that will create 249 units of permanent supportive housing in Monroe, Steuben, Erie, Jefferson, and Kings counties for individuals and families who have experienced homelessness. The grants—awarded through a competitive process by the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance’s (OTDA) Homeless Housing and Assistance (HHAP) Program—are an important component of Governor Hochul's $25 billion comprehensive Housing Plan that will help create or preserve 100,000 affordable homes across New York State, including 10,000 with support services for vulnerable populations. The five projects awarded funding will provide housing with on-site support services for individuals and families who have experienced homelessness, including, youth aging out of foster care, and individuals living with serious mental illness and/or substance use disorders. Read more here.
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VA Awards $52.5M to Community Organizations Working to Prevent Veteran Suicide
Today, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced several new steps in VA’s ongoing fight to prevent Veteran suicide — including awarding $52.5 million in grants to community organizations implementing tailored suicide prevention programs and services for Veterans and their families. This fiscal year’s grantees of the Staff Sergeant Parker Gordon Fox Suicide Prevention Grant Program include 85 organizations across 41 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, American Samoa, and Puerto Rico to fund services in FY 2025. Eight additional previous grantees will also continue services into FY 2025. VA prioritizes awards for organizations that focus on providing services in rural communities, Tribal lands, U.S. territories, medically underserved areas, areas with a high number or percentage of minority Veterans or women Veterans, and areas with a high number or percentage of calls to the Veterans Crisis Line. Read more here.
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Providing Medications for Addiction Treatment in Jail and During Reentry
Individuals leaving correctional facilities experience rates of drug overdose an estimated 10 times higher than the general population. To mitigate this risk, jails and prisons are increasingly providing medication for addiction treatment (MAT), an evidence-based approach for treating addiction, particularly opioid use disorder. However, providing MAT in jail settings presents unique challenges compared to prisons, as lengths of stay can be short and unpredictable. The Camden County Correctional Facility (CCCF), a jail in Camden County, New Jersey, operates an MAT program that serves around 225 people daily (out of an average daily jail population of around 900) and has reduced the risk of overdose among participants following release. In addition to offering MAT for individuals with substance use disorders (SUD) in the jail, they also provide other wraparound supports during the reentry period. Read more here.
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Five Lessons People Who Use Drugs Want Policymakers (and Everyone Else) To Know
People with substance-use disorder (SUD) generally face significant barriers to accessing services. Those barriers can result from policy, an underlying lack of familiarity on the part of policymakers and practitioners who do not regularly work with clients, and consequences of the existing treatment and recovery ecosystem. People with substance-use disorders take many different paths to recovery, and some of those paths require multiple types of support. These pathways and support services include detoxification, the process by which the body is cleared of drugs; treatment, where individuals either live in a residential facility with other patients or where individuals attend during daily sessions only; supportive housing; and community-based support programs such as 12-step meetings, self-help groups, and recovery community centers that assist people with substance-use disorder in their longer-term recovery after acute treatment. Read more here.
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Trauma Recovery Centers Work for Crime Victims, But Will They Survive?
Antonio Caballero Villa, 47, was an onion farmer in Mexico before he was shot. He looks haunted as he recalls the day he says he remembers vividly. He remembers being tailed by members of a cartel while in his car with his father, brother, and cousin. When they stopped to confront them, shots rang out. His memories from this point remain fuzzy. He was told that EMTs revived him on the scene of the shooting. He was taken to the hospital, where he later learned that he was the only survivor. In the days after the shooting that injured him and killed members of his family, he couldn’t sleep for almost a month. Two years have passed since his shooting, but he remembers waking up feeling like he was dreaming. He struggled with staying motivated in recovery, and thought about giving up but kept pushing forward for his family. It was eventually his sister and circle of support who encouraged him to seek support last year at the Olive View Trauma Recovery Center. Read more here.
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Decades of National Suicide Prevention Policies Haven’t Slowed the Deaths
When Pooja Mehta’s younger brother, Raj, died by suicide at 19 in March 2020, she felt “blindsided.” Raj’s last text message was to his college lab partner about how to divide homework questions. “You don’t say you’re going to take questions 1 through 15 if you’re planning to be dead one hour later,” said Mehta, 29, a mental health and suicide prevention advocate in Arlington, Virginia. She had been trained in Mental Health First Aid — a nationwide program that teaches how to identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental illness — yet she said her brother showed no signs of trouble. Mehta said some people blamed her for Raj’s death because the two were living together during the covid-19 pandemic while Raj was attending classes online. Others said her training should have helped her recognize he was struggling. But, Mehta said, “we act like we know everything there is to know about suicide prevention. We’ve done a really good job at developing solutions for a part of the problem, but we really don’t know enough.” Read more here.
