Program Information

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This 90-minute, case-based webinar focuses on the day-to-day clinical realities of managing adolescent marijuana use in school-based health centers. With increasing cannabis potency, evolving product types (e.g., vaping, edibles), and normalization of use, providers are seeing more students with impacts on mood, anxiety, cognition, and risk for psychosis, as well as academic and social functioning. In practice, this often shows up as worsening anxiety, school decline, irritability, or recurrent vomiting syndromes, presentations that don’t always initially look substance-related. These real-world scenarios will anchor the discussion.

We will walk through how to quickly screen for cannabis use in a busy visit and, more importantly, how to make sense of what you find, distinguishing experimentation from patterns that warrant intervention. The session will focus on what actually matters in the history (frequency, potency, context of use) and how to assess co-occurring mental health symptoms. A major focus will be what to say and how to say it. Many adolescents are ambivalent or not interested in stopping, and providers often have limited time. We will review practical, usable language drawn from motivational interviewing that can be applied in SBHC settings, including how to give feedback without losing the patient and how to think about involving families. We will also spend time on real-time clinical decision-making, when it is reasonable to monitor, when a brief intervention is likely to help, and when symptoms or level of risk suggest the need for referral. Practical harm-reduction strategies for youth who are not ready to stop will also be discussed

Target Audience

This activity is appropriate for the following audiences:

• Nurses
• Nurse Practitioners
• Physicians
• Physician Associates/Assistants
• Social Workers
• Other members of the care team

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this activity, participants should be able to do the following:

• Use brief, practical screening approaches to identify cannabis use and level of risk in adolescents.
• Conduct focused assessments that distinguish lower-risk use from patterns requiring intervention.
• Apply real-world motivational interviewing techniques to engage adolescents in behavior change.
• Deliver brief, targeted interventions within the time constraints of SBHC visits.
• Identify thresholds for referral and coordinate care with families and community resources.

AMA Designation Statement

Moses/Weitzman Health System Inc. designates this Live activity/Enduring material for a maximum of X AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.