The Adolescent Addiction Learning and Recovery Project (AALRP) of Indiana Wesleyan University and Fairbanks Addiction Treatment Center has received a Children's Mental Health Grant from Mental Health America of Indiana (MHAI).
MHAI awarded the grant to the group for the purpose of aiding the AALRP in promoting the need for evidence-based prevention plans in schools. Specifically, the grant enables the AALRP to host a series of training sessions for over 60 superintendents by May 31, 2013.
The AALRP consists of faculty from IWU and staff from Fairbanks, an Indiana-based drug and alcohol treatment center. The group officially began on the first of this year but had applied for the grant last November. The training sessions made possible by the grant will be the first significant project for the group.
IWU faculty Drs. Richard Hooker and Douglas Daugherty will be joined by adolescent clinical specialist Dr. Zigurd Zielke of Fairbanks to provide the training for the sessions. The sessions will be located in three regional training centers in Indianapolis, Fort Wayne and Southwest Indiana.
The training will provide information that will include the prevalence of substance abuse disorders in Indiana, the effects of substances on the adolescent brain, the effects of substance use on learning, behavior and academic performance, prevention and intervention strategies that work and implementing evidence-based practices in the schools.
Prior to the sessions, training providers will partner with superintendents to determine how best to meet their district needs. In June, they will present their findings of the training's effectiveness at the MHAI symposium at Union Station in Indianapolis.
"This is a great first venture for the AALRP as it provides us a chance to influence school systems towards utilizing evidence-based practices-practices proven to work. In doing so, we hope to help schools more effectively meet children's needs," Hooker said.