Prevention Plus Wellness

10/24/2025

Last Chance to Register for Youth Opioid Use Primary Prevention and Wellness: Free Webinar

NOTE: Since this event is likely to be sold out, please register as soon as possible to ensure you can attend. Thank you!

Session Objectives:
Explore strategies for the primary prevention of opioid misuse and overdose among youth and how well schools across the US are doing in preventing opioid misuse.
Review opioid settlement funding opportunities in the US for preventing opioid use disorder and overdose among youth.
Discuss evidence-based opioid misuse prevention strategies that target wellness-promoting behaviors for adolescents, young adults and parents.

Register: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_aE5h3rBAQe2YuiwkPzQf6Q?_gl=1*r4x1y*_gcl_au*MTU4OTc1NjY2MS4xNzU3NTMxNDgwLjE4NDc4Nzk1OTQuMTc1ODU0OTIzMi4xNzU4NTQ5MjMy*_ga*MjI0MzUwNDkzLjE3MzcwNTcyNDY.*_ga_L8TBF28DDX*czE3NjAxMTA4NTUkbzE4OCRnMSR0MTc2MDExMDk1NCRqNTgkbDAkaDA.

Length: 60 minutes

Date: Wednesday October 29th

Time: 12:00pm ET/9:00am PT

CEU Certificate: CEU certificate (one hour) available upon completing webinar

Learn more: https://preventionpluswellness.com

Single session substance abuse prevention programs and training promoting wellness for youth and young adults

10/14/2025

Last Chance to Register for Evidence-Based Prevention Program Registries: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: Free Webinar

Session Objectives:

1. Present an overview of essential facts about evidence-based program registries (EBPR) for substance use prevention and health specialists.
2. Describe the good, the bad and the ugly benefits, limitations and problems with EBPRs.
3. Compare and contrast selected EBPRs and how they can be used to identify evidence-based prevention programs which promote healthy lifestyles among young people.

Register: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_M767ztbwRcizd9Z5rHTINQ?_gl=1*17bjk6l*_gcl_au*MTU4OTc1NjY2MS4xNzU3NTMxNDgwLjM5MjE1NzEzMC4xNzU3NTMxNDg1LjE3NTc1MzE0ODQ.*_ga*MjI0MzUwNDkzLjE3MzcwNTcyNDY.*_ga_L8TBF28DDX*czE3NTc1MzE0ODAkbzE1OCRnMSR0MTc1NzUzMTk5MyRqNTckbDAkaDA.

Length: 60 minutes

Date: Wednesday October 15th

Time: 12:00pm ET/9:00am PT

CEU Certificate: CEU certificate (one hour) available upon completing webinar

Learn more: https://preventionpluswellness.com/pages/ppw-programs-evidence-base

10/09/2025

How Prevention Providers Can Access Opioid Abatement Funding

A recent article published online by McAlister and Quinn, a federal grant consulting and government relations firm, provided a practical guide for non-profits navigating state-level settlement grants: https://jm-aq.com/how-nonprofits-can-access-opioid-abatement-funds/

We highlight information from this article for those dedicated to preventing youth opioid use disorder and overdose.

Learn more: https://preventionpluswellness.com/blogs/news/how-prevention-providers-can-access-opioid-abatement-funding

10/06/2025

New Prevention Plus Wellness Website & Resources - https://mailchi.mp/fce62036dba6/new-prevention-plus-wellness-website-resources

09/29/2025

Free Prevention Webinars & Healthy Lifestyle Resources - https://mailchi.mp/77599d044848/free-prevention-webinars-healthy-lifestyle-resources

09/22/2025

How Prevention Specialists Can Increase Youth Resiliency - https://mailchi.mp/b95006c19714/how-prevention-specialists-can-increase-youth-resiliency

08/29/2025

Evidence-Based InShape PPW at East Bay Regional Coalition

Thank you, East Bay Regional Coalition, for creating an informative video describing how the evidence-based InShape Prevention Plus Wellness (PPW) program is provided to college students and other young adults to prevent substance use/misuse and promote healthy lifestyle behaviors and mental health.

