The PreVenture Program for Adolescent Drug and Alcohol Abuse

• In Event: 2151 - Section on Alcohol, Drugs, and Tobacco Roundtable
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 4. Preventing, Using, Abstaining, and Selling Drugs

Abstract

Previous anti-drug campaigns like “Just Say No”, the partnership for a Drug-Free America’s “This is your Brain on Drugs”, and the Drug Abuse Resistance Education “D.A.R.E.” program founded by Los Angeles Police Officers failed to address the causes or triggers for substance abuse. Therefore, young people exposed to these anti-drug campaigns were just as likely to use drugs and drink alcohol as kids who did not receive the training. Overdose Lifeline, Inc. from Indiana is taking the lead on implementing a new anti-drug curriculum that is based on a personality test developed by a psychiatrist from the University of Montreal. This new curriculum, PreVenture, has had marked success in detecting risk-related traits in adolescents before they ever struggle with alcoholism, drug abuse or the disease of addiction. Studies have shown that this new program has cut underage drinking in participating schools by 29 percent and binge drinking by 43 percent.

This research is addressing two vital community needs. In the first, this project provided evidence-based anti-drug curriculum among local middle and high school students in at-risk Indiana counties. In the second, on-going data collection through April 2019 will highlight the impact of the PreVenture program on helping adolescents identify triggers that may increase their likelihood to use and abuse alcohol and other substances.

This paper provides an overview of the PreVenture program, the partnership between a local university, a community agency, and 12 high schools to help address a growing epidemic of adolescent drug use and abuse.

Authors

• Niki Weller, Indiana University Kokomo

• Savannah Brenneke, Overdose Lifeline, Inc.

• Justin Phillips, Overdose Lifeline, Inc.