Tools for intervention with youth users

Course Description: Addiction to various types of dangerous substances and activities is a widespread phenomenon in all walks of society in general, and among the youth population in particular. In fact, adolescence is the most vulnerable period to use and addiction than any other age period. In recent years, we have witnessed a worrying increase in the use of psychoactive substances and addictive behaviors among youth, especially in the field of cannabis and screens. This worrying trend requires us, educational counselors, to have tools and applied knowledge of intervention methods that are adapted to this age group and the spirit of the times. In a way that words cannot describe, the events of October 17 and the months that followed constitute an ongoing national trauma, which creates new traumas and awakens repressed traumas.

One of the side effects of trauma in general, and ongoing trauma in particular, is addiction. Addiction is associated with the obsessive and compulsive preoccupation with futile attempts to change past events and fill the existential void created by the trauma. During adolescence, when teenagers are usually busy gradually transitioning from childhood to adulthood and developing their independence as adults, they may resort to using substances as a means of expressing various things, such as rebellion, peer pressure, curiosity, and more. However, when trauma forces them to mature at an accelerated rate, drug use may take on a more significant and permanent part of their lives and turn from problematic use into addiction.

The course will provide learners with knowledge about problematic substance use patterns, such as cannabis and screens that may develop into addiction, among adolescents, and will provide practical intervention methods for treating this population. The sessions will provide knowledge, tools, and techniques - both in the field of parent guidance and in the field of intervention with the adolescent on the continuum of use. The sessions will be taught from an integrative therapeutic perspective that combines diverse approaches and tools, and is tailored to the motivation, readiness for change, and resources for change of the adolescent and his family.

Course objectives:

To provide educational counselors who engage in interventions with youth on the continuum of use and in guiding their parents with tools and techniques for developing intervention methods that combine the therapists' existing knowledge and new and accumulated knowledge on the subject of youth addiction in the shadow of trauma.

At the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Identify and diagnose abuse and addiction among teenagers.

• To become familiar with the psychological theories and the needs and mental mechanisms that underlie use among adolescents.

• To thoroughly understand the issues and unique characteristics of working with youth who use cannabis in general and those who smoke in particular.

• To recognize the interrelationships between trauma and increased substance use and behavioral addictions in adolescents.

• Apply tools and techniques with parental guidance.

• To implement educational and therapeutic intervention methods in youth on the continuum of use.