Substance Abuse Prevention and Intervention

Program Name (in ABC order with website hyperlink)

Description &

Legislative Requirements

Type of Resource

Audience

3 Bold Steps in Action

• Activities and tools show how 3 Bold Steps can help create positive, lasting change to:
      o prevent bullying,
      o promote social emotional learning in                   early childhood,
      o promote student mental health, and
      o prevent youth substance abuse

Supplemental

Educators

 PSC

 SSS Administrators

ACT on FACTS: Making Educators Partners in Youth Suicide Prevention  

From the Society for the Prevention of Teen Suicide:

• Two-hour online interactive training program, designed in a series of modules
• Addresses responsibilities of educators in the process of identification and referral of potentially suicidal youth
• Focuses on practical realities and challenges inherent in the school setting through various training formats
• Program highlights four categories of youth who may be at elevated risk for suicide: youth involved in bullying, who self-identify as LGBTQ, identified as gifted and talented, and/or students returning to school after a suicide attempt 
• Training includes optional content that addresses suicide in elementary and middle schools
• Additional module includes the stories of individual survivors of suicide loss as well as a high school that experienced an episode of contagion
• Focus in telling these stories is to highlight the importance of emphasizing resilience and protective factors after a loss event

Training

Educators

 PSC

SSS

 Administrators

BHC

All Stars (v. 3)

• School-based program for middle school students (11-14 years old) designed to prevent and delay the onset of high-risk behaviors such as drug use, violence, and premature sexual activity.
• Focuses on five topics important to preventing high-risk behaviors: (1) developing positive ideals that do not fit with high-risk behavior; (2) creating a belief in conventional norms; (3) building strong personal commitments to avoid high-risk behaviors; (4) bonding with school, prosocial institutions, and family; and (5) increasing positive parental attentiveness such as positive communication and parental monitoring.
• Curriculum includes highly interactive group activities, games and art projects, small group discussions, one-on-one sessions, a parent component, optional online activities and worksheets, and a celebration ceremony.
• Consists of thirteen 45-minute class sessions delivered on a weekly basis.
• All Stars Booster is an optional program designed to be delivered 1 year after the core program and includes nine 45-minute sessions reinforcing lessons learned in the previous year.
• All Stars Plus includes twelve 45-minute lessons designed to expand instruction to include three additional topics--decision making, goal setting, and peer pressure resistance skills training--and is intended as an option for the third year of the intervention.

Can only be delivered by a qualified substance use prevention specialist.

Intervention

SUPS

ASK about Suicide to Save a Life Gatekeeper Training

This program teaches people to do the following:

• Understand suicide and suicidal behavior
• Identify the risk and protective factors and warning signs
• Apply basic suicide prevention skills (ask about suicide, know where and how to refer a person for help)
• 1¼-hour video training that provides certification for teachers in Texas
• 1-hour video training for informal settings where certification is not needed
• 1½ to 4-hour workshops taught by certified trainers for community members and others
• Virtual training now available
• AS+K Advanced Training this Fall 2020 will include specific, actionable steps to support school personnel; suggestions for involving parents and guardians in suicide prevention; tips for managing student re-entry after a mental health crisis; and guidance for addressing in-school suicide attempts and supporting the school community following a suicide loss

Training

Educators

 PSC

SSS

Administrators

At-Risk (Kognito) Training

• Interactive professional development program that uses virtual role-play to help school faculty, staff, and administrators learn common signs of psychological distress and how to approach an at-risk student for referral to the school counselor.

Training

Educators

 PSC

 SSS Administrators

Blueprints for Healthy Youth Development

• Identifies, recommends, and disseminates practices/programs for youth, families and communities that, based on scientific evaluations, have strong evidence of effectiveness.
• Practices/programs rated as either Promising, Model or Model Plus.
• Provides interactive search function that enables you to search based on specific criteria and then browse through a wide range of practices/programs that match those criteria.
• Each result will indicate the practice/program rating.

Registry

Educators

 PSC

 SSS Administrators BHC

 SUPS

Blues Program

• A school-based prevention program for adolescents with depressive symptoms or adolescents who are at risk of onset of major depression. 
• Delivered by 1 or 2 Facilitators who are familiar with cognitive behavioral methods of prevention and treating depression.
• Delivered to groups of 4-8 adolescents, in one-hour sessions over 6 weeks with home practice assignments included.
• Group sessions include: building group rapport, increasing participant involvement in pleasant activities, learning and practicing cognitive restricting techniques, and developing response plans in future life stressors. 
• Please note, if a youth’s assessment reveals current major depression and/or serious suicidal ideation, he/she should be referred for appropriate treatment.

Intervention

BHC

 PSC

California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare

• Mission of the CEBC is to advance the effective implementation of evidence-based practices for children and families involved with the child welfare system.
• Searchable database of child welfare related programs.
• Description and information on research evidence for specific programs.
• Guidance on how to make critical decisions regarding selecting and implementing programs.
• Tools and materials to provide support for choosing, implementing and sustaining a program.

Registry

Educators

 PSC

 SSS

 Administrators BHC

 SUPS

Caring School Community

• A comprehensive, research-based social and emotional learning (SEL) program that builds school-wide community, develops students’ social skills and SEL competencies, and enables a transformative stance on discipline.
• This CASEL SELect program promotes positive behavior through direct teaching of responsibility, empathy, and cooperation, creating settings where students feel heard, known, and cared for.
• Students become intrinsically motivated to contribute productively to a community they feel invested in, and where they know they matter.

