Katie is a high school senior who spends part of her school week working at the Teen Health Center, where both staff and volunteers have been hearing more stories about prescription drug use among students.

"The center's coordinator, Mary Tonsmeire, said one of the first things she and other medical professionals did was to gather data to see if the anecdotal information they were hearing was showing a trend."

Tonsmeire then talked to doctors and pharmacists to find out if there were ways to keep track of where teens got prescription medication that didn't belong to them. She and her staff are working closely with high schools to include information about prescription drug use in health classes. Source: Juneau Empire

Labels: abuse, health_care, prescription_drugs

The National Quality Forum, whose purpose is setting national performance goals and priorities that will improve the quality of American health care, announced this week that is has released guidelines for evidence-based programs that treat substance abuse.

"'We cannot effectively address the disturbing effects of excessive drug and alcohol use without quality treatment for people with substance use conditions,' said Janet Corrigan, Ph.D., NQF President and CEO. 'NQF believes these standards will accelerate the use of effective, evidence-based treatments.'"

The 11 new treatment practices have been endorsed by the more than 365 organizations that are members of NQF. Among them are health care providers, consumer groups, professional associations, and federal and state agencies. This endorsement marks the first time that a formal consensus has been reached about effective treatments for substance abuse.

Labels: health_care, policies, treatment