Session: Steps Toward Expanding Substance Abuse Prevention into Healthcare: Partnering with Physicians (Society for Prevention Research 22nd Annual Meeting)

Substance use disorder (SUD) is among the costliest, earliest onset, and intractable of chronic illnesses.  Considerable progress has occurred to develop SUD prevention programs for a range of settings, and for coordinating those programs, to engage general population youth.  One exception is healthcare-based programs.  Despite two decades of calls for healthcare-based SUD prevention programs (e.g., American Academy of Pediatrics), few such programs exist and these don’t specifically target SUD.  This symposium will present theory and evidence supporting a well-child, Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) prevention program for older children and young adolescents at high SUD risk.  The Chair (also the Discussant) will overview of the SUD etiology model on which the screening and intervention approach is founded as well as evidence from recent longitudinal investigations which support this healthcare-oriented approach.  Speaker 1 will describe, summarize evidence from several studies, and provide contact information for three screening tools.  Topics will include the approaches used to developing each tool, psychometric evidence including predictive validity for problem behavior outcomes, and correlations with the scales used for case conceptualization in the Family Check-Up.  Speaker 2 will present results of a feasibility study for using the screening-and-referral protocol during pediatrician well-child check-ups.  This protocol consisted of nurse-administered screening tools, which conceivably could be used by nurses in any setting.  Overall, patients, parents and healthcare staff were highly supportive of the protocol.  The final Speaker will summarize findings from multiple trials of a brief, family-centered, motivational interviewing prevention program for at-risk youth, the Family Check-Up, including its use in primary care settings.  One highlight of these results is the high recruitment and retention rates.  The Discussant will provide commentary on the presentations and facilitate audience interaction.  Each topic of this symposium is theory-grounded and evidence-based.  Conjoining them within a healthcare context represents innovative prevention with potential to generate revenue; lower SUD propensity among at-risk youth with particular attention paid to benefitting underserved populations; and reduce healthcare costs that result from SUD, associated chronic behavior problems, and consequent medical illnesses.