Caring School Community is built around the following principles:

• A focus on the whole school community: Community must include everyone: students, parents, school leaders, teachers, custodians, cafeteria staff, yard supervisors, and support staff.
• Relationships matter: Relationships underpin teaching, learning, and prosocial development. Building relationships and fostering a sense of community are hallmarks of the program.
• Comprehensive leadership guidance: The program includes everything a leader needs for a successful implementation, including step-by-step guidance and resources to help plan for, launch, and support implementation.
• A unique stance on discipline: No more gold stars. A focus on community, not compliance. Caring School Community builds on the powerful insight that when students have strong relationships within their community, they are more likely to acquire self-discipline and feel a sense of responsibility to themselves and to others.
• A year’s worth of teacher-friendly, easy-to-implement, grade-specific instruction: A full 30 weeks of daily, grade-specific lessons across K–8 that only require 30 minutes a day, with a comprehensive scope and sequence to build relationships, social skills, and competencies intentionally over time.
• Creating calm, orderly learning environments: Through consistent use of effective classroom management practices and structures that build relationships, the program helps teachers create calm, safe classrooms that are more conducive to learning.
• Robust content for middle school: Grade 6–8 is not an afterthought. The program provides comprehensive Advisory Period lessons as well as guidance for integrating SEL across all subject areas. Lessons address developmentally appropriate and urgent topics for middle school.

Supplemental

Educators

 PSC

 SSS

Administrators

CASEL Guide: Effective Social and Emotional Learning Programs

• Provides a systematic framework to rate and identify well-designed, evidence-based SEL programs with potential for broad dissemination to schools across the United States.
• The primary goal of the Guide is to give educators information for selecting and implementing SEL programs in their districts and schools.

2015 CASEL Guide: Effective Social and Emotional Learning Programs—Middle and High School Edition:

• Identifies school-based programs that have been evaluated with middle and high school students and that promote students’ personal and social competence.
• Current best practice guidelines for education at the middle-school level recognize the diverse developmental needs of this age group and the importance of promoting both academic and personal development, including social and emotional competence. The importance of Social and Emotional Learning for high school is also growing considering its link to college and career readiness and dropout prevention.
• The knowledge, skills, and attitudes within the CASEL five competency clusters are especially critical during adolescence because youth at this stage are going through rapid physical, emotional, and cognitive changes which create unique opportunities for personal and social skill development.
• Adolescents also engage in more risky behavior than younger students and face a variety of challenging situations, including increased independence, peer pressure, and exposure to social media.
• Longitudinal studies have shown that increased social and emotional competence is related to reductions in a variety of problem behaviors including aggression, delinquency, substance use, and dropout.

Registry

Educators

 PSC

SSS

C.A.T. Project

• A 16-session program for adolescents with anxiety.
• CORE COMPONENTS
  • Psychoeducation
  • Exposure tasks
  • Somatic management
  • Cognitive restructuring
  • Problem solving

• Weekly 50-minute sessions with homework each week
• Optional "Parent Companion" which informs the parent of preferred/optimal ways to respond to the anxious teen
• Greater increases in number of children returning to within normal anxiety levels
• Reductions in severity of anxiety at post-treatment
• Greater likelihood of being in remission at follow up
• Fewer problems with substance abuse at long-term follow up
• Stronger therapeutic relationships predicted positive treatment outcome
• Intervention combined with medication resulted in strongest gains

Intervention

BHC

Check and Connect

• An intervention used with K-12 students who show warning signs of disengagement with school and who are at risk of dropping out.
• At the core of Check & Connect is a trusting relationship between the student and a caring, trained mentor who both advocates for and challenges the student to keep education salient.
• Students are referred to Check & Connect when they show warning signs of disengaging from school, such as poor attendance, behavioral issues, and/or low grades.
• In Check & Connect, the "Check" component refers to the process where mentors systematically monitor student performance variables (e.g., absences, tardies, behavioral referrals, grades), while the "Connect" component refers to mentors providing personalized, timely interventions to help students solve problems, build skills, and enhance competence.
• Mentors work with caseloads of students and families for at least two years, functioning as liaisons between home and school and striving to build constructive family-school relationships.

Demonstrated outcomes of Check & Connect include:

• decrease in truancy, tardies, behavior referrals, and dropout rates;
• increase in attendance, persistence in school, credits accrued, and school completion; and
• impact on literacy.

Intervention

Educators

 PSC

 SSS

 Administrators

 BHC

Check In - Check Out

• Improves student accountability
• Increases structure
• Improves student behavior and academics when other interventions have failed
• Provides feedback and adult support on a daily basis
• Improves and establishes daily home/school communication and collaboration
• Improves student organization, motivation, incentive, and reward
• Helps students to self-monitor and correct
• Internalizes success and accomplishment of goals
• Students get involved and excited about the program, enjoying the structure, support, and incentives of the intervention
• Leads to maintenance free responsible behaviors, habits, and effort

Intervention

Educators

PSC

SSS

Collaborative & Proactive Solutions

• Non-punitive, non-adversarial, trauma-informed model of care that is based on the premise that challenging behavior occurs when the expectations being placed on a student exceed the student’s capacity to respond accordingly.
• Found to dramatically reduce discipline referrals, detentions, and suspensions in many schools.
• Technology for giving students practice at implementing problem solving skills.
  Strengths-based, structured, and collaboratively measures progress using youth voice in the intervention.                     
• According to the website, "There is no minimum educational requirement to become a provider. For a clinician or educator to become certified in the CPS model, they must participate in a 24-week CPS training program. “
• The Lives in the Balance website has free resources to help learn about and apply the CPS approach, including streaming video, audio programming, support, and more.
• Different types of workshops and trainings also exist.