View the video: https://eastbayprevention.org/inshape-ppw/

Learn more about InShape PPW: https://preventionpluswellness.com/products/evidence-based-alcohol-drug-inshape-prevention-plus-wellness

08/23/2025

Healthy Lifestyle Guidelines for Youth Drug Prevention

This popular booklet contains evidence-informed health behavior recommendations and resources selected to help substance use prevention and health providers and parents identify specific goals for improving youths' healthy lifestyles and avoiding alcohol and drugs.

Healthy lifestyle recommendations were selected from science-based sources and target the following wellness areas:

1. Physical Activity & Sports
2. Healthy Breakfast & Nutrition
3. Getting Adequate Sleep
4. Controlling Stress
5. Avoiding Alcohol and Drug Use
6. Limiting Screen Time
7. Healthy Behavior Goal Setting

These healthy behavior recommendations are for youth ages children through older adolescents.

Each lifestyle behavior individually, but especially taken together, provides young people, prevention and health specialists and parents with research-based guidelines and tools for helping youth set and monitor goals for enhancing their mental and physical well-being, performance and happiness.

To download this booklet just sign up on the banner at the top of our home page: https://preventionpluswellness.com

08/22/2025

How Prevention Specialists Can Promote Youth Well-being

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “Adolescence is a time of rapid physical, cognitive, social and emotional development, and the experiences of those aged 10-19 years have profound impacts on their well-being both in the shorter and the longer term.”

In an apparent response, WHO and the Partnership for Material, Newborn & Child Health (PMNCH) developed the Adolescent Well-Being Framework (AWF): https://www.who.int/activities/promoting-adolescent-well-being.

What is Adolescent Well-being?

The AWF defines well-being as “Adolescents have the support, confidence, and resources to thrive in contexts of secure and healthy relationships, realizing their full potential and rights.”

Specifically, the AWF includes five interrelated domains that constitute well-being: 1) Good health and optimal nutrition, 2) Connectedness, positive values and contribution to society, 3) Safety and supportive environment, 4) Learning competence, education, skills and employability, and 5) Agency and resilience: https://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X(20)30396-7/fulltext.

Like overlapping notions of wellness, well-being is defined here as an interactive, multi-dimensional concept.

This means that for youth to thrive and be able to achieve their full potential necessarily entails a combination of various elements to contribute toward making a “whole person.”

Whole youth development approaches such as wellness and well-being naturally suggest broad, multisectoral cooperation and collaboration, which is often outside the control of individual prevention professionals and even organizations.

However, prevention specialists and their organizations can learn from broader well-being and wellness concepts to strengthen their practices and programs and ultimately impact broader positive youth development.

Implications for Prevention Specialists

Let’s look at the five domains of AWF’s well-being to generate some implications for enhancing prevention programs and practices.

Domain #1: Good health and optimum nutrition.

This domain includes the sub-domains of: 1) Physical health and capacities, 2) Mental health and capacities, and 3) Optimum nutritional status and diet.

Possible involvement by prevention professionals in this domain could include providing information, education, resources and services aimed at motivating youth to engage in drug use and mental health protective healthy behaviors, including regular physical activity and sports, eating breakfast and other nutritious foods (especially fruits and vegetables), getting adequate sleep, and using regular strategies to control stress and increase mindfulness, while limiting recreational screen time.

Sharing information about local resources for family, school and community services and events supporting each of these healthy behaviors and implementing drug use prevention programs that promote youth and parent healthy lifestyle behaviors and mental health are also recommended.

Domain #2: Connectedness, positive values and contribution to society.

This domain includes the sub-domains of: 1) Connectedness, 2) Valued and respected by others, 3) Attitudes, 4) Interpersonal skills, 5) Activity, and 6) Change and development.

Possible implications for prevention specialists within this domain include offering youth opportunities to become a part of positive social networks to develop meaningful relationships and friendship skills. Giving youth opportunities to become involved in decision-making, personal responsibility, develop empathy, and engage with others by participating on prevention coalitions or youth leadership groups. Offer opportunities could be provided for youth to set personal and professional goals to learn self-regulation skills and self-efficacy and improve themselves and their schools and communities.

Domain #3: Safety and supportive environment.

This domain includes the sub-domains of: 1) Safety, 2) Materials conditions, 3) Equity, 4) Equality, 5) Nondiscrimination, 6) Privacy, and 7) Responsive.

