December 6
Prevention Open Space Networking Event
December 7
Conducting Quality Focus Groups Training
January 11
Comprehensive Prevention Planning Webinar
January 30
Introduction to Motivational Interviewing (MI) Training*
Visit the Training Portal for descriptions
and to register.
While youâre there, take one of our FREE courses. CEUs available.
* Payment required for this training.
|
|
|
|
Safe at Home is an organization in New Castle that works with victims of sexual assault and domestic violence. The organization works to provide crisis intervention services, support services, protection order assistance, court escorts, referrals, arrangement of emergency shelters, and referrals to other services. Victims are able to work with Safe at Home through the entire process. Safe at Home partners with several organizations, such as A Better Way, Inc. and Alternatives, Inc. to provide shelters and the Sexual Assault Treatment Center in Anderson when an assault has been reported. Safe at Home also partners with law enforcement, school systems, government agencies, and community health organizations to provide comprehensive recovery and support to victims of sexual assault and domestic violence. Community education and awareness are also available to schools and other community organizations. Safe at Home accepts applications for volunteers to work as client advocates in areas such as facilitating group support, accompanying clients to court, and many others.
To learn more about Safe at Home, please visit www.hcsafeathome.com.
|
|
|
With the holiday season in full swing, the office is one place where some festive and unique ideas can be put to use. Keep these tips in mind to help keep morale up during the winter season!
Create an office-wide holiday photo or video. This video can be used as a way to thank all of the community members or clients that you have worked with throughout the calendar year; it can also just be a fun way to get into the spirit of the holidays! Check out some examples of office holiday videos in the links below!
Example Video 1 Example Video 2 Example Video 3
Have a âDecorate Your Workspaceâ Contest. This idea is fun whether your workspace is a full office, a cubicle, or a shared space. Begin a holiday decoration contest around the first of December and have coworkers vote on first, second, and third place decorated spaces. The winner can be announced at a staff meeting or annual holiday party, and prizes can be in the form of a gift certificate or other small, holiday-related gift.
Schedule a Holiday Sweater Day. Ugly Holiday Sweaters are becoming more common outside of the workplace, so scheduling a day for employees to wear their sweaters to work is a fun way for people to show off their most festive wear. This could also be made into a contest (ugliest sweater, most festive, etc.) if your office loves friendly competition.
Create a Holiday Card Exchange in Lieu of a Secret Santa. Secret Santa can be intimidating if the office is large, there are several new employees, or if participants have trouble abiding by the set cost limit. A Holiday Card Exchange is an inexpensive way to spread holiday cheer without these barriers. Employees can still pick names out of a hat or sign up to exchange with a specific coworker, and the cards can be shown off all season long.
Take Time as an Office to Help the Less Fortunate. Some team building or office morale activities during the holiday season can also have the added benefit of helping less fortunate in your community. Ideas for helping the less fortunate during the holidays include: Holding a clothing drive; sponsoring a family and going shopping as an office to purchase items on the familyâs wish list; volunteering at a food kitchen as an office; or holding a food drive.
Have fun with these ideas and customize them in any way you see fit. Hope you all have a wonderful holiday season!
More Details Resource Additional Resource
|
|
|
|
Kathleen Anderson Ratcliff is a Community Prevention Specialist and Research Associate at the IPRC. Kathleenâs proudest work accomplishment took place while she was working for Missouri Partners in Prevention. She created a series of monthly research briefs that looked at different behaviors and subpopulations of Missouri college students regarding substance abuse prevention. She was able to build up two Volumes (years) of research briefs while she was thereâthe briefs are now into Volume 6!
Outside of work, her interests include spending time with family and friendsâespecially when she is watching Netflix with her dogs and cat or playing board games with friends. She and her husband also enjoy spending warm evenings outside with friends and neighbors. A random fact about Kathleen is that she got married in May 2017 and spent two weeks in Europe on her honeymoon. She says she picked out her retirement home or new telecommuting office on her trip! Another fun experience Kathleen had recently is meeting, petting, and taking a selfie with an African Penguin named Shirley when Shirley was visiting libraries in Johnson County. Kathleen braved 50 loud and excited elementary-aged youth to see her favorite animal!
âNever let the urgent crowd out the important."
âThe West Wing
âI broke it...we fix it later!"