Supplemental

Educators

 PSC

SSS

Administrators

BHC

Coping Cat

A cognitive-behavioral treatment for children in grades 2^nd through 8^th with anxiety. The program incorporates 4 components:

• Recognizing and understanding emotional and physical reactions to anxiety
• Clarifying thoughts and feelings in anxious situations
• Developing plans for effective coping
• There is also a family (parents included) treatment section.
• Weekly 50-minute sessions
• 16 weeks with homework each week
• Can be done in groups of 4-5
• Greater increases in number of children returning to within normal anxiety levels
• Reductions in severity of anxiety at post-treatment
• Greater likelihood of being in remission at follow up
• Fewer problems with substance abuse at long-term follow up
• Stronger therapeutic relationships predicted positive treatment outcome
• Intervention combined with medication resulted in strongest gains

Intervention

BHC

 PSC

Coping Power

• For transition from 5^th to 6^th grade
• Targets students who are at risk for substance abuse
• Emphasizes social and emotional skills needed during the transition to middle school

Designed to impact four variables:

• lack of social competence
• poor self-regulation and self-control
• poor bonding with school
• poor caregiver involvement with child
• Child component:
• 22 group sessions in 5thgrade
• 12 group sessions in 6thgrade
• 4 30-minute individual sessions once every two months

Parent component:

• 11 group sessions during child’s 5thgrade year
• 5 group sessions during child’s 5thgrade year

Outcomes:

• Reduced substance use
• Reduced delinquent behavior
• Reductions in aggressive behavior at home and at school
• Reductions in aggressive behavior at school
• Improved social competence
• Better Language Arts outcomes 2 years after completing the program

Intervention

PSC

BHC

 SUPS

Creating Lasting Family Connections

• The CLFC Program builds family skills and knowledge related to how childhood experiences can influence our behaviors and beliefs as adults; the differences between thoughts, feelings and behaviors; the developmental stages of children; characteristics of healthy families; emotional awareness and healthy emotional expression; developing expectations and consequences in relationships; saying “no” to people we’re close to in a manner that preserves and/or strengthens our relationship with them; our experiences with alcohol while we were growing up; examining the differences between abstinence from alcohol use, drinking alcohol in low risk ways, becoming drunk and developing alcoholism; examining the possibility of drinking responsibly; the characteristics of positive, influential parents and adults; cultural influences on attitudes and behaviors related to alcohol use; how to recognize when someone may be having problems with alcohol (or other drugs); methods for the prevention of, intervention in, and treatment of the development of a substance addiction; how alcoholism affects families; and the view that any substance addiction (including alcoholism) is a disease.
• It is a structured curriculum for youth ages 9-17 and their parents, guardians, and other family members to improve their ability to provide a nurturing environment for each other in a very effective and meaningful way.
• Participating youth and adults are encouraged to improve their personal growth through increasing self-awareness, expression of feelings, interpersonal communication, and self-disclosure.
• Participants are taught social skills, refusal skills, and appropriate knowledge and healthy beliefs about alcohol and drugs, which provide a strong defense against environmental risk factors that can lead to negative outcomes for youth.
• Also provides parents and other caring adults with family management, family enhancement, and communications training.
• All participants are provided opportunities to practice these skills in a safe, peer-group setting.

Supplemental

Educators

 PSC

 SSS

Curriculum-Based Support Group (CBSG)

• Support group intervention designed to increase resiliency and reduce risk factors among children and youth ages 4-17 who are identified as being at elevated risk for early substance use and future delinquency and violence (e.g., they are living in adverse family situations, displaying observable gaps in coping and social skills, or displaying early indicators of antisocial attitudes and behaviors).
• Based on cognitive-behavioral and competence-enhancement models of prevention, the CBSG Program teaches essential life skills and offers emotional support to help children and youth cope with difficult family situations; resist peer pressure; set and achieve goals; refuse alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs; and reduce antisocial attitudes and rebellious behavior.
• Delivered in 10-12 weekly, 1-hour support group sessions, the curriculum addresses topics such as self-concept, anger and other feelings, dreams and goal setting, healthy choices, friends, peer pressure, life challenges, family chemical dependency, and making a public commitment to staying drug free and true to life goals.
• Lesson content and objectives are essentially the same for all participants but are tailored for age and developmental status.
• Groups are formed with 6-10 participants no more than 2 years apart in age.

Can only be delivered by a qualified substance use prevention specialist.

Intervention

SUPS

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

• Systematic therapy that organizes treatment into stages and goals, or targets.
• Goals of the first stage of DBT focus on decreasing life-threatening behaviors, including addressing depression, suicidality, substance dependence, and PSTD.
• Skills taught in DBT groups by a mental health professional and focus on improving behavioral, emotional, and cognitive instability.
• DBT groups focus on the development of the following four skills: mindfulness meditation, interpersonal effectiveness, emotion regulation, and distress tolerance.                                        

Can only be delivered by a licensed qualified clinical behavioral health provider.

