Strategies to Prevent and Treat Adolescent Substance Use

Description

Kammarauche "Uche" Aneni, an assistant professor of child psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine, will discuss some of the most pressing issues in the youth substance use space and opportunities to treat and prevent use, as part of the Bloomberg School of Public Health's Spotlight Series.

Approximately one in five youth ages 12-17 are participating in substance use including alcohol, tobacco and cigarettes, and illicit drugs. Youth and adolescents who use substances are at risk of using as adults, and to limit this risk, it is important to not only connect those currently using with helpful resources but also to prevent use before it begins. It is a challenge to identify youth who are struggling, and once identified, the wait to receive care is often prohibitive to timely treatment. Potential options for increasing screening and access to treatment include creating systems within primary care settings (90% of youth receive primary care), include school systems in screening and treatment, and stand-alone digital interventions.