This 1-hour workshop will present an overview of evidence-based practices for addressing adolescent substance abuse in outpatient clinical settings. In particular, the workshop will focus on family-based interventions that empower parents and other caregivers to take an active role in their young person’s care and address the parenting practices and family dynamics that often contribute to adolescent substance use. Participants will be given tools for delivering component clinical techniques targeting adolescents, parents, and the family system as a whole and ideas for how to sequence and integrate treatment components. Examples of techniques to be discussed include youth motivational enhancement, parenting skill development, and family communication exercises. Throughout, the workshop will emphasize how to engage and provide culturally-responsive care to a diverse array of families including marginalized and minoritized youth and families facing multiple stressors.

Learning Objectives  
By the conclusion of this event, participants will be able to:

1. To understand why family involvement in adolescent treatment for substance abuse is critical for treatment success and learn techniques for effective family engagement in care.
2. To gain skills for an ecological and multiple-systems conceptualization of adolescent substance abuse.
3. To obtain an overview of the core individual, parent, family, and peer-oriented clinical interventions common to evidence-based treatments for adolescent substance abuse.
4. To gain exposure to culturally-responsive family engagement practices relating to care for adolescent substance abuse.

Instructor | Dr. Cindy Schaeffer is a child-clinical psychologist and Associate Professor of Psychiatry within the University of Maryland Baltimore Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Her research and clinical activities focus on developing and evaluating family-based interventions for adolescents engaging in serious conduct problems and substance abuse. Her work draws from ecological conceptualizations of youth development and seeks to address risk factors and proximal causes of conduct problems across individual, family, peer, and school contexts. Dr. Schaeffer’s research has been funded by the National Institutes of Mental Health, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute of Justice, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and several state-level behavioral health systems. She is the author of over 40 academic articles, many scholarly book chapters, and one clinical volume published by the American Psychological Association. She is also a co-developer of iKinnect, a linked parent-teen app system and digital mental health intervention designed to address adolescent conduct problems.

One-Day Training

Dr. Schaeffer will be offering an exclusive training on this topic for 6 CEU on December 15, 2023! For more information, click on the button below.

One-Day with Dr. Schaeffer

Black youth in the United States experience various structural, institutional, familial, and individual stressors that may increase their risk of mental health concerns (Sohail et al., 2014). The consequences of unmet mental health needs for Black youth may include academic difficulties, social concerns, increasing rates of suicide, and other detrimental long-term outcomes (Planey et al., 2019). However, there are significant individual-level, provider-level, and system-level barriers to mental health help-seeking for Black adolescents (Planey et al., 2019). Furthermore, adolescents, especially those with anxiety, depression, and other internalizing concerns, are less likely to seek professional help and are more likely to prefer self-reliance and personal coping (Cauce et al., 2002; Planey et al. 2019). As a result, there is an increase in teenagers utilizing inaccurate or noncredible social media and other digital sources for mental health psychoeducation and support (Miller, 2022). Youth are often not centered in our understanding and use of existing engagement techniques; therefore, the strategies do not utilize the help-seeking preferences of Black youth. Clinicians will reflect on their mental health engagement techniques and learn to understand, center, and utilize the generational, cultural, and systemic preferences of Black youth.

Learning Objectives  
By the conclusion of this event, participants will be able to:

1. Describe the state of mental health and mental health care for Black youth.
2. Understand how to navigate barriers and enhance facilitators to mental health engagement for Black youth. 
3. Utilize strategies for engagement into mental health care that centers the needs and preferences of Black youth.

Instructor | Dr. Aijah K. B. Goodwin is a 2nd-year postdoctoral fellow and incoming Assistant Professor at the National Center for School Mental Health (NCSMH) within the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Dr. Goodwin is interested in culturally responsive practices that (1) improve the mental health help-seeking to service utilization pathway for Black adolescents experiencing internalizing symptoms and (2) contribute to mental health and well-being in schools. She has also disseminated research and clinical practice focused on implementing evidence-based practices in school and community settings to improve mental and behavioral health outcomes. While her focus is on applied research to decrease mental health inequities, Dr. Goodwin also provides clinical care to youth in West Baltimore. She has received numerous awards, honors, and fellowships, enjoys mentoring rising and current students from minoritized backgrounds, and is passionate about equity in mental health care. She is a Philadelphia native, who enjoys music, social gatherings, and sports.

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