Intervention

BHC

Effective Child Therapy

• Effective Child Therapy is an initiative of the Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology (SCCAP).
• The site was originally developed in partnership between SCCAP and the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT).
• Aims to provide parents and other caregivers with easy-to-access, comprehensive information on the symptoms and treatments of behavioral and mental health problems in children and adolescents.
• Developed to educate the public and professionals about mental health treatments that are backed by the strongest scientific support and are most likely to work. 
• Information presented is not meant to replace the advice of a health professional. 
• It can serve as a starting point for discussions with a qualified clinical child psychologist or other health professional to find an evidence-based therapy.
• Information on the EffectiveChildTherapy.org website is intended for educational purposes only. 
• The website is not meant to replace the advice of a mental health professional nor serve as a substitute for mental health treatment. 
• Do not use this information to self-diagnose or self-treat.
• Information provided on the EffectChildTherapy.org website comes from articles published in both the Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology and Evidence-based Practice in Child and Adolescent Mental Health. 
• Evidence-based updates that include information about the latest research are periodically published in these journals.

Registry

Educators

 PSC

 SSS

 BHC

Families and Schools Together (FAST)

• Internationally acclaimed parent engagement program that helps children thrive by building strong relationships at home.
• Multifamily group intervention program designed to build protective factors for children, empower parents to be primary prevention agents, and build supportive parent-to-parent groups.
• Helps children thrive by building stronger, more supportive relationships at home.
• Consistently produces statistically significant improvements in children’s behavior, emotional well-being, and academic performance while building social capital among families, schools and communities. 
• 8 weekly sessions, each 2 ½ hrs. - a trained team of a parent, school professional, clinical social worker, and substance abuse counselor facilitate sessions.

Intervention

PSC

 SSS

 BHC

 SUPS

HOPE Squads

• School-based peer support team that partners with local mental health agencies.
• Peers select students who are trustworthy and caring individuals to join the Hope Squad.
  Squad members are trained to watch for at-risk students, provide friendship, identify suicide-warning signs, and seek help from adults.
• NOT taught to act as counselors, but are educated on recognizing suicide warning signs and how to properly and respectfully report concerns to an adult.
• Students must get a permission form signed by their parents and go through training after being invited to be a member.
• The goal is to reduce self-destructive behavior and youth suicide by training, building, and creating change in schools and communities.
• The objectives are to:
     o Train students and staff in schools to recognize suicide-warning signs and act upon those warnings to break the code of silence.
     o Train students and staff to identify adolescents with undetected, untreated, or emerging mental disorders.
     o Build positive relationships among peers and faculty in schools to facilitate acceptance for students seeking help.
     o Build strong relationships with local mental health agencies and communities while educating students, parents, and school staff about available community mental health resources.
     o Change the school culture regarding suicide by reducing stigmas about suicide and mental health.
     o Change community perceptions of mental health by creating awareness about suicide and the tools available to prevent suicide
• 6 hr. in person training for Advisors; 2-3 hr. training for students.

Intervention

Educator

PSC

 SSS

 Administrators

Life Skills Training (LST)

• Evidence-based substance use and misuse, and violence prevention program used in schools and communities throughout the US and in 39 countries around the world.
• Extensively tested and proven to reduce tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drug use by as much as 80%.
• Long-term follow-up studies show that it produces prevention effects that are durable and long-lasting.
• Main goals are to teach prevention-related information, promote anti-drug norms, teach drug refusal skills, and foster the development of personal self-management skills and general social skills.
• Can only be delivered by a qualified substance use prevention specialist.

Intervention

SUPS

Lions Quest, Skills for Adolescence

• Built on the foundation of an educational approach known as Social and Emotional Learning (SEL).
• Support, encourage, and celebrate diversity. The programs guide students to learn the social, emotional, and thinking skills they will need in a safe and supportive environment.
• Offer a comprehensive and coordinated approach to prevention that creates the conditions and teaches the skills to prevent risky behaviors while cultivating positive social behaviors.
• Helps provide protective factors by creating a strong connection to school, involving parents in the lives of their children, and helping students gain the knowledge, skill, and commitment to make healthy choices when they face pressure to use alcohol, drugs, and tobacco. Unit 4 of Lions Quest focuses more specifically on the elements that research consistently identifies as critical to preventing adolescent drug use.

These elements are:

• Normative beliefs and personal commitments: to recognize that using alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs is not the norm among young people, and to have a personal commitment not to use drugs.
• Social Influences – to recognize the internal and external pressures that influence drug, alcohol, and tobacco use and to have positive peer pressure and support for non-use.
• Resistance skills and other emotional/social competencies – to have the self-management, problem-solving, stress reduction and assertiveness/refusal skills that help prevent drug use.
• Expectations of drug effect – to have accurate, age-appropriate information about the short and long-term impact of drug use on a young person’s health, friendships, interests, and future goals.
• Bonding and pro-social peers and caring adults – to have positive commitments, constructive role models, and supportive, friends, family and community members who reinforce key prevention concepts and skills.

Supplemental

Educators

 PSC

SSS

Administrators

Mental Health America

• Aims to increase emotional intelligence and self-regulation through materials for parents, school personnel, and students.
• Prevention and Early Intervention page includes information on genetics and brain development, risk and protective factors, statistics, fact sheets on prevention and early intervention, links to programs, strategies, research and Webinar recordings. 
• Includes posters, media materials, handouts, social media, and web content for youth and adults easily linked to and shared in electronic newsletters and over social media.

