These are certainly difficult times. As COVID-19 sweeps the country, it’s left a host of mental health and substance misuse issues in its wake. Calls to crisis centers are up, overdoses are on the rise, and people are feeling alone, isolated, depressed, and, without hope. As 2020 comes to a close, it’s sad to note that COVID-19 won’t end with it. And the scars that are substance use disorder, mental health issues, and hopelessness won’t end with it, either.

We’ve been adapting to meet the needs of families and communities in 2020, 2021, and beyond. We’ve published parenting tips about teaching kids to cope with remote schooling and growing up during a pandemic. We’ve transitioned our professional development opportunities, many of them free, to virtual settings. We’ve worked with prevention partners across the state to find ways they can support their communities as they reel from the additional burdens emplaced on them by COVID-19.

As you plan your holiday and end-of-year giving, we ask that you donate to Prevention Action Alliance so that we can continue to offer these and other resources to families and communities in 2021. We’re a tax-exempt nonprofit, which means that we rely upon donations to do the vital work that we do.

If you can’t donate, please consider making us your AmazonSmile beneficiary, and Amazon will match up to 0.5 percent of eligible purchases in donations to us.

Or, you sign up for Kroger Community Rewards and naming Prevention Action Alliance as your beneficiary nonprofit—our organization code is XL317.

Lastly, you can provide your expertise pro bono to Prevention Action Alliance by aiding in strategic planning, creating resources and tools for Ohio's communities, or providing other expert guidance to PAA. You can also participate in focus groups, other feedback groups, or volunteer when projects and needs arise in the future. Email your contact information to [email protected] to be placed on the Prevention Action Alliance volunteer waitlist.

Thank you to the 200 attendees who registered for the Ohio Adult Allies Summit, making this year’s the largest Ohio Adult Allies Summit yet! We had a wonderful time learning and growing with you and look forward to a (hopefully in-person) summit next year. 

 

If you missed the Ohio Adult Allies Summit, you can view recordings of the summit’s sessions on our website. There, you’ll find: 

Hello, I am a lifelong resident of Ohio living in the Northeast region, and I am excited to join the Prevention Action Alliance team as community prevention manager. I have had a six-year relationship with PAA working on youth-led prevention initiatives in northeast Ohio and helping to build the statewide youth-led prevention infrastructure through the Ohio Youth-led Prevention Network.

Additionally, I have a long and rich work history in the public health arena with a variety of roles in both the mental health and the substance use disorder fields. I've have worked in community outreach, client rights advocacy, coalition development, and prevention program implementation and management. I have a Bachelors of Science Degree from Kent State University and am an Ohio Certified Prevention Specialist as well as a certified trainer on the Strategic Prevention Framework.

Having worked in many behavioral health capacities, my passion for prevention has led to this new role with PAA.

The Ohio Department of Education is seeking a prevention education coordinator who will have an integral role in supporting the whole child as envisioned in Ohio's five-year strategic plan, Each Child, Our Future. This coordinator will collaborate with education professionals to support Ohio's schools and districts in whole child success, including in attendance, nutrition, school safety, Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, trauma-informed schools, school-based health care, family and community engagement, and social-emotional learning.

In 2016, the House Bill 523 made Ohio the 25th state to legalize medical marijuana, thus creating the Ohio Medical Marijuana Control Program. Since then, physicians who undergo special certification can recommend marijuana for certain medical conditions, and qualifying patients can receive marijuana in a variety of forms for treating those conditions. Because much of the public conversation surrounding marijuana has been based on anecdotes rather than science, we at Prevention Action Alliance worked with the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services to create fact sheets to help people better understand the facts about marijuana and its effects.

These fact sheets cover a wide array of topics ranging from the physical and mental health effects of marijuana, its impacts on your family and communities, what the law says about marijuana in Ohio, how marijuana impacts public safety, and the public health ramifications of marijuana legalization. They are free for anyone to download, print, or share without modification. You can also download the entire toolkit of marijuana fact sheets.

The Opioid Prevention Campaign is a public health media campaign to help prevent adolescent substance use. The stress and uncertainty that surrounds COVID-19 has resulted in a rise in drug and alcohol use. This campaign is here to provide you with the materials you need to share key facts and information about opioids with those you serve.

Included in the campaign are videos, social media graphics, infographics, content for educating parents, content for educating teachers, and more.

Parents, teachers, and other adults who work with young people can work to protect youth from alcohol advertisements by participating in the Big Bowl Vote. The Big Bowl Vote is a nationwide survey of young people to find their favorite Super Bowl ads. Consistently, ads for alcohol are remembered and liked by young people, and the Big Bowl Vote serves as a launching point for conversations about media literacy, the influence of alcohol advertisements, and underage drinking.

The Big Bowl Vote can also be used by health educators in classrooms, aligns to the National Health Education Standards, and can be done 100 percent virtually.

Prevention and other behavioral health professionals can now request funds for COVID-19 eligible expenses and economic relief. Interested providers should go to https://grants.ohio.gov/fundingopportunities.aspx#funding-opportunities and select the funding opportunity “CARES Act – Coronavirus Relief Fund – MHAS Continuum of Care Relief Funds” to see the funding guidance document detailing eligible costs and lost revenue that may be reimbursed. OhioMHAS is partnering with Ohio Recovery Housing, NAMI, Ohio Citizen Advocates, and the Ohio Association of County Behavioral Health Authorities to help ensure that every eligible entity has an opportunity to apply for these funds. Questions may be sent to [email protected].

A summary document of CARES Funding can be found on the OhioMHAS website. Applications are due today, Friday, December 4.

In November, Oregon became the first state to legalize psilocybin, also known as psychedelic mushrooms. Voters aren’t the only ones talking about psilocybin either—teens are bound to hear about it now that it’s in the news, and they won’t always get the most reliable and health-conscious information about it from their sources.

Our jobs as parents is to help them filter the information they receive. To help you with this important job, we have compiled information every teen and parent should know about psilocybin and how legalization and decriminalization efforts affect our kids.

As we enter the holiday season, we want to say thank you to all of you out there who are playing your role in prevention. We know it isn’t easy, and we appreciate the time, work, and sacrifices you make to build a healthier, safer, and happier world where everyone has an opportunity live in a thriving community.

As you consider how to spend the holidays during these tumultuous times, please remember that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that typical holiday plans be changed to keep our loved ones safe. Small household gatherings, like the kind many of us look forward to during this time of year, can be a significant factor in the spread of COVID-19, and we encourage everyone to follow the CDC's recommendations against travel or to take appropriate precautions. The CDC has compiled a list of factors to think about and things you can do mitigate and minimize risk.

The safest thing you can do is limit your holiday celebrations to those who live in your home. The next safest option is to follow the CDC’s guidelines for hosting or attending gatherings.

Masks on and stay safe!

Questions? Comments? Suggestions?