Moderator: Nancy Hale, MA, President and Chief Executive Officer, Operation UNITE, and Member, National Rx Drug Abuse & Heroin Summit Advisory Board

CE Certified By: AMA,AAFP,ACPE,ANCC,APA,CHES/MCHES,NASW

As the need to address opiate abuse and addiction rises, so does the call for primary prevention. But what is primary prevention, and at what age is it best applied? In this interactive session, two presentations will illustrate effective primary prevention for K-12 students.

The first presenter will explore the evidence‐based practices that are proven to be effective in primary prevention and the ineffective approaches to avoid. Topics will include the role of sense of self, self‐efficacy, and prosocial peer bonding and influence play on building the capacity to resist negative behavior. Examples from the Too Good for Drugs program will illustrate how to develop these skills to foster healthy decision-making and a resistance to substance use. Through hands‐on activities, participants will experience primary prevention in action and in the context of how a comprehensive prevention program is designed to work. Participants will link social emotional competency skills to the risk factors for substance use, understand the relationship between self‐efficacy and resistance and resiliency, and identify effective strategies to promote skill development through age‐appropriate and developmentally appropriate methods.

The second presentation will demonstrate a primary prevention program targeting Rx drug abuse for some of our youngest community members (2nd graders) and, through them, prevention skills and education for local families. Presenters will share their expertise and experience in teaching medication safety principles to elementary school students. Sample materials, curricula and lessons learned will be shared with participants. Presenters will reveal how this fun and innovative strategy is both a developmentally appropriate intervention for children, as well as local families. Participants will learn how they can implement this strategy as a collaborative effort between coalitions, school departments, pharmacists and public safety agencies. Finally, presenters will discuss how this program fits in to a community-wide strategy to address opiates and overdose prevention.

UPON COMPLETION OF THIS COURSE, PARTICIPANTS WILL BE ABLE TO:
- Differentiate effective and ineffective prevention strategies.
- Explain the benefits of implementing a consistent, comprehensive prevention program.
- Describe how social emotional competency builds protection against risky behavior, including preventing substance use.
- Outline the effects of experiential learning strategies on the development of social emotional competency and resilience.
- Identify key Rx drug abuse prevention messages for young elementary school students.
- Describe interactive techniques and materials for providing Rx drug abuse prevention messages to young children and their families.
- Recognize how this program advances a larger community-wide strategy to address Rx drug misuse and overdose prevention.