Supplemental

Educators

 PSC

SSS Administrators

Mental Health First Aid (MHFA)

Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA)

• Teaches individuals who work or live with adolescents (ages 12 - 18) how to help these youth when they experience a mental health or substance use crisis.
• Training includes identifying risk factors and warning signs of mental health and substance use problems that may start in adolescence; information on a 5-step action plan to help someone in crisis; and where to turn for help – professional, peer, and self-help resources.
• Teaches about recovery and resiliency – the belief that individuals experiencing these challenges can and do get better and use their strengths to stay well.

Adult Mental Health First Aid (AMHFA)

• Teaches individuals how to help someone who is experiencing a mental health or substance use crisis.
• Training includes identifying risk factors and warning signs of mental health problems; information on depression, anxiety, trauma, psychosis, and addiction disorders; a 5-step action plan to help someone developing a mental health problem or in crisis; and where to turn for help – professional, peer, and self-help resources.
• Teaches about recovery and resiliency – the belief that individuals experiencing these challenges can and do get better and use their strengths to stay well.

Teen Mental Health First Aid (tMHFA)

• This in-person training teaches high school students about common mental health challenges and what they can do to support their own mental health and help a friend who is struggling.
• It’s equipping young people with the knowledge and skills they need to foster their own wellness and to support each other
• It is designed to be delivered in schools or community sites in three interactive classroom sessions of 90 minutes each or six sessions of 45 minutes each.

Training

Educators

PSC

SSS

Administrators

Mental Health Technology Transfer Center (MHTTC)

• Website that offers array of numerous mental and behavioral health trainings and educational aides to better improve the knowledge of mental health professionals, educators, and agencies.
• Offers webinars and community-based opportunities to fulfill subject matter interest and required trainings for agencies.
• Maintains a culturally and linguistic competent approach to all offered trainings.     

Supplemental

Educators

 PSC

SSS

 Administrators

 BHC

SUPS

My Professional Learning

• My Professional Learning, powered by Region 10 Education Service Center, is a responsive online education solution designed to give administrators, teachers and support staff just-in-time effective professional development.
• Interactive courses created by our professional consultants' model transformative teaching, learning and leadership practices.
• Also offer courses developed by TEA-approved 3rd Party Providers like CE Credits Online, The Master Teacher, Model Teaching, and Stetson & Associates.
• Offers a .5-hour training which goes over the subject of substance abuse. You will learn about substance abuse, addiction, how it affects the student's brain, as well as commonly abused drugs, how they are used, and where they might be hidden.

Training

Educators

PSC

SSS

Administrators

Office of Juvenile Justice Prevention

• Model Programs Guide (MPG) contains information about evidence-based juvenile justice and youth prevention, intervention, and reentry practices/programs.
• Resource for practitioners and communities about what works, what is promising, and what does not work in juvenile justice, delinquency prevention, and schools.    

Supplemental

Educators

PSC

SSS Administrators

Outreach, Screening, Assessment and Referral - OSAR

• Service available to all individuals interested in information about substance use services.
• OSAR can be the starting point for individuals who want help accessing substance use services but are unsure where to begin.
• OSAR Services are incorporated into Local Mental Health Authorities (LMHA)/Local Behavioral Health Authorities (LBHA) across the 11 Texas Health and Human Services Regions.
• The only requirement for service is that an individual is currently residing in the state of Texas.
• For immediate and confidential help, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, please call the OSAR LMHA in your region.
• You may also call or contact 211 Texas. Dial 2-1-1 or call 877-541-7905.

Intervention

PSC

SSS

Administrators

PAX Good Behavior Game

• Classroom based system that teachers use to teach skills for self-regulation, co-regulation, and self-control during any school or after school activity.
• Builds self-regulation in young people by creating shared classroom/school purpose and vision with adults and peers to create more peace, productivity, health and happiness.
  Students work together—reinforcing desirable behaviors (called PAX) and inhibiting unwanted behaviors (called Spleems).
• Students build skills to increase their pro-social behavior and self-regulation, paving the way for better immediate and lifetime academic, behavioral/health, and positive lifetime outcomes.
• Develops and strengthens peer networks to improve relationships now and in the future, with lower risk of self-harm or harm to others.
  Provides teachers and administrators with practical tiered-intervention strategies to implement PBIS in the classroom.
• Length of training unknown.

Intervention

Training

Educators

 PSCs

SSS

Administrators

Positive Action (PA)

• Aims to promote character development, academic achievement, and social-emotional skills, and to reduce disruptive and problem behavior.
• Based on the philosophy that you feel good about yourself when you think and do positive actions, and there is always a positive way to do everything.
• Lessons are scripted and use classroom discussion, role-play, games, songs, and activity sheets or text booklets.
• Optional components include site-wide climate development; drug education for grade 5 and middle school; conflict resolution; counselor, parent, and family classes; and community/coalition components. 

Intervention

Educators

 PSC

SSS

Prevention Resource Centers

• Prevention Resource Centers in Texas:
  Provide information about substance use to the general community and help track substance use problems.
• Provide trainings, support community programs and tobacco prevention activities in many schools.
• Connect people with community resources related to drug and alcohol use. 
• Provides links and contact information to Centers which may be able to provide trainings and presentations.
• This resource is specifically designed to educate about substance use and misuse prevention.

