University/Schools Alliance Executive Meeting
February 16, 2011 3:30 PM at CDAS Office

Attending: Harry Baetjer, Tower Hill School
Kristen Blanchard, SODAT Delaware
Rosemary Brooks, Parent
Howard Isenberg, Open Door, Inc.
LTC. Angela Showell, DE National Guard
Lorie Tudor, DPN
Capt. Jaime Wolhar, DE National Guard

Staff Attending: Roberta Gealt, Director of USA
Mary Perno, USA Project Coordinator

Discussions: The minutes from the December 8, 2010 meeting were reviewed and approved. USA did not meet in January 2011 due to snow.

DSAMH: There is now a new electronic prevention newsletter in Delaware which is a joint project of the Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health (DSAMH) in the Department of Health and Social Services and the Division of Prevention and Behavioral Health Services (DPBHS) in the Department of Services for Children, Youth and Families. Tiffani Nibbs, who has been an intern in DSAMH for the past year, will complete her internship as of March 1^—she will be missed.

CADCA Forum/Capitol Hill Day: Mary & Roberta attended the CACDA conference last week. Mary also attended the CSAP Community Prevention Day. On Wednesday, we went to visit the Delaware Legislative Offices on Capitol Hill with Col. Dallas Wingate, LTC. Angela Showell, Capt. Jaime Wolhar, Lorie Tudor and Isabel Rivera-Green. We were only able to meet with the new staff personnel, but we left them with a lot of information. Senator Coons' office intern escorted us on a special tour of the Capitol. Check out our photos on the University/Schools Alliance Facebook page!

Social Host Legislation: Roberta spoke to Mike Barbieri (DE legislator) on February 15th about the social host bill. He wants to re-introduce it slowly, but will definitely pursue it again this year. If you have any questions or comments about this bill, please contact him at michael.barbieri@state.de.us. Mike is aware that having the dram shop mentioned in this bill is an issue. We will do our best to provide them with background information, but for now, there isn't any timeframe.

SPF-SIG: This grant application is now due on March 17^th, rather than March 7th.

DSAMH Block Grant—Adults: The RFP for the portion of the state Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant which applies to adult prevention activities is due on February 25th.

DPBHS Block Grant—Youth:The RFP for the portion of the state Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant which applies to youth prevention activities has not yet been released and there is, as yet, no word as to when it will be released.

Prevention Certification: Delaware now has a prevention specialist certification. The one-time application to be grandfathered in for certification is due on March 31st. Information about the program can be obtained from Isabel Rivera-Green at the Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health. Trainings which can be used for CEU’s to apply after the grandfathering period will be available through Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Summer Institute (July 25-29) or the Division of Prevention and Behavioral Health Services Prevention Forum (May 2nd & 3rd). Other trainings will also be announced.

Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: Delaware is again interviewing mothers about the risks (including drinking alcohol) during pregnancy as part of participation in the CDC’s PRAMS-Pregnancy Risk and Management System. According to the first year of data released (2008 data), the mothers who are most likely to consume alcohol during pregnancy are middle class, white, educated women who are over 35 years old and in higher incomes.

Wellspring Review: Roberta attended a review for the UD Wellspring Department for Nancy Chase. Wellspring is the health-oriented branch of our student council office at UD. If you are caught drinking underage the judiciary board from UD may send you to Wellspring for classes about alcohol. Nicole Solomon is responsible for conducting these classes.

Presentations: Roberta did a presentation for DPBHS on risk behaviors of Delaware teens, which led to a great deal of discussion on the matching of Division services to identified needs. On February 17th, Roberta will present in Baltimore for a National Suicide Conference.

Town Hall Meetings: These meetings should be happening soon, but the state cannot provide any money for them this year. Roberta needs to take the lead on getting these meetings planned. DSAMH wants Roberta to wait until after all the grants are in. Lorie Tudor was told that we should hold them at the end of April and gear the topics toward beach week, prom and graduation parties. Lorie talked to Yvonne Bunch about this. Maybe we should invite external speakers and make it less of a Town Hall Meeting and more of an information event for parents. Roberta asked the board if we could put these off until the last week of August or the first week of September. People think we should hold them in the spring, but timing may be difficult. The Appoquinimink School District is closed the week of March 28th. The Private schools are closed the last 2 weeks of March. Easter is April 24th this year. Roberta thinks that we could still do a Town Hall Meeting at the end of April or in early May. USA will do the training meeting for this again.

Physician's Conference: We were planning this for this spring, but have not yet found a date open for all current speakers, including Joan Chatterton (Aquila) and Dr. Margot Waitz(Christiana Care Adolescent and Young Adult Unit).

Policy Summit-Mini & Redux: DSAMH wants to hold a mini policy summit meeting targeting people from state departments to discuss current alcohol initiatives in different departments and how they could potentially be mutually supportive. The Governor's Office and Office of Highway Safety has "Think, Don't Drink"; DPBHS has the "Step Up" program. The SPF-SIG is coming into existence now and will target alcohol use among 12-25 year olds. The Block Grant is also targeting alcohol use. There will also be a second Policy Summit at Buena Vista in September to follow up on last September’s.

Data Trends-Teen Suicide: Youth suicide is closely related with violence, substance use and sexuality. Girls are more likely to report suicide ideation and attempts. The Hispanic population is also more likely to report these. Teens who are victimized are more likely to attempt suicide. Roberta handed out some slides showing that parents do make a difference in the likelihood that teens report considering or attempting suicide. The source is the 2009 YRBS from Delaware. The two slides at the end are from the 2010 School Health Profiles. All of these slides will be on the DDATA web site: www.udel.edu/delawaredata.

The next USA meeting will be on Wednesday, March 9th at 3:30 PM at the CDAS office.