8:30 - 8:45 am
Opening, Overview

8:45 - 9:00 am
Welcome
The Honorable Peter McHugh, Supervisor, Third District, County of Santa Clara

9:00 - 9:15am
A Focus on Adolescent Treatment Services
Bruce Copley, Deputy Director, SCVHHS Department of Alcohol & Drug Services

9:15 - 10:15 am Keynote Address
Working with the Whole Teen: An Integrated Framework for Understanding and Intervening with Family, Friends, Schools, and Neighborhoods to Prevent or Reduce Teen Drug Use
Michael Robbins, PhD, Center for Family Studies, School of Medicine, University of Miami, Florida bio

Developmental and clinical theory and research have documented a host of individual, familial, and social risk and protective factors that play a critical role in the evolution of prosocial and antisocial behaviors. Prevention and intervention research highlight similar factors as primary targets for intervention. There is no doubt that the emergence of behavior problems is complex, multi-determined, and occurs via unique pathways for different children. Nonetheless, it also clear that some factors play a critical role in increasing a child's risk for the development of disruptive behavior problems. What is also clear is that these factors operate at various levels within the child (emotion, cognition) and in her/his social ecology (family, school, friends). And further, research is also beginning to demonstrate how disruptions with specific individual or ecological variables may actually have more profound effects on functioning if they are to occur at specific points in the youth's development.

The purpose of this presentation is twofold. First, an ecological framework for organizing risk and protective factors in the child's social ecology will be presented to make sense of the numerous factors that have been cited in developmental and clinical research. Based on the theoretical work of Urie Bronfenbrenner (1977, 1979, 1986), this framework focuses on four levels of systems that impact youth's developmental trajectories: Microsystems, mesosystems, exosystems, and macrosystems. Microsystems refer to systems that include the youth directly. The most prominent of these systems for youth with behavior problems are the family, peer, school, and juvenile justice systems. Mesosystems represent relationships between the microsystems in which the youth participates. Exosystems are those systems that include a member of a microsystem, but not the target youth directly (e.g., the gang that a peer belongs to). Macrosystems are defined by the broad social forces and systems that have widespread impact, such as the law; as well as by the cultural blueprints that pervade a family's social environment, such as the belief that parents are less valuable to society because they do not speak English.
Second, this framework will be operationalized to provide specific strategies for working with drug using teens and their families. The focus of this section will be to move beyond simple theoretical descriptions of critical risk and protective factors to zero in on how these variables may be specifically addressed in treatment.

10:15-10:30 am
BREAK

10:30 -11:45 am
Michael Robbins, PhD - continued bio

11:45 - 12:15 pm
Brief Description of Workshops by Presenters

12:15-1:45 pm
LUNCH (on your own)

1:45 - 3:15 pm
Workshop Series I

C1. & C5. Critical Ingredients of Family Therapy - Michael Robbins, PhD bio
Two decades of research examining the clinical interior of family therapy has provided some insights about the critical ingredients of family therapy with behavior problem youth. In fact, "process research" has shed light about general interpersonal processes and gender-linked therapist-participant interactions that frequently occur in therapy sessions as well as specific therapist interventions that appear to have a positive impact on problematic patterns of interaction. The focus of this presentation is to review these research findings and translate these findings into specific recommendations for therapists that work with teenagers with behavior problems.

Using data and clinical theory from three empirically-supported family interventions (Brief Strategic Family Therapy, Functional Family Therapy, Multidimensional Family Therapy), this presentation will cover four topics: 1) Engaging teenagers and family members in treatment; 2) Reducing within-family conflict/negativity; 3) Identifying problematic family interactions; and 4) Improving family interactions, including parenting practices.

C2. Functional Family Therapy - James Alexander, PhD bio ; Thomas Sexton, PhD bio
Functional Family therapy is a short-term easily trainable and well-documented program. The program involves phases and techniques designed to engage and motivate youth and families; change youth and family communication, interaction and problem solving; and help families' better deal with and utilize outside system resources.

C3. & C6.Why Evaluation - Abram Rosenblatt, PhD bio
(to come)

C4. & C7. The HeartMath Discovery Program for Drug and Alcohol Treatment: A New, Innovative Approach
Rollin McCraty, PhD bio ; Robert A. Rees, PhD bio
The Institute of HeartMath has developed revolutionary tools and techniques for addressing substance abuse problems. The HeartMath approach is based on the scientific research of the Institute, which has shown through clinical studies the relationship between mental and emotional states and physiology. At the core of the intervention are easy-to-use, positive emotional-refocusing techniques, providing a systematic process for decreasing stress-induced autonomic and neuroendocrine arousal, reducing emotional turmoil and promoting positive shifts in perception, attitudes and behavior. The efficacy of these techniques is based on their capacity to enhance emotional awareness and promote positive emotion-driven physiological changes that alter perception and nervous system dynamics. These interventions have previously been shown to reduce anxiety and depression and improve physical health status in various clinical populations.

3:15 - 3:30 pm
Break

3:30 - 5:00 pm
Workshop Series II

C2. (Part 2) Functional Family Therapy - Implementation Issues
C5. Critical Ingredients of Family Therapy (repeated)
C6. Why Evaluation (repeated)
C7. The HeartMath Discovery Program