Supplemental

Educators

 PSC

 SSS Administrators BHC

Project Toward No Drug Abuse (PTND)

• Drug use prevention program for high school youth.
• Designed to help students develop self-control and communication skills, acquire resources that help them resist drug use, improve decision making strategies, and develop the motivation to not use drugs.
• Packaged in 12 40-minute interactive sessions.
• Curriculum was developed for high-risk students in continuation or alternative high schools.

Can only be delivered by a qualified substance use prevention specialist.

Intervention

SUPS

Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies - PATHS

• The PATHS® curriculum is a comprehensive program for promoting emotional and social competencies and reducing aggression and behavior problems in elementary school-aged children while simultaneously enhancing the educational process in the classroom.
• This innovative curriculum is designed to be used by educators and counselors in a multi-year, universal prevention model.
• Although primarily focused on the school and classroom settings, information and activities are also included for use with parents.
• Over the past 35 years, more than 40 published research studies (by ourselves and others, both nationally and internationally) have documented the effectiveness of the PATHS® program.

A wide variety of results has consistently shown improvements in seven major goals of education needed for the development of healthy, happy children and future adults:

• Improved academic achievement.
• Decreased emotional suffering & behavioral problems
• Increased happiness, health, and emotional well-being
• Improved emotional literacy, self-control, & problem-solving skills
• Healthy relationships and social skills
• Preparation for the future: Workforce
• Skills for the future: Life satisfaction, good health, & citizenship

Intervention

Educators

 PSC

SSS

Administrators

Reconnecting Youth

• Reconnecting Youth (RY) is an award-winning, prevention program that helps at-risk youth achieve in school and decrease their drug use, anger, depression, and emotional distress.
• Designed as a semester-long class offered for school credit, the RY curriculum focuses on skills training within the context of a peer group and adult support.

RY Program Goals

• Increased School Performance    
• Decreased Drug Involvement
• Decreased Emotional Distress

The RY curriculum:

There are 75 lessons in the RY curriculum. It is typically offered as a semester-long, for-credit class by a teacher/facilitator who works well with youth at risk and who is trained to implement the RY program.

     1. Getting Started
     2. Self-esteem Enhancement
     3. Decision Making
     4. Personal Control
     5. Interpersonal Communication
Social and School Bonding Activities:

• An important component of the RY Program is increasing RY student involvement in healthy social activities and engaging them in activities that increase bonding to their school. The curriculum describes a variety of ways this can be done.

School Crisis Response Plan:

• A School Crisis Response Plan is the third component of the RY Program. Such a plan is necessary because many at-risk youth experience depression and suicide-risk behaviors. The RY School Crisis Response Plan prepares school staff members 1) to identify and respond to students who are suicidal and 2) to respond, if necessary, with post-suicide intervention strategies.

Supplemental

Educators

 PSC

 SSS

Administrators

Responding in Peaceful Positive Ways - RiPP

• School-based violence prevention program designed to provide students ages 10–14 in middle and junior high schools with conflict resolution strategies and skills.
• Designed to be implemented along with a peer mediation program. It combines a classroom curriculum of social/cognitive problem solving with real-life skill-building opportunities.
• Students learn to apply critical-thinking skills and personal management strategies to personal health and well-being issues.

Delivered over the school year, RiPP teaches key concepts that include:

• The importance of significant friends or adult mentors.
• The relationship between self-image and gang-related behaviors.
• The effects of environmental influences on personal health.

Using a variety of lessons and activities, students learn about the physical and mental development that occurs during adolescence, how to analyze the consequences of personal choices on health and well-being, learn that they have nonviolent options when conflicts arise, and experience the benefits of being a positive family and community role model.

Multiple studies reported benefits in self-reported experience of violent and aggressive behavior for students who received RiPP compared with peers who did not receive the intervention, including:

• Lower rates of being injured in a fight in the past 30 days in which the injuries required medical attention
• Higher rates of participation in peer mediation
• Among girls only, lower rates of threatening to hurt a teacher
• Among 7th-grade RiPP participants, less frequent violent behavior at 6-month follow-up
• Lower frequency of physical aggression, despite the observation that both RiPP participants and their peers demonstrated an increase in problem behaviors over time
• At 9-month follow-up, reduced rates of bringing a weapon to school, threatening someone with a weapon, and sustaining fight-related injuries in the pas 30 days

Intervention

Educators

 PSC

SSS

Administrators

Ripple Effects

• Strengths-based assessment tools
• Digital planning tools
• Multi-tiered learner-directed skill building
• Data tracking tools embedded
• PK-12 can be implemented by paraprofessionals

Outcomes

• Reduced school suspensions
• Greater high school retention
• Greater attendance
• Improved GPA
• Reduced depression
• Greater empathy
• Improved problem solving

Intervention

Educators

PSC

SSS

SAMHSA Programs

• Offer information, training, and technical assistance to improve the quality and delivery of behavioral health services across the nation.

