Air Force ‘Aims High’ to Prevent Substance Abuse

When the United States Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC) sought help in improving its substance abuse prevention program in 2009, it turned to SAMSHA’s Center for the Application of Prevention Technologies (CAPT) at EDC. Since then the relationship has produced positive results and continues to expand.

“What we were doing—handing out program promotional items—was not working for us,” says Dr. Don Jenrette, AFRC Drug Demand Reduction Program (DDRP) manager. “We needed a measurable and sustainable initiative that would drive down the number of positive drug testing results by our reservists.”

Mandated by the Department of Defense in 1981 to reduce illicit drug use, the DDRP provides compulsory random drug testing and anti-drug education for the AFRC’s 71,000 reservists. In support of one of SAMHSA’s Strategic Initiatives designed to improve the behavioral health of military families, the CAPT developed and delivered a five-day substance abuse prevention training to 45 AFRC DDRP technicians and prevention leaders from across the country in Atlanta, Georgia, this past summer. This is the third year the CAPT has worked with DDRP technicians to assist them in implementing evidence-based prevention practices.

“We’re trying to help them think of themselves as more than just drug testers, and more like prevention specialists,” says CAPT Project Associate Matthew Biewener, “but it’s hard because they do so much already.”

Most AFRC technicians who specialize in substance abuse prevention are on their bases only two weekends a month, and during that time they must carry out many other duties. The CAPT trainers helped participants understand where to go and who to connect with to advance their prevention efforts. Trainers also addressed the broader connections between substance use and other difficult issues that service members face, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, suicide, traumatic brain injury, and the emotional impact of deployment on family relationships.

The CAPT continues to provide ongoing technical assistance to help DDRP technicians apply what they learn in the CAPT trainings in their daily work. All DDRP participants left this summer’s training with individually tailored and action-oriented substance abuse prevention plans to employ at their respective AFRC bases. The next challenge, says Biewener, will be establishing program continuity.

“Reservists often change jobs, their schedules change, and length of service varies. Our task is going to be trying to work in a train-the-trainers component, to ensure long-term sustainability of substance abuse prevention strategies.”

Given the positive evaluations from this summer—one hundred percent of respondents reported satisfaction with the overall training, and one hundred percent said that they were likely to apply the information/ideas—this collaborative project is expected to continue through 2014.

“One of the key reasons this is going forward is Dr. Don Jenrette,” says Biewener. “He really believes in evidence-based prevention and training, and looking for ways to bring this training to the other forces in the military.