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Substance Use Prevention and Intervention Services
Who are Student Assistance Specialists?
Student Assistance Specialists (SASs) have expertise in the mental health and substance-use fields. They have Master’s degrees in Social Work or Counseling and are licensed by the Virginia Department of Health Professions as Clinical Social Workers, Professional Counselors or Substance Abuse Treatment Practitioners.
As members of the Unified Mental Health Team, Student Assistance Specialists support LCPS initiatives that promote student connectedness, enhance student resilience and educate about mental health and substance-use issues. We provide educational presentations for students and parents, restorative practices, individualized and group support, referral services, coordination with providers, staff development and consultation with parents and staff.
What do Student Assistance Specialists do?
Student Assistance Specialists provide services and interventions designed to enhance the social, emotional and academic success of students by helping to address the needs of the whole child. The foundation of these interventions is a strength-based service delivery model focusing on developmental assets, risk/protective factors, prevention education and resiliency skill building.
Substance Use Assessments -interview students who are referred, conduct substance-use assessments for at-risk students and make referrals for appropriate schools and community-based services.
Substance Use Prevention/Intervention Groups - facilitate psycho-educational groups for students concerned about their own use, the use of others close to them or those students who are working on a recovery program.
Substance Use Education Class (Insight) - facilitate the early intervention class for students who violate LCPS Policy 8240. This class is also open to students on a voluntary basis.
Nicotine Education Class- an education course for students who violate the LCPS 8240 Policy or who would like to participate voluntarily.
Classroom presentations - present substance use, bullying/violence prevention, and mental health presentations at secondary level.
Staff, parent, and community presentations - present current trends, signs and symptoms and prevention strategies regarding substance use, mental health, violence prevention, and available school-based resources.
Restorative Practices - provide leadership through training, facilitation, and multi-tiered implementation of Restorative Practices. Restorative Practices are a framework for building relationships, taking a proactive approach to managing conflict, and for responding to challenging behavior. LCPS offers restorative conferencing as an option for discipline and as a way to address wrong-doings when students or the school community have been harmed.
Sources of Strength - provide trainings, presentations, and on-going support to schools implementing this upstream prevention program at the secondary level.
Crisis Team - provide crisis intervention to affected students and staff following critical incidents and administer Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS) to students.
Threat Assessment Team - supports the threat assessment process at the school level.
Fentanyl and Opioid Awareness
LCPS is committed to raising awareness about the dangers of fentanyl and opioids. Below is some information about Fentanyl, opioids and other dangerous substances and what you can do to protect your student.
What is Fentanyl?
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid typically used to treat patients with chronic severe pain or severe pain following surgery. Under the supervision of a licensed medical professional, fentanyl has legitimate medical use. However, illicit fentanyl is illegally made and sold as a powder, pills, liquid or nasal spray. Other drug products like marijuana, cocaine, heroin or unlawfully sold medications thought to be prescription medicine may be laced with illicit fentanyl without the user's knowledge.The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) shared that laboratory testing has indicated that seven out of every 10 pills seized by the DEA contained a lethal dose of fentanyl. A dose of fentanyl the size of the tip of a pencil is considered a lethal amount.
There are also reports of a trend among some young people of smoking Percocet, which contains oxycodone (OxyContin or “oxy”) and acetaminophen (Tylenol). When purchased illegally, this drug is also often mixed with Fentanyl. When this substance is smoked, the possibility of overdose is higher because of how quickly the drug enters the bloodstream. Parents/guardians are encouraged to review this information from the Drug Enforcement Agency about what to look for if they suspect their child is involved with drugs.