Supplemental

Educators

PSC

 SSS Administrators BHC

 SUPS

Second Step Suite

• Provides instruction in social and emotional learning with units on skills for learning, empathy, emotion management, friendship skills, and problem solving.
  Includes bully prevention and child protection modules and has a strong evidence-base for increased positive behavior, reduced conduct problems, reduced emotional distress, improved social and emotional skill performance.
• Contains separate sets of lessons for use in prekindergarten through eighth grade implemented in 22 to 28 weeks each year.
  Uses four key strategies to reinforce skill development: brain builder games (to build executive function), weekly theme activities, reinforcing activities, and home links in English and Spanish.
• Tools are available for administrators for embedding SEL concepts into school policies to sustain a culture of caring, learning and achievement.
• Lessons implemented over a period of 22 to 28 weeks each year.

Intervention

Educators

PSC

SSS

Signs of Suicide - SOS

• Universal, school-based prevention program designed for middle and high school students
• Goals are to:
  • Decrease suicide and suicide attempts by increasing student knowledge and adaptive attitudes about depression
  • Encourage personal help-seeking and/or help-seeking on behalf of a friend
  • Reduce the stigma of mental illness and acknowledge the importance of seeking help or treatment
  • Engage parents and school staff as partners in prevention through “gatekeeper” education
  • Encourage schools to develop community-based partnerships to support student mental health
• Through a video and guided discussion, students learn to identify warning signs of suicide and depression in a single class period.
• At the end of the session, students complete a seven-question screening for depression (anonymous or signed –the school can decide) to further encourage help-seeking and connect students at risk with trusted adults.
• The curriculum raises awareness about behavioral health and encourages students to ACT (Acknowledge, Care, Tell) when worried about themselves or their peers.

Training

Educators

 PSC

SSS

Administrators

Social Programs that Work

• This site seeks to identify those social programs shown in rigorous studies to produce sizable, sustained benefits to participants and/or society, so that they can be deployed to help solve social problems. 
• The specific purpose is to enable policy officials and other readers to distinguish credible findings of program effectiveness from the many others that claim to be.
• This site focuses on the results of well-conducted randomized controlled trials (RCTs), which are widely regarded as the strongest method of evaluating program effectiveness.
• The site also focuses on whether such studies show sizable, sustained effects on outcomes of clear policy importance (e.g., high school graduation, workforce earnings, teen pregnancies) and not just intermediate outcomes (e.g., children’s ability to recognize letters or numbers, positive parenting practices, take-up of services) that may or may not lead to important outcomes.
• Programs on this site have been identified through systematic monitoring of all rigorous evaluations published or posted online across all areas of social policy. 
• The goal is to identify programs that, based on careful review of the studies in consultation with outside experts, meet the criteria for “Top Tier,” “Near Top Tier,” or “Suggestive Tier.”

Registry

Educators

PSC

SSS Administrators BHC

Strengthening Families - 10 video sessions (SFP 7 - 17)

• Curriculum can be taught in 10, 12, or 14 sessions depending on family risk factors.
• This new universal version of SFP has lessons for Parents, Children, Teens, and a Family Practice session.
• Teaches the same research-proven skills as the original SFP, with added material on Mindfulness, the impact of alcohol and drugs on the developing teen brain and the parenting skills needed to prevent it.  
• In addition to the group version provided by prevention specialists, a video version for use at home by parents and their children is available through the SFP website for $5 per DVD. 
• Option could be used by schools, clinicians, and administrators in the absence of other family-focused prevention programs.
  Groups of Parents and Youth are each involved simultaneously in their own separate youth and adult curricula lasting for 10sessions.

Can only be delivered by a qualified substance use prevention specialist.

Intervention

SUPS

Strengthening Families - 14 sessions (SFP 6 - 16)

• Family skills training program designed to increase resilience and reduce risk factors for behavioral, emotional, academic, and social problems in children 3-16 years old.
• Comprises three life-skills courses delivered in 14 weekly, 2-hour sessions.
• Parenting Skills sessions are designed to help parents learn to increase desired behaviors in children by using attention and rewards, clear communication, effective discipline, substance use education, problem solving, and limit setting.
• Children's Life Skills sessions are designed to help children learn effective communication, understand their feelings, improve social and problem-solving skills, resist peer pressure, understand the consequences of substance use, and comply with parental rules.
• In the Family Life Skills sessions, families engage in structured family activities, practice therapeutic child play, conduct family meetings, learn communication skills, practice effective discipline, reinforce positive behaviors in each other, and plan family activities together.
• Participation in ongoing family support groups and booster Family focused program. 
  Groups of Parents and Youths are each involved simultaneously in their own separate youth and adult curricula lasting for 14 sessions.

Can only be delivered by a qualified substance use prevention specialist.

Intervention

SUPS

Strengthening Families - 7 video sessions (SFP 10-14)

• Family skills training intervention designed to enhance school success and reduce youth substance use and aggression among 10- to 14-year-olds.
• Theoretically based on several etiological and intervention models including the biopsychosocial vulnerability, resiliency, and family process models.
• Includes seven 2-hour sessions and four optional booster sessions in which parents and youth meet separately for instruction during the first hour and together for family activities during the second hour.
• Sessions provide instruction for parents on understanding the risk factors for substance use, enhancing parent-child bonding, monitoring compliance with parental guidelines and imposing appropriate consequences, managing anger and family conflict, and fostering positive child involvement in family tasks.
• Children receive instruction on resisting peer influences to use substances.
• Sessions are typically held once a week. 
  Family focused Youth Prevention Universal program.
• Groups of Parents and Youth are each involved simultaneously in their own separate youth and adult curricula lasting for 7 sessions.

Can only be delivered by a qualified substance use prevention specialist.

