January 30, 2018

Dear Colleagues,

We continue to get calls requesting information for schools, parents and students pertaining to the current influenza epidemic.  To supplement to what was shared in last week’s email , links to additional information from the CDC are included here:

In case you missed it in the updates last week, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) has posted SBIRT guidance and advisory for schools in the Commissioner’s Updates.  Beginning in the current school year, districts are expected to:

  1. Conduct screenings on an annual basis at two different grade levels (grades 7 and 9 are recommended),
  2. Notify the parents or guardians of the students who will be screened before the screening takes place, and
  3. Permit a student or the student’s parent or guardian to opt out of the screening at any time by giving written notification.

The guidance memo includes more details. Other online resources include Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral for Treatment in Schools (SBIRT), which has information about training in the CRAFFT-II verbal substance use screening tool prescribed by DPH. School districts may choose to use an approach other than the CRAFFT-II by submitting to ESE an alternative substance use prevention program form (these will be available online) signed by the superintendent or charter school leader and including a description of the chosen alternative program. For more information, please contact the Office of Student and Family Support at atod@doe.mass.edu .  A reminder that there are only two statewide SBIRT Introductory Workshops yet to be held… Our final SBIRT Introductory Workshops are February 1 in Westborough and February 8 in Dedham and are open for registration on http://bucme.org/node/1089 . In-district trainings by our MASBIRT team will be ongoing and can be requested at:http://www.masbirt.org/training-request

Hope this finds you staying healthy and well in the midst of this extraordinary flu season; I know you have been providing expert guidance on making healthy choices at school and at home to prevent the flu and spreading flu to others. Thank you for all you do – every day!
Mary Ann and Janet

“Move at the speed of trust”  — Stephen M. R. Covey

FROM THE BOSTON UNIVERSITY SHIELD PROGRAM:

Please see the attached SHIELD newsletter with information and updates from the School Health Institute for Education and Leadership Development!  Beverly Heinze-Lacey, Director of the BU SHIELD Program, has also shared the following with us:

  • The Opioid Crisis in America: A Conversation with the US Surgeon General

http://www.bu.edu/sph/news-events/signature-programs/deans-seminars/the-opioid-crisis-in-america-a-conversation-with-the-u-s-surgeon-general/

  • Public Health Post  – Where They’re At: Phones and Homeless Youth 

https://www.publichealthpost.org/viewpoints/phones-homeless-youth/

  • Vaping: What Parents Need to Know

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOxbj4EY6KQ

Sponsored by Westwood School District, featuring Dr. Michael Siegel, Dr. Richard Saitz, and Dr. Emily Rothman from the Boston University School of Public Health.  Once a tool for helping cigarette smokers kick their habit, the vaporizer has quickly been adopted by teens. Learn about vaping, its impact on adolescents’ health, and what we can do to prevent teens from adopting the habit.

  • Queer and Trans Youth: Creating Affirming Care and Supportive Spaces

Thursday, February 22, 2018

Time: 2:00 – 3:00pm

Register at: http://www.nephtc.org/course/enrol.php?id=71

This webinar provides thoughtful instruction about youth across a spectrum of gender and/or sexual identities as an important foundation for today’s schools, health, public health and service providers.  This webinar will provide an overview of concepts and appropriate terminology.  It will then describe emerging best practices to ensure sound accommodations and equitable access for queer and trans kids.

While the data cited are from to Vermont Youth Risk Behavior survey, the underlying practice and public health implications are applicable to all states and jurisdictions.

By the end of the webinar participants will be able to:

  • Name two actions you can take to ensure equitable access for all queer/trans youth.
  • Identify two risk factors and protective factors in the lives of LGBTQ+ youth
  • Differentiate between current terminology as it relates to gender and sexuality.

BOSTON CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL SBIRT EVALUATION TEAM:

We would like to invite all INTERESTED Public Schools to participate in our research study, Evaluation of SBIRT in MA Public Schools. Our team is working in schools across the Commonwealth to evaluate the school SBIRT program. This project aims to evaluate the impact of school SBIRT on health and behavior outcomes among adolescents.  We will be looking at how school SBIRT may impact student substance use behaviors, as well as student knowledge and attitudes by comparing students who will be screened this year to those who will not be screened this year.

The study involves giving students in one selected grade a brief (15 min) online, anonymous survey twice in this school year.   We are in search of partner school districts who will help us to access students for the survey. We are seeking a diversity of participating districts — to ensure we learn from districts that vary by size, location, student demographics and settings, so the entire population is represented. We have identified your district as one of particular interest which matches well to our study criteria. Your school will be eligible to participate even if you do not plan to implement the SBIRT program this year. All data collected will be anonymous – we will not identify either students or districts in the results. We have funds available to give a donation to each school as a token of appreciation and we can provide your district with your own data upon request. The study has approval from the BCH Institutional Review Board which ensures that it complies with all ethics standards, and all laws around performing research in public schools.

Please see the attached a brief study overview.  If you have any questions, please contact the BCH Research Coordinator for this project, Eliza Nelson. Eliza can be reached at eliza.nelson@childrens.harvard.edu or at 617-919-1366. if you are interested in discussing details of the study or your school’s participation and our research coordinator would be happy to reach out to you. Thank you for your time and consideration!

DPH: KEEP YOUR CHILD SAFE FROM OPIOID MISUSE:

1 in 4 teens has misused prescription (Rx) drugs, like prescription opioids. Many of us have been affected by opioid addiction. Parents may be asking you what they can do to protect their child. It can feel overwhelming, but the good news is there are things we can do to help protect our kids. And that’s Ask. Manage. Talk.  We can help protect your teen from prescription opioid misuse by talking to them about the dangers. Talking makes a difference! Research shows that teens that talked to their parents about opioids were 42% less likely to misuse them. Here are resources for parents:   http://mass.gov/stopaddiction.

https://youtu.be/bN0zfPGuAG8