The population I would like to work with include adults that experienced adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) that express in adulthood in mental health disorders such as Depression, Anxiety, and PTSD. Most of those that experience ACEs also could develop a co-occurring substance use diagnoses as well. When I searched for substance abuse prevention resources for this population I came across many programs, but the Fast Track Project (Sanford School of Public Policy, 2024) stood out to me the most intriguing intervention that I was curious to learn more about.
Fast Track Project - https://fasttrackproject.org/
The first thing that hooked me onto wanting to learn more about this substance use prevention approach was the project’s hypothesis stated on the homepage of their website; Their “why”. The project was introduced in 1990 and the researchers at this institute continue to monitor data they are collecting on this hypothesis. “The Fast Track intervention was based on the hypothesis that improving child competencies, parenting effectiveness, school context, and school-home communications will, over time, improve psychopathology from early childhood through adulthood.” (Sanford School of Public Policy, 2024).
The second thing that caught my attention of this substance use prevention program was the articles posted on the homepage of their website providing evidence-based effectiveness of the Fast Track Project. Further, this evidence continues to prove their hypothesis and is being shown that it is effective at providing this intervention during childhood can “improve psychopathology from early childhood through adulthood” (Sanford School of Public Policy, 2024).
The third thing that further cemented this Fast Track Project into my mind was the article titled “Impact of Early Intervention on Psychopathology, Crime, and Well-Being at Age 25” (Dodge, K., et al., 2015). This article provided information on the cohort of children (1991-1993) that were screened in order to participate in this project, which includes a 10-year intervention, the Fast Track Project. The goals of this 10-year intervention “was to develop social competencies in children that would carry them throughout life, through social skills training, parent behavior-management training with home visiting, peer coaching, reading tutoring, and classroom social-emotional curricula.” (Dodge, K., et al., 2015). The results of the study concluded that those participants that continued throughout the intervention had lower rates of violent and drug crimes, lower rates of risky behavior, and increased sense of well-being than those not included within the study. This article also included information from the participant’s perspective within this project being implemented.
References
Dodge, K. A., Bierman, K. L., Coie, J. D., Greenberg, M. T., Lochman, J. E., McMahon, R. J., & Pinderhughes, E. E. (2015). Impact of early intervention on psychopathology, crime, and well-being at age 25. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 172(1), 59–70.
Sanford School of Public Policy. (2024). Fast track project. Fast Track Project. https://fasttrackproject.org/