Intervention

SUPS

Student Success Skills

• Student Success Skills (SSS) is a school counselor led program based on the principle that students can improve academically when surrounded by a supportive environment that involves skill-building activities in self-management, prosocial behaviors, and cognition.
• It is a humanistic approach to school counseling that focuses on the following areas: (1) cognitive factors, including memory and learning processes, (2) attitudinal skills, (3) self-regulation and metacognitive abilities, (4) behavioral strategies and goals, and (5) social skills training.
• Significant Positive Findings: reduced problem behaviors, increased cooperation, reduced bullying, reduced anxiety, improved impulse control, improved motivation

Intervention

PSC

Texas School Safety Center (TxSSC)

• Official university-level research center at Texas State University.
• Serves as a clearinghouse for the dissemination of safety and security information through research, training, and technical assistance for K-12 schools and junior colleges throughout the state of Texas.
• Also builds partnerships among youth, adults, schools, law enforcement officers, and community stakeholders to reduce the impact of tobacco on all Texans through prevention, training and enforcement initiatives.

Supplemental

Educators

PSC

SSS Administrators BHC

 SUPS

Too Good for Drugs 2(TGFD)

• Universal K-12 prevention education program designed to mitigate the risk factors and enhance protective factors related to alcohol, tobacco, and other drug (ATOD) use.
• Lessons introduce and develop social and emotional skills for making healthy choices, building positive friendships, developing self-efficacy, communicating effectively, and resisting peer pressure and influence.
• Teaches five essential social and emotional learning skills, which research has linked with healthy development and academic success:
     o Setting Reachable Goals
     o Making Responsible Decisions
     o Bonding with Pro-Social Others
     o Identifying and Managing Emotions
     o Communicating Effectively

Can only be delivered by a qualified substance use prevention specialist.

Intervention

SUPS

University of Maryland Behavioral Health Online Training

• Webinar modules that provide a range of strategies, resources, and tools for behavioral health clinicians, educators, and student support staff.
• The modules focus on supporting student social, emotional, behavioral, and academic progress through a community-partnered approach to school behavioral health.

Training

Educators

PSC

 SSS Administrators BHC

What Works Clearinghouse

• The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) was established in 2002 as part of an initiative of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) at the U.S. Department of Education.
• The mission of the WWC is to be a central and trusted source of scientific evidence for what works in education.
• It is an important part of IES's strategy to use rigorous and relevant research, evaluation, and statistics to improve our nation's education system.
• The work of the WWC is done under contract to the U.S. Department of Education (via the National Center of Education Evaluation at IES) by several firms with expertise in education, research methodology, and dissemination.
• The WWC developed an infographic that describes how the practice guides can help teachers.

Registry

Educators

PSC

SSS Administrators BHC

Wraparound Services - YES Waiver

• The Youth Empowerment Services Waiver is a 1915(c) Medicaid program that helps children and youth with serious mental, emotional and behavioral difficulties.
• The YES Waiver provides intensive services delivered within a strengths-based team planning process called Wraparound.
• Wraparound builds on family and community support and utilizes YES services to help build your family’s natural support network and connection with your community.
• YES services are family-centered, coordinated and effective at preventing out-of-home placement and promoting lifelong independence and self-defined success.

The program aims to:

• Reduce the amount of time children are out of their home and community because of a mental health need.
• Expand available mental health services and supports.
• Improve the lives of children and youth.

A Wraparound facilitator will meet with youth and their family weekly to work on creating a Wraparound Plan.

• The Wraparound Plan is also developed with help from your Child and Family Team, which meets once a month.
• The team includes you, your child and people who are important in your child’s life. This may be professionals, family, friends, coaches or teachers who want to help your child meet their goals.
• Together, the team develops a plan of care to meet the specific needs and goals of your child and family using YES services, community resources and family strengths.

YES services include:

     Specialized therapies:

• Nontraditional services that provide alternative and creative forms of therapy to help improve the youth’s health, welfare and functioning in their community. This includes:
  • Animal-assisted therapy.
  • Art therapy.
  • Music therapy.
  • Recreational therapy.
  • Nutritional counseling.

Community living supports:

• Help families adjust to special challenges related to the youth’s mental health needs by using proven practices and strategies.

Family supports:

• Connect family members with others who can support them by sharing similar lived experiences.

Employee assistance and supported employment:

• Help youth find a job and be successful in it.

Paraprofessional services:

• Help with stressful situations through coaching and mentoring.

Respite services:

• Allow families and caretakers to take a temporary break from caring for youth enrolled in YES.

Nonmedical transportation:

• Take youth to YES Waiver services when no other transportation is available.

Supportive family-based alternatives:

• Provide support and model healthy interactions for the whole family while the youth temporarily lives in a therapeutic home.

Adaptive aids and supports:

• Supplement YES services with medically necessary supports to prevent out-of-home placement.

Minor home modifications:

• Support the youth’s ability to function independently at home and in the community.

Transition services:

• Help with the costs associated with a youth moving into their own home.

Intervention

BHC

Youth.Gov Prevention 

• U.S. government website that helps you create, maintain, and strengthen effective youth programs.                       

Includes:

• Youth facts,
• Funding information, and
• Tools to help you assess community assets, and generate maps of local and federal resources, search for evidence-based youth programs, and keep up-to-date on the latest youth-related news.

Supplemental

Educators

 PSC

 SSS Administrators