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CAST Program Overview

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CAST Program Goals

• Improved Moods
• Decreased Drug Use
• Improved School Smarts

1. The CAST Curriculum
1. Welcome & Orientation
2. Group Support & Self-Esteem
3. Setting & Monitoring Goals
4. Building Self-Esteem, Beating the Blues
5. Decision Making - Taking STEPS
6. Anger Management #1
7. Anger Management #2
8. Drug Use Control
9. School Smarts
10. Preventing Slips & Relapses
11. Recognizing Progress & Staying on Track
12. Celebrating Graduation

2. How the Program Works
CAST (Coping And Support Training) consists of twelve, 55-minute sessions facilitated by an adult who works well with at-risk youth and who is trained to implement the CAST program. The 12 CAST sessions are usually offered twice per week in a (middle or high) school setting as a pull-out program, or outside of the school setting by youth-oriented agencies, mental health professionals, and community centers.

CAST Participants:

The CAST Group is comprised of 6 – 8 students, who are INVITED to participate. CAST can be offered to an entire population (as “universal” prevention), to a high-risk group (“selective” prevention), or to specific at-risk students (“indicated” prevention).

CAST is an evidenced-based program:
In NIH-funded studies, relative to controls, CAST youth evidenced significant and sustained changes:

65% reduction in suicide risk behaviors
34% reduction (for females) and 27% reduction (for males) in anxiety
44% reduction in depression
62% reduction in hard drug use
16% reduction in alcohol use
24% increase in problem-solving coping
24% increase in personal control
27% increase in family support

See Research for more details.

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Overview provided by Dr. Kyle Barrington - 2021:
Coping and Support Training (CAST): CAST is a school-based small group counseling program (thus a Tier 2 PBIS Framework) for at-risk youth that has demonstrated decreased suicide risk factors and reduced alcohol and hard drug use, among other positive outcomes, in adolescents. CAST is conducted over 12, 55-minute sessions. It can be delivered by trained teachers, counselors, social workers, or others with similar experience. The program has been selected as a model program by Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and is listed on SAMHSA’s National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices. It is identified as a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Promising Practice. CAST participants in several National Institute of Health (NIH) funded studies saw significant and sustained reduction of suicide risk behaviors, reduction of drug use, reduction in depression, increase in personal control, increase in problem-solving, and increase in family support. Researchers have shown students participating in CAST show significant improvements, including: 1) Sustained reductions in suicide-risk behavior (65.0%) and depression (44.0%); 2) Declines in anger control problems (24.0%); 3) Reduced hard drug use (62.0%); 4) Reduced alcohol use (16.0%) and drug use control problems (33.0%); and 5) Enhanced and sustained higher levels of problem-solving coping (24.0%), personal control (24.0%), and family support (27.0%) (Eggert et al., 2002; Eggert et al., 2001). Importantly, CAST has been proven to be effective for all ethnicities and genders and in urban settings (Eggert et al., 2001). As part of the CAST Tier 2 services, parents or guardians of students in CAST will be invited to participate in the CAST parenting program called Parents as Partners.