Implications of this well-being domain for youth prevention include offering programs that prevent nonviolence, exploitation, and bullying in schools, communities and online. Help create and support school policies and rights for all youth to participate in and equally receive information, opportunities, and services that promote personal safety, physical security, nondiscrimination and privacy. This domain suggests providing opportunities for youth to experience free time for relaxation as well as exploring pro-social extracurricular activities.

Domain #4: Learning competence, education, skills and employability.

This domain includes the sub-domains of: 1) Learning, 2) Education, 3) Resources, 4) Skills, 5) Employability, and 6) Confidence.

Implications of this domain for prevention specialists includes providing in school and out of school education and training both generally and more specifically in evidence-based programs that promote self-regulation skills, self-efficacy, motivation, and self-esteem to avoid alcohol and drug use but also to identify and achieve desired future goals regarding education, career, relationships, and healthy lifestyles.

Domain #5: Agency and resilience.

This final domain of well-being includes the sub-domains of: 1) Agency, 2) Identity, 3) Purpose, 4) Resilience, and 5) Fulfilment.

Implications for prevention specialists from this domain include giving youth opportunities to reflect upon their current substance use and other health behaviors that may either help or hinder their achieving future goals, desired purpose and positive self-images for enhancing their mental and physical health, success, fulfilment and happiness. In addition, this domain suggests providing youth opportunities and experiences to reflect upon and make choices that would empower them in the future, and feel more comfortable about who they are and want to be in the future, physically, socially, emotionally, economically, and spiritually.

Conclusion

Prevention specialists and organizations can use well-being and wellness concepts to enhance and expand their programs and practices toward achieving broader outcomes for improving the whole-health, positive development and full potential of youth.

08/19/2025

What Can Prevention and Health Specialists Learn from the Decline in US Alcohol Use?

The percentage of U.S. adults who say they consume alcohol has fallen to 54%, according to a recent Gallup poll.

This is the lowest level of drinking in nearly 90 years of polling: https://news.gallup.com/poll/693362/drinking-rate-new-low-alcohol-concerns-surge.aspx

In addition, the number of drinks consumed by Americans in the past week, which is 2.8, is the lowest in Gallup polling since 1996.

What’s impacting this change?

For the first time in Gallup’s polling, most Americans (53%), say drinking in moderation, or “one or two drinks a day,” is bad for one’s health. Just 6% say it’s good for one’s health.

Declines in young adults’ alcohol use correlate with their being the most likely to believe drinking is bad for one’s health (66%).

Changing perceptions of harm may be one factor driving lower alcohol consumption among American adults.

Americans perceived risk of alcohol consumption is likely the result of a greater awareness of alcohol’s effects on health.

Widely reported new research states that no level of alcohol consumption is safe for health. This contradicts the longstanding belief that moderate alcohol use is not only not harmful but healthy.

Recent reporting shows that even moderate drinking increases risks for cancer, heart disease, injury and premature death: https://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/about-alcohol-use/moderate-alcohol-use.html

Our nation’s increased awareness of the detrimental effects of alcohol use has in all probability altered perceptions of alcohol’s harmfulness and perhaps lowered alcohol use.

What other factors may be at play?

Another potential factor influencing declining alcohol consumption may be the changing racial and ethnic diversity of young adults in America.

The US population has experienced increases in Latino, Asian and Multiracial individuals, who typically drink less alcohol than White young adults.

In addition, not drinking alcohol appears to have become more socially acceptable, particularly among young adults.

This is reflected in trends such as “sober curious” and related “mindful drinking” reported among young adults.

These movements focus on exploring one’s relationship with alcohol, taking alcohol breaks, setting drinking limits, choosing non-alcohol beverages in social settings, spending time with like-minded people, and exploring alternatives that don’t involve drinking: https://www.healthline.com/health/alcohol/sober-curious #:~:text=explore%20neighborhood%20parks,back%20into%20an%20old%20hobby

While health concerns are a key factor in social trends to lower alcohol use, other benefits are also touted among the “sober curious,” including mental clarity and focus, improved sleep, financial savings, and improving personal growth.