âKathleen's niece
|
|
The 20th Annual Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT) Forum was held on October 4th-7th in Dublin, Ireland. Mallori DeSalle is a member of MINT and was a Program Planning Committee for this event.
DeSalle believes the biggest benefit from attending the MINT Forum is meeting other MINT members, networking, and forming relationships. She states that, "In a few days, you can forge personal and professional relationships that can sustain a lifetime." In terms of this year's conference, DeSalle also found much inspiration in a plenary session by Bill Miller and Steve Rollnick, as they are the original creators of Motivational Interviewing (MI). "As Bill and Steve speak, they inspire us to be considerate about our forward progress in the field and to proceed intentionally," commented DeSalle.
In looking  for a difference between this year's forum and the previous years, DeSalle notes that the location played a big factor this year, as there was a great deal of Irish pride and cultural nuances that were special to experience together as a group. Additionally, this was the 20th Anniversary of MINT Forums, and the first use of the conference app.
DeSalle is already beginning to apply some lessons that she learned at the Forum since returning to her work at the IPRC. She has included some related to intuition from a presentation from Sam Mallins as well as others building new relationships for collaboration. "Each year, I come back to work renewed and refreshed, so I try to use the spirit throughout the year until I return to another Forum," summarized DeSalle. For the 2018 MINT Forum, DeSalle will be the Program Planning Chair.
To learn more about MINT, please visit: http://www.motivationalinterviewing.org/.
|
|
|
|
The Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA), through the
prevention team within the Division of Mental Health and Addiction (DMHA), recently produced two Public Service Announcements (PSAs) with the theme, âPrevention Works.â These PSAs were funded by the Indiana National Guard. One is about properly storing and locking up prescription medicine, and the other is about properly disposing of medicines. Check out these PSAs to see if they would be helpful to promote in your line of work or volunteer area!
Proper Drug Disposal PSA
Lock Up Your Drugs PSA
To learn more about the "Prevention Works" PSAs, please visit http://www.in.gov/fssa/dmha/3070.htm.
|
|
National Drunk and Impaired Driving Awareness Month
With the holiday season quickly approaching, it becomes a busy time for families and friends to travel. Every year, AAA predicts the number of travelers across the U.S. for each method of transportation. Estimates for Thanksgiving stated that 45.5 million people would be traveling by car (even with increased gas prices), roughly 89% of all  travel. This is an increase of over 3% from last year (AAA Newsroom, 2017). Predictions have not been made for this coming holiday season between December 23 rd and January 3 rd, but in 2015, the projected number for that same period was over 100 million travelers driving throughout the U.S. (Newsroom AAA, 2015). Because of this increased commuting around this time of year, December has been declared National Drunk and Impaired Driving Awareness Month. Alcohol consumption is generally increased for the month of December due to a variety of celebrations. For the last 14 years, the CDC has used December to specifically encourage drivers to use caution while driving and to refrain from consuming alcohol or using drugs prior to getting behind the wheel.
Between the years 2003 and 2012, 2,210 people were killed in an accident involving a drunk driver in Indiana. Among those killed in that same time-span, those aged 21-34 had over double the rate of deaths compared to any other
age group (CDC, 2015). As of 2014, approximately 3.3% of the U.S.
population had stated they drank too much and drove in the last 30 days.
In Indiana, that percentage is roughly 3.4%, which has doubled since
2012 (CDC & NCCDPHP, 2015).
National Drunk and Impaired Driving Awareness Month is an effort to address increased dangers associated with drinking and driving and the larger impact it can have when so many people are heading out on the road. To achieve this national level health objective, communities need comprehensive and effective strategies. Currently, we have laws to help in those efforts including, the age requirement (21 years) and Blood Alcohol Concentration restrictions (<0.08% BAC) which constrains who drinks and how much. Lately, sobriety check points have been utilized as well as mass media campaigns. Continued efforts are being focused on school-based programs, which focus on educating youth and providing them with skills and knowledge to prevent impaired driving, either for themselves or others. To help efforts to reduce alcohol or drug impaired injuries/crashes, visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for useful toolkits and fact sheets.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Newsroom AAA
Resource
Additional Resource
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Risk and Protective Factors
A total of 8,059 students 18-25 years
of age from 23 Indiana colleges participated in the Indiana College Substance Use Survey conducted in Spring 2021.
