Alliances to Disseminate Addiction Prevention and Treatment (ADAPT)

Matthew Aalsma, PhD
Indiana University

ABSTRACT:
Data science and informatics are increasingly driving public health efforts. This had led to medical systems utilizing electronic health record information to drive care improvement. Change mechanisms, such as Learning Health Systems, have been applied less often within community based systems, such as court and treatment settings. Dr. Aalsma will discuss efforts to improve addiction screening and treatment for justice involved youth through community-based collaboration in Indiana communities.

Recent trends in suicide and nonfatal suicidal behavior in the US and implications for public health prevention

Deborah Stone, ScD, MSW, MPH
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

ABSTRACT:
Suicide is a continuing public health concern with rates having increased 33% between 1999 and 2019, with a slight dip in 2019 and another drop in 2020, according to provisional estimates. Further complicating this vexing issue are the added stressors associated with the ongoing and shifting COVID-19 pandemic, as well as ongoing concerns about data quality and potential misclassification of suicides. This presentation will showcase recent trends in suicide in the United States, including data on emergency department visits for suspected suicide attempts and other related outcomes (e.g., mental health conditions, suicide ideation) during the COVID-19 pandemic as compared to earlier time points. Implications for suicide prevention going forward and a discussion of CDC’s comprehensive approach to suicide prevention, including a focus on populations disproportionately impacted, will round out the session.

To request Dr. Stone’s powerpoint slides, please email psmg@northwestern.edu

Looking Over the Wall—The Professionalization of the Field of Prevention

Kimberly Johnson, Ph.D.
University of South Florida

Zili Sloboda, Sc.D., President
Applied Prevention Science International

ABSTRACT:
The field of prevention science and practice has matured over the past 50 years and is increasingly being recognized as a profession. The sociology of professions provides parameters as to what constitutes a profession: having a systematic body of theory; an established knowledge-base; the authority to define problems and their treatment; community sanctions to admit and train its members; ethical codes that stress an ideal of service to others; and a culture that includes the institutions necessary to carry out all of its functions. Another component is achieving international recognition and acceptance and acknowledgement. The status and maturation of the prevention as a profession is reviewed. Recommendations for moving forward are presented including developing a structure to ‘internationalize’ the field of prevention to fully professionalize it that would include such groups as the U.S. and EU Societies for Prevention Research and the International Consortium of Universities for Demand Reduction.