Published June 12, 2023
The American Lung Association offers INDEPTH: An Alternative to Suspension or Citation
INDEPTH stands for Intervention for Nicotine Dependence: Education, Prevention, Tobacco and Health.
The teaching materials are free of charge, but accessible only after completing the online INDEPTH Facilitator Training, also free of charge. The online facilitator training consists of three modules, each taking approximately 50 minutes to complete. To begin, go to lung.training to create an account and register for the training.
The INDEPTH course is a mandatory educational intervention, assigned to students who have violated school policies regarding nicotine usage, and replaces such consequences as detention or suspension.
The INDEPTH course for students consists of four sessions, each 50 minutes in length, using downloadable content and facilitator notes. Following each four-session course, the facilitator is required to complete a report to help the program creators track the program’s efficacy and reach.
The facilitator should preview all parts of the course, keeping in mind school and community norms and guidance offered in The Washington Healthcare Authority’s publication Prevention Tools: What works, what doesn’t. Knowing that students who have already begun to use vaping products could “experience cravings as a result of seeing images of substance[s] … or related paraphernalia” (Society for the Study of Addiction, 2021), we recommend that the facilitator consider eliminating some of the images and videos found in the presentation slides.
Also, please consider omitting pages 35 – 38 of the Facilitator Guide, because, according to page 12 of Prevention Tools: What works, what doesn’t, “Fact Sheets, Drug Fact Sheets and Knowledge-based Interventions should not be used.”