Prevention Lifelines
A large network of government, social service,
faith-based, legal, medical, nonprofit and community
organizations offer a wide range of help.
For Teens
CheckYourself.com, a unique resource for older
teens, allows young adults to think in a focused way
about their relationship with drugs and alcohol and
invites them to consider whether their substance use
risks turning into a problem for them. Supported by the
Partnership for a
Drug-Free America, CheckYourself.com allows
visitors to "look in the mirror" by answering quiz
questions about their lifestyle, reading first-person
stories, communicating with other teens and playing
decision games to see how they might act in situations
involving drugs and alcohol.
For College Students
Created at San Diego State
University, e-CHUG,
currently in use at over 250 universities and colleges
across 42 states and in Canada and Australia, is an
online alcohol intervention and personalized feedback
tool designed to reduce drinking among college students.
The electronic THC Online Knowledge Experience,
e-TOKE.com, is a brief, marijuana-specific
assessment and feedback tool designed to reduce
marijuana use among college students. Each intervention
takes 10 to 15 minutes to complete, is
self guided, and requires no face-to-face contact time
with a counselor or administrator. Because it is offered
online, it has the flexibility of providing quick,
confidential feedback in multiple settings, allowing a
student to complete a personal “check-up” on multiple
occasions to track changes in use and risk behavior.
For
Employers
On the job, the sooner alcohol and other drug abuse
problems are identified, the sooner they can be
corrected. The
National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information
offers
The Drug-Free Workplace: A Guide for Supervisors and
Managers. which provides information to
improve productivity and protect employee health and
safety by tackling workplace problems that may arise
from alcohol and other drug abuse.
The Workplace Helpline
is a toll-free telephone consulting service which
provides technical assistance and guidance in developing
and evaluating programs and policies designed to address
alcohol and drug problems at work. It is staffed by
trained specialists who can help design a program that
meets your specific needs. Consultation is provided on
policy development, supervisor training, employee
education, employee assistance programs and drug
testing. This service is provided free by the
Center for
Substance Abuse Prevention. Call (800)
WORKPLACE, (800) 967-5752, or email at
HELPLINE@samhsa.hhs.gov.
Advertising Trends
The Center on Alcohol
Marketing and Youth
(CAMY) offers an interactive data tool that allows you
to search for alcohol advertising data aired in 100
television markets nationwide in 2004. CAMY analyzed the
alcohol industry's placement of more than one million
television ads, worth almost $3.5 billion, between 2001
and 2004 on broadcast, cable networks and local
television. Its analysis shows high levels of underage
youth exposure to these ads despite the industry's
self-regulation of its marketing and advertising
practices and despite repeated public opinion poll
findings that parents want their children exposed to
less. The study found that the number of alcohol ads on
cable networks during this period grew 138 percent,
while alcohol spending on cable TV grew 67 percent.
Underage Drinking Facts
According to
Reducing Underage Drinking: A Collective
Responsibility, a joint report by the
National
Research Council and
Institutes of Medicine,
an estimated 11 million Americans
under the age of 21 drink alcohol. Nearly half of them
drink to excess, consuming five or more drinks in a row,
one or more times in a two-week period. Alcohol is the
most frequently used drug by high school seniors, and
its use is increasing. Boys usually try alcohol for the
first time at just 11 years old, while the average age
for American girls' first drink is 13.
Physician's Guide
The
American Medical
Association as partnered with the
National Institute
on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism to offer
physicians Helping Patients Who Drink Too Much — A
Clinician's Guide, containing the latest information
on talking to patients about their alcohol use.
Laws That Save Lives
There are several areas in which states could pass
life-saving laws to prevent alcohol-related deaths and
injuries among young people. Graduated driver's license
laws, “happy hour" restrictions, keg registration and
similar policies change the context in which young
people drink. These laws have been shown to reduce
underage drinking and fatal accidents among 15- to
–20-year-olds.
Join Together,
a program of Boston University School of Public Health,
offers a state-by-state comparison on selected
alcohol-related topics.
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