PARTNERS IN PREVENTION

Coordinators and coalition members will be attending the CADCA National Leadership Forum on January 30th through February 22, 2023 at Gaylord National Harbor, MD.

The Public Health and Safety Team (PHAST) Toolkit was developed to help local jurisdictions reduce overdose deaths by increasing collaboration and coordination among all sectors, with a focus on public health and public safety agencies. The toolkit provides jurisdictions with a step-by-step process and action steps to examine case-level and aggregate data and identify key overdose prevention strategies and ways to implement them.

Utilizing 2021 CPWI Community Survey Data, West Spokane Wellness Partnership created a Parent and Caregiver Promotion Campaign to thank parents/caregivers engaged in healthy and proactive communication and behaviors with their youth. The coalition utilized parents and caregivers with their youth who live and work in the community to be featured in the campaign. The coalition ran a month -long radio PSA which obtained 6,365 listeners, 4 months of billboards plus 2 free billboard months throughout the West Spokane area (November 2022 through April 2023) with 1,511,437 anticipated views) and distributed 100 rack cards.

The 2022 HIDTA Summit marked the launch of the MIND the MESSAGE campaign to propel participants into applying and sharing forward the evidence-informed messaging strategies discussed at the Summit and in the toolkit. Numerous participants immediately pledged to join the effort.

PLEDGE to communicate with youth about substance use prevention using evidence-informed strategies.

LEARN one positive social norm for substance use in your community.

USE that positive norm in a frame when communicating with youth.

SHARE this Call to Action with others who interact with youth

The Substance Use Prevention Communications Toolkit provides evidence-informed guidance for creating, delivering, and disseminating messages to prevent onset or escalation of substance use in youth aged 12-18. Two types of communications are presented: conversations with youth and mass communications. Developed in consultation with subject matter experts, role representatives, and youth, the toolkit offers tested strategies on what to say (and what not to say) in prevention communications. The toolkit presents how positive social norms, such as the true rates of substance use, can influence perceptions of youth aged 12-18 and be used as an upstream substance use prevention strategy. Ideas for how people in specific roles (e.g., public safety and prevention professionals, caregivers, etc.) can apply the strategies are also shared.

Download the toolkit today to explore how you can use these strategies to support your substance use prevention efforts.

Colfax had Winterfest on December 3rd. SUPER Colfax gave away 11 lock boxes, we partnered with the Whitman County Health Dept who gave away two boxes of naloxone. Approx 650 people came through downtown during our event. We had many wonderful conversations about locking up meds, talking to kiddos about medication, vaping etc.

The Spokane Region Health District partners with Gonzaga Nursing Program to offer nursing students the opportunity to learn about Public Health regarding Commercial Tobacco, Cannabis and Vaping cessation. During the month of November SRHD had two volunteer nursing students Bella Going & Gabby Graves. They facilitated vaping & cannabis cessation sessions at Mica Peak Alternative School in the Spokane Valley. Gabby & Bella did a school wide vaping presentation using Kahoot and they assembled nondescript take home quit kits (water bottle with gum, toothpicks, straws, stress ball & Quitline card) for students. They also created vaping & cannabis FAQ one pager to send home to parents & caregivers. SRHD and Mica Peak are grateful to have two amazing volunteers like Gabby & Bella.

Under a federal court order issued Dec. 6, the major U.S. tobacco companies (Altria, Philip Morris USA and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, as well as to four cigarette brands owned by ITG Brands LLC ) will soon have to post signs telling the public the truth about the deadly consequences of cigarette smoking at nearly 200,000 retail outlets across the nation that sell cigarettes. The tobacco industry has fought the point-of-sale corrective statements in court for 16 years.

The consent order takes effect on January 1, 2023.

The court order provides for a six-month “Ramp-up Period,” which will run from January 1, 2023, through June 30, 2023, during which the Manufacturers will amend their Participating Retailer Contracts, and manufacture and distribute the required signs. A three-month “Posting Period” follows, from July 1, 2023, through September 30, 2023, during which the initial round of signs must be installed. A 21-month “Implementation Period” will then run from October 1, 2023, through June 30, 2025. Signs with the required corrective statements must be displayed at approximately 195,500 stores throughout the Implementation Period. At the middle of the Implementation Period, there will be a three-month “Rotation Period,” from July 1, 2024, through September 30, 2024, during which different signs will begin to be displayed in each store.

You can find more information in the statement copied below from the public health intervenors in the case. More about the 2006 racketeering verdict ordering the tobacco companies to publish “corrective statements” that tell the American public the truth about the deadly consequences of smoking and secondhand smoke can be found here: https://www.tobaccofreekids.org/what-we-do/industry-watch/doj

The text of the corrective statements can be found on p. 47 of the court order.

Strengthening Families Program for Parents and Youth 11-14 will be hosted in Airway Heights on Thursday’s from 5:30-8:00pm February 16th-March 30th.

Flyer with registration details coming soon! Email Jessica Deutsch with questions at JDeutsch@esd101.net