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During Suicide Prevention Month, NYSOFA Highlights Resources and Data to Address the Unique Risk Factors, Provide Help for Older Adults and Caregivers
During Suicide Prevention Month in September, the New York State Office for the Aging (NYSOFA) highlights available resources to help older adults and caregivers facing suicide risk, as well as little-discussed data on the incidence and unique risk factors for suicide in the older population. The services and supports available through NYSOFA join other statewide efforts to raise awareness about suicide while connecting people with help at a time when nearly a quarter of suicides are among individuals age 65 and up nationally, according to data from the National Council on Aging (NCOA). New York’s aging services and support network has many programs that are aimed at combatting social isolation – a major risk factor for suicide – and supporting caregivers who may be susceptible to suicide, due to burnout and related distress. Read more here.
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UPCOMING EVENTS & TRAININGS
Making Sense of Health Privacy Laws: HIPAA and FERPA for School-Based Health Professionals
September 19, 1 - 2:30 pm, MHTTC
Timely and Adaptive Strategies to Optimize Suicide Prevention Interventions
September 19, 1 - 3 pm, NIMH
Reimagining Behavioral Health Workforce Pathways: An Introduction to Apprenticeships
September 19, 2 - 3 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
How do we measure strong and equitable ecosystems of care?
September 19, 2 - 3 pm, Camden Coalition
Sequential Intercept Mapping Informational Webinar
September 23, 4 - 5 pm, SAMHSA's GAINS Center
Supportive Services in Housing and Child Welfare:
September 24, 12 - 1 pm, CSH
Enhancing Medicaid Equity Through Health Literacy: Practical Strategies
September 24, 2 - 3:30 pm, Center for Healthcare Strategies
Ethical and Clinical Considerations When Delivering Person-Centered Opioid and Other Drug Treatment to Justice-Involved Individuals
September 24, 3 - 4:30 pm, NAADAC
Ask the Expert: Family-Centered Reentry Programming
September 25, 2 - 3:30 pm, CSG Justice Center
Improving Access to Medicines for People Living With Mental Illness
September 25, 2 - 3 pm, Rural Minds
Answering the Call: Empowering Communities to Prevent Suicide Among Black Youth
September 25, 2 - 3:30 pm, SAMHSA
Integrating STI and HIV Prevention into the SBIRT Model
September 25, 3 - 4:30 pm, NAADAC
Providing Equitable Care for LGBTQ+ Youth in Rural Communities
September 26, 1 - 2 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Addressing the Equity and Fairness of Assessments: How the National Guidelines Can Transform Agencies’ Communication and Use of Post-Conviction Risk and Needs Assessments
September 26, 1 - 2:30 pm, SAMHSA's GAINS Center
Navigating the Behavioral Health AI Journey from Concept to Reality
September 26, 2 - 3 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
State Funding for County Behavioral Health Crisis Services: Examples and Opportunities
September 26, 2 - 3 pm, NACo
Bridging the Licensure Gap: How Employers Can Support Clinician Success
September 27, 12 - 1 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Court Navigation Programs: Providing Connections and Support Across the Legal and BH Systems
September 27, 1 - 2:30 pm, SAMHSA's GAINS Center
Maternal Intensive Training: Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment of Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders in Primary Care & Ob/Gyn Settings
September 30, 9 am - 5 pm, Syracuse, NY - IN PERSON
Expanding Access to Crisis Care by Breaking Down Social and Technology Barriers
October 1, 12 - 1 pm, Behavioral Health Business
Children’s HCBS Referral Process and Expectations
October 1, 1 - 2 pm, NYSDOH
AI to Support Our Workforce
October 1, 2 - 3 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Rural Telementoring UnConference 2024
October 16, 11 am - 3 pm, RTTC
Boosting Equitable Connected Healthcare Access & Adoption
October 16, 2 - 3 pm, TechTarget
Justice Center Code of Conduct Train-the-Trainer Session
October 16, 9:30 am - 12:30 pm, Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs
New York State Trauma-Informed Network & Resource Center Conference
October 23 - 25, Saratoga Springs, NYSTINRC
Liability and Risk Considerations When Adopting AI Technology
October 25, 1 - 2 pm, National Council for Mental Wellbeing
Justice Center Code of Conduct Train-the-Trainer Session
November 13, 9:30 am - 12:30 pm, Justice Center for the Protection of People with Special Needs
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CLMHD CALENDAR
SEPTEMBER
Mental Hygiene Planning Committee Meeting
September 19: 1 - 3 pm
SAVE THE DATE
CLMHD Executive Committee Meeting
October 2: 8 - 9 am
AOT Coordinators Call
October 4: 10 - 11:30 am
LGU Clinic Operators Call
October 8: 10 - 11:30 am
Addiction Services & Supports (ASR) Committee Meeting
October 10: 11 am - 12 pm
Developmental Disabilities Committee Meeting
October 10: 1 - 2:30 pm
Mental Health Committee Meeting
October 10: 3 - 4 pm
CLMHD Office Closed - Columbus Day
October 14
Children & Families Committee Meeting
October 15: 11:30 am - 1 pm
Membership Call
October 16: 9 - 10:30 am
Mental Hygiene Planning Committee Meeting
October 19: 1 - 2:30 pm
Fall 2024 Full Membership Meeting
October 23-25, Clayton, NY (Jefferson County)
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