Recognising and Responding to Adolescent Addiction: What Works?

In this course (the second in our two-part series on adolescent addiction), Dr. Amanda Giordano (Ph.D., LPC) and Dr. Brandee Appling (Ph.D., LPC, NCC, ACS, CPCS) – both Associate Professors, University of Georgia – cite worrying statistics about the high co-morbidity of mental health disorders with substance use and behavioural disorders, stressing the need for parental involvement and integrated care. Interventions based on motivational interviewing are reviewed, and there is lengthy discussion of both early intervention and prevention programs. The principles of trauma-sensitive care and the protective factors of social-emotional learning are outlined.