Your Brain. Your Future. Your Choice.

iDECIDE@mgh.harvard.edu

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ABOUT iDECIDE

Introduction

iDECIDE (Drug Education Curriculum: Intervention, Diversion, and Empowerment), is an evidence-based tier-2, early indicated substance use intervention for middle and high school students. iDECIDE restoratively approaches supporting behavior change through empowering youth with a structured format to learn, reflect, and reconsider their decision-making around their own substance use. Designed to serve as a secondary prevention effort for youth at risk for escalating substance use, students can engage iDECIDE as through referral, as well as an alternative to exclusionary punitive responses.

The objective of iDECIDE is to provide students with:

  • a scientific understanding of the impact of substance use and addiction on the adolescent brain and body;

  • an understanding of the common tactics used by industry to target young people;

  • the ability to identify and respond to personal impulses to use alcohol and other drugs; and

  • a sense of empowerment and a plan to make healthy decisions in line with their core values and future goals.

The Need for Equitable Alternatives to Punishment for Substance Use

  • With an increasing number of students violating school substance use policies, there is an urgent need to establish reasonable, equitable, and effective school responses to substance use infractions.

  • Punitive approaches don’t work as effective deterrents for substance use.1

  • Punitive approaches are associated with increased risk for other negative health,1,2 behavioral3,4,5 and academic outcomes.6,7,8

  • Punitive approaches have a disproportionate negative impact on students of color and students with learning disabilities and/or psychiatric illness…thus magnifying social inequities.9

To address these needs, the Center for Addiction Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, in collaboration with the Office of Youth and Young Adult Services at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the Institute for Health and Recovery, has designed an alternative to punitive responses to school-based substance use infractions. iDECIDE is a scalable and sustainable best practice education- and skills-based curriculum designed to retain students in school and empower them to make healthy decisions. iDECIDE will also help to improve health equity among students and ensure that responses to substance use infractions at school are effective, age-appropriate and science-based.

Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS)

tiers

How does iDECIDE fit within a Multi-Tiered System of Supports?

A multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) is “a comprehensive continuum of evidence-based, systemic practices to support a rapid response to students’ needs, with regular observation to facilitate data-based instructional decision making.”23

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) has extended MTSS beyond academics, to include social emotional and behavioral supports. Students violating school substance use policies may benefit from Tier 2 supports. iDECIDE has been designed to serve as a Tier 2 targeted response. Read more about the details of the MTSS framework within the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education by clicking here to be directed to the Massachusetts Department of Education website.

iDECIDE is not a replacement for Tier 1 prevention strategies, nor is it a replacement for referral to more intensive substance use or mental health evaluation or treatment when clinically indicated.

Format

  • iDECIDE is a tier two intervention program; i.e., it is intended for adolescents who have begun to show early signs of substance use behavior. While iDECIDE was designed as an alternative to punishment, it can be used outside of an infraction context as a general drug education curriculum for adolescents experimenting with substances. iDECIDE is not a cessation program and is not meant to be used in lieu of treatment.

  • iDECIDE is agnostic to substance. The curriculum addresses a wide range of substances that are most commonly used by adolescents.

  • iDECIDE consists of 4 core modules, each approximately 45-75 minutes in length, with the flexibility of being delivered in one, two, or four sessions.

  • The modules are hosted on a learning management system, and utilize videos, structured activities, guided discussions, and at-home activities. Module content covers the neurobiology of addiction and teen brain development, industry tactics, drug effects, risk and protective factors, motivations and triggers for use, realistic and healthy alternatives to alcohol and other drug use, communication strategies, mindfulness and meditation, core values, and goal setting.

  • The curriculum is administered by a trained adult facilitator in either a one-to-one or group format and can be offered in a school or community-based setting.

  • Facilitators will ideally have a mental health and/or substance use education/counseling experience (e.g., nurse, psychologist, guidance counselor, adjustment counselor, health and wellness teacher), but clinical training is not required. All facilitators should have a genuine interest helping to empower students to make decisions in line with personal values and goals.

  • Facilitators must attend the free, 1-day, live iDECIDE training offered through MA Department of Public Health before gaining access to any of the curriculum materials.

  • iDECIDE is ADA-accessible and is available in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. Please contact the iDECIDE team with other language requests.