COVID-19 and Youth Substance Use: We Need More than Good Intentions
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k Ingoglia, MSW, National Council for Behavioral Health, 1400 K Street NW Suite 400, Washington, DC 20005, USA. Email: [email protected].
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Journal of Behavioral Health Services & Research, 2020. 1–2. c 2020 National Council for Behavioral Health. DOI 10.1007/s11414-020-09739-9
COVID-19 and Youth Substance Use
INGOGLIA
universe of 1,316 Canadian high school students over a limited time of just three weeks, but the implications are profound. The impact of COVID-19 can be overwhelming, and it would be easy to become paralyzed at the thought of this emerging threat to our youth, but complacence is not an option when the stakes are so high. To address this growing threat, we must be armed with more than good intentions. We must empower and build the capacity of community mental health and addiction recovery organizations to respond to and prevent future youth substance use during the current pandemic and in future disaster scenarios. Recognizing the National Council’s leadership role in community health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) entrusted us with a $2 million grant to assess the current situation and develop and disseminate youth substance use prevention, training, and capacity building resources: Youth Substance Use and Message Development During COVID-19. It is not our goal to create a campaign of glossy images and empty catch phrases with no grounding in reality. There is already an abundance of such well-intentioned, but ineffective material available. We aim to create an evidence-based campaign of effective messaging and materials that will affect lasting change and build the capacity of organizations, states, and local partners working to prevent youth substance use, particularly during COVID-19, future disasters, shelter in place orders, or infrastructure disruption challenges that may impact prevention, practices, and policies. This will be a plan, not just for today, but for the future. Because of the urgency of our current crisis, this ambitious undertaking will be completed in an accelerated timeframe of just 10 months. It is a tremendous responsibility and a formidable task, but I know our efforts can lead to real change, enduring change... one step at a time. As I reviewed the articles in this issue of JBHS&R, the work we are about to embark upon with the CDC was never far from my mind and I find myself, once again, in awe of our community of organizations; providers dedicated to the entire scope of mental health and recovery from addictions. I am reminded that our project is just one small part of a rich and diverse community dedicated to healing the mind and spirit. Our project is just one point on the continuum of the journey to mental health that begins with prenatal and infant care (the Weiss-Laxer et al. paper in this issue) and continues as we find new ways to identify and address childhood and adolescent trauma (the Donisch et al. paper in this issue); while supporting the transition-to-adulthood process to help youth between 18 and 25 who are at risk of “ag
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