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Prevention Monthly Briefing

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February 2022 | Issue #13
Prevention Monthly Briefing
Table of Contents:

Team/Person of the Month!

Congrats to the past and current Rethinking Access to Marijuana (RAM) Coalition Leadership for its work in preventing marijuana access and availability to LA County youth. Outgoing RAM Chair Brenda Villanueva welcomes new Chair Sandy Logan who leads the workgroup with a new ambitious agenda and coordinates the work of RAM subcommittees, including Education (led by Julian Olmos), Policy (Charles Porter and Dean Ambrosini), Research (Kevin Shon) and Media (Nicole Centeno). RAM members are conducting community outreach meetings; training on smoke shops’ products, including unregulated cannabis; developing community surveys on youth accessibility of marijuana during the pandemic; and advocating for positive policy changes and responses to emergent marijuana problems. Considering that adolescence is the onset age of substance use disorders and that the first time use of MJ has lowered since the State’s MJ legalization of recreational use (Prop.64), RAM’s work represents an important pillar of the LA County’s prevention network’s strategies. RAM meets the third Wednesday of the month. For more information, click https://lacountyram.org/

SAPC Issues/Actions

COVID-19 Update:
During last month, COVID-19 cases increased nearly 10 times from the previous month of December. Three priorities guides DPH during covid surge: protecting medically vulnerable individuals, especially those residing at skilled nursing facilities and experiencing homelessness; ensuring the protection of hospitals and functions of our healthcare systems; and reducing opportunities for extensive spreading. With changes to the County’s Health Officer Order, employers will be required to provide employees with upgraded masks – well-fitting medical grade masks, surgical masks, or N95/KN95 respirators – by January 17th, 2022 and employees will need to mask at all times when indoors at their worksite or facility. http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/phcommon/public/media/mediapubhpdetail.cfm?prid=3632

COVID-19 Vaccinations:
These are available at County-run sites and many community sites without an appointment. To find a vaccination site near you, to make an appointment at vaccination sites, and much more, visit: www.VaccinateLACounty.com (English) and www.VacunateLosAngeles.com (Spanish). If you don’t have internet access, can’t use a computer, or you’re over 65, you can call 1-833-540-0473 for help finding an appointment or scheduling a home-visit if you are homebound. Vaccinations are always free and open to eligible residents and workers regardless of immigration status.

State/Federal News:
The California Dept. of Health Care Services (DHCS) released its Statewide Needs Assessment (SNAP) 2021 Report. It provides an overview of substance use disorder prevalence. The data show that alcohol use and drug misuse among youth seem to be stable or decreasing. However, hospitalization and deaths due to AOD misuse increased. Additionally, the State served approximately 741,270 individuals using the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) Prevention Strategies. For more details, see:
https://www.dhcs.ca.gov/Documents/CSD_YV/SABG/FY2021-Statewide-Needs-Assessment-and-Planning-Report.pdf

New Laws in 2022: The California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) is providing the following summary of some new alcoholic beverage laws that went into effect in 2021and other laws that will take effect in January 2022: https://www.abc.ca.gov/new-laws-2021-22/

Help your Students Graduate with Assistance from AB 104:
To assist meet graduation requirements, youth advocates are asked to help inform parents, students and educators regarding the provisions of Assembly Bill (AB)104, signed into law by the Governor last summer. County prevention Coordinators report that COVID-19 conditions created special academic challenges for many students. See Fact Sheet on AB 104: https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/gs/ps/ab104factsheet.asp

Event/Training Calendar:

2022 CPI Regional Training
Maximizing Prevention | Maximizing Impact for Tomorrow
http://www.ca-cpi.org/2022-cpi-regional-training/

Free and Low-Cost Continuing Education Training for Behavioral Health Professionals
https://healtheknowledge.org/course/index.php?categoryid=101


Save the Date:
Thursday, March 10th, 1:30-3:30 pm.
SAPC Prevention Quarterly Provider Meeting. Join us to exchange agency and coalition updates and hear highlights of SAPC Prevention Special Projects such as Our SPOT, Wellbeing Centers and CORE Services.
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