Yet another, but less healthy, factor for why alcohol consumption may be declining is that young adults, particularly college students, have replaced it with cannabis use: https://www.psychiatrist.com/news/college-students-turning-to-cannabis-over-alcohol/ #:~:text=Clinical%20relevance:%20Generation%20Z%20college,campuses%20from%201979%20to%202022.

Legalization of cannabis across the US has increased its availability and the marketing of its benefits which has in turn increased ma*****na use among youth adults.

Lastly, addiction may be a factor in increasing cannabis use as daily consumption of cannabis has surpassed daily alcohol use in America: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/add.16519

What about adolescent drinking?

Starting in the late 1990’s to early 2000’s adolescent alcohol consumption began to decline and has continued to decline to date: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7614939/ #:~:text=In%20the%20early%202000s%2C%20alcohol,declines%20among%20the%20general%20population.

Declines in adolescent drinking are seen not just in the prevalence of use, but also include reductions in particularly dangerous binge drinking, heavy drinking and drunkenness: https://www.responsibility.org/alcohol-statistics/underage-drinking-statistics/

What might be influencing alcohol declines among adolescents?

Like what we’ve seen with the “sober curious” movement among young adults, alcohol use among adolescents is becoming denormalized and at the same time non-alcohol consumption is becoming normalized.

Alcohol consumption is becoming increasingly less common and expected while non-use more socially acceptable and practiced.

Like the Gallup data on young adults, the Monitoring the Future survey of drug use among American adolescents show that perceptions of harmfulness of alcohol use have been increasing over time: https://monitoringthefuture.org/mtf2025vol1/

Also similar to young adults, present day adolescents may be more risk-averse to alcohol’s effects and see less benefits for their mental and physical health, self-image, life goals, performance and happiness: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/dar.13685 #:~:text=Recent%20qualitative%20research%20on%20youth,28%2C%2036%2C%2037%5D

In addition, youth are spending more time on social media and other social activities than in previously traditional social settings where alcohol was more prominent, thus reducing the necessity of drinking for social interaction.

Implications for Prevention and Public Health

Prevention and public health professionals working with youth and young adults can draw several inferences from the discussion of declining alcohol use, particularly among America’s young people.

First, alcohol consumption declines are linked to increases in both young adult and adolescent perceived harmfulness of alcohol use, which may have been impacted by greater awareness of alcohol’s damaging effects on health and lifestyle. Even moderate use is now seen as more harmful among young people than in the past.

This highlights the potential of and need for alcohol (and other drug use) prevention programs aimed at increasing youth and young adult awareness and perceptions of the myriad of risks to one’s health, as well as broader harm to their desire to live productive, fulfilled and happy lifestyles. For young adults, as well as older adults, this could include promoting “sober curious” and “mindful drinking” concepts which already appear to be having an impact on reducing alcohol consumption.

Second, since non-drinking is becoming more normalized in American society, prevention and health specialists should embrace communicating to young people the appealing and salient benefits of avoiding all alcohol use, including moderate consumption, heavy use and binge drinking.

This should include promoting alternative activities to improving oneself physically, mentally, socially, economically and spiritually, which do not lend themselves to alcohol use but do promote personal enhancement and overall wellness which are naturally motivating to young people.

Third, a caution about cannabis use. It appears that for some young adults; ma*****na is viewed as less harmful and more helpful than alcohol and is being used as an alternative or substitute to alcohol. This trend may continue to grow with expanding legalization of ma*****na across the US. Given the typical daily use of cannabis among young adults, they are increasingly in need of motivational interventions to help them address cannabis addiction and problems they are experiencing.

While we currently do not see most adolescents using cannabis as a replacement for alcohol as documented among America’s young adults, it is possible, if not probable, that expanding ma*****na legalization will eventually result in greater adolescent consumption of cannabis as a substitute for alcohol or in combination with alcohol use in the future. Prevention and health providers should therefore expand cannabis use prevention programs in schools and communities now to preempt any likely future growth in youth cannabis use and addiction.

One potentially likely effective strategy for preventing future youth cannabis use would be to use what we’ve learned from declines in alcohol use and increase prevention programs that target risks of cannabis to youths’ health and lifestyle, while also promoting the benefits of non-use and opportunities for alternative activities that increase non-use for living full, productive and happy lives.