Youth Solvent Addiction Committee (YSAC)/CCSA Memorandum of Agreement

On December 6, 2004, the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (CCSA) and the Youth Solvent Addiction Committee (YSAC) formalized an opportunity to enhance their respective roles and effectiveness with the signing of a two-year Memorandum of Agreement that brings together the unique strengths of each organization.

It is widely recognized that substance abuse and addictions have a negative impact on the social, health and economic well-being of Canadians, and in particular First Nations youth and their families, and that effective partnerships between the treatment community and non-governmental organizations can promote the development of leading-edge research, policies and programs that reduce the harm associated with substances such as solvents, alcohol, tobacco and other drugs.

CCSA and YSAC have pledged to work together in a spirit of cooperation, learning and support to implement practical means of bringing the First Nations treatment provider community and research fields closer together; sharing data, information, networks and resources; and sharing information on issues of mutual interest regarding substance abuse, addictions, and First Nations peoples.

• YSAC and CCSA are collaborating on a proposal to the Aboriginal Research Development Grant program of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
• YSAC participated as a member of the program committee for CCSA's 2005 national conference, Issues of Substance.
• CCSA was a member of the planning committee for the 2005 International Forum on Youth Solvent Abuse Treatment, chaired by YSAC. The purpose of the Forum was to initiate and strengthen existing collaborations within the youth solvent abuse intervention field in Canada and internationally in the areas of community treatment, prevention, government policy and research.  CCSA also presented a paper at the Forum on the partnership between YSAC and CCSA.
• YSAC and CCSA collaborated with the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Fogarty International Center of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction) to identify a Canadian delegation to attend an international conference on inhalant abuse among children and adolescents - Inhalant Abuse Among Children and Adolescents: Consultation on Building an International Research Agenda.
• YSAC provided expert comment on a CCSA publication entitled Youth Volatile Solvent Abuse (VSA) FAQ, providing answers to frequently asked questions about youth volatile solvent abuse.
• YSAC participated in the CCSA-chaired thematic workshop on treatment workforce development.
• In partnership with YSAC, CCSA completed a research project in 2005, entitled Designing a tool to measure the impact of client length of stay on treatment outcome.  This followed a 2003 joint YSAC-CCSA research report entitled Youth Residential Solvent Treatment Program Design: An Examination of the Role of Program Length and Length of Client Stay. 
• CCSA made two presentations to the YSAC Board of Directors in 2004 and one in 2005 on the research projects.
• In an effort to raise awareness about solvent abuse, CCSA and YSAC co-sponsored a poster contest directed at Canadian children and youth. Participants were invited to submit a poster design focusing on key prevention themes such as the harms of solvent use and how to say no to solvent use. Winners were announced on March 15, 2005 at the International Forum on Youth Solvent Addiction Treatment and Prevention.  To date, over 1,500 posters have been distributed.
• Working with CCSA and YSAC, a Carleton University MA student is conducting her thesis research on post treatment community reintegration at one of the YSAC treatment centres.
• In conjunction with Carleton University's Department of Sociology and Anthropology research placement program, CCSA conducted a survey for YSAC on solvent use treatment with participants in the 2003 Australian Institute of Criminology's Inhalant Use Disorder Conference.
• YSAC presented at the 2002 CCSA-chaired Health, Education and Enforcement in Partnership (HEP) annual meeting in Montreal.
• YSAC and CCSA associates presented a joint paper at the 2002 World Forum on Drugs and Dependencies. They also co-authored an article on the same topic in the Journal of Aboriginal Health, entitled Resiliency and Holistic Inhalant Abuse Treatment.

The Memorandum of Agreement expires on December 6, 2006 and can be renewed with the consent of both parties.