Everyone has a role to play: "Talk. They Hear You" campaign materials can help

April is Alcohol Awareness Month, a great opportunity to learn more about preventing underage drinking. The "Talk. They Hear You." campaign from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration provides many resources for community members to use in prevention activities.

• Post a video to your website or blog. 
• Link parents to resources.
• Learn what your school can do. 
• Provide local media with information.

Teens' positive views of marijuana and alcohol associated with future DUI

Check out Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson's blog post about why it's important to talk with children in early middle school about marijuana and alcohol.

Here's an excerpt:

New acronym for me this week: RWDD. It’s “Riding With a Drinking Driver.” Not a drunk one, but someone who has been drinking . . . A study out yesterday in Pediatrics is worth a quick mention to any parent or any adult or any family doc or any pediatrician or any nurse practitioner or any medical assistant or any coach or any teacher that has contact/supervision/leadership/influence with a teen. The study, conducted on middle school students in the Los Angeles area, found that positive beliefs about marijuana at age 12 were predictors of later getting a DUI or RWDD when a new teen driver 4 years later. Translation: middle school is a wild time of transition and the time we should check in about marijuana’s lack of safety and risks associated with alcohol. Researchers conclude that 6th grade is when we should be talking with our tweens, that “positive beliefs and ability to resist marijuana in early adolescence, not actual alcohol and marijuana use, had the strongest association with DUI  and RWDD ∼4 years later.”

Dr. Swanson talked about how positive views on marijuana and alcohol are associated with future DUI on King5:

 

Learn about impact of alcohol retail outlets on teen health

Learn more about community strategies for preventing youth drug use through a free webinar:

Restricting Alcohol Outlet Density: From Theory to Practice

July 23, 2015

11:00 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.

Learn from policy experts about the impact of high concentrations of alcohol retail establishments on community health, evidence-based practices to control the density of these establishments, and measures that communities can take to reduce negative impacts of existing outlets. Hear about grassroots community work in establishing and enforcing restrictions. 

Register here. 

Hosted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

MADD offers Power of Parents facilitator training June 6

From MADD Washington:

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) provides a Power of Parents program which includes tips and tools for parents to be able to have lifesaving conversations with their teens before prom, graduation and summer celebrations. With this program, thousands of Washington’s teens will have the real facts around underage drinking and understand what the expectations are around alcohol during the most dangerous time of year for them and their peers. MADD offers free 30 minute Power of Parents workshops, explaining the research, tips and tools around underage drinking prevention and giving parents the opportunity to meet and support one another. These workshops further the impact on the community and garner support for the prevention of underage drinking.

MADD is excited to be offering an upcoming training for individuals to become certified in facilitating our Power of Parents workshop. The training will be held on Friday, June 6^,th from 9 AM -3 PM at the Seattle Public Library downtown (1000 4th Ave, Seattle, WA 98104), and lunch will be provided. The library has parking available and the early bird price is $14 for the day if participants arrive before 9:30 AM. Once trained and certified, faciliators will have access to MADD's evidence based prevention materials for facilitating presentations to parents.

Space is limited.  RSVP by contacting MADD's Program Coordinator.

Partnerships strengthen activities to prevent underage drinking in NE Seattle

A recent KOMO story highlights how Nathan Hale High School, Raiders Against Destructive Decisions, and Mothers Against Drunk Driving collaborated to educate parents about how to prevent underage drinking.

Learn about laws that hold parents responsible for underage drinking in their homes

Free webinar:

Social Host Policies From Theory to Practice

May 19, 2014

11:00 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.

Hosted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)

Learn from the experience of national, state, and community-based underage drinking prevention experts about how to develop, promote passage of, and encourage public compliance with effective social host legislation.  The effectiveness of state laws andlocal ordinances will be discussed, as well as challenges to their passage and enforcement.  A question-and-answer session will be included.

For more information about this webinar or the speakers and to register for the webinar, visit:

https://www.stopalcoholabuse.gov/townhallmeetings/whatsnew/webinar_socialhosting.aspx

SAMHSA is conducting this webinar as part of National Prevention Week, which is from May 18 to 24, 2014. 

The Washington State Liquor Control Board's website includes information about social hosting.  Here are videos about social host laws adopted in Maryland and South Carolina:

Learn how to use social networking to develop underage drinking prevention strategies

Free webinar:

The Digital Age: Leveraging Data Sources to Address Underage Drinking

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Noon to 1:00 p.m.

In a time when people of all ages are living in the electronic age, this presentation will share how to use social networking platforms to both gather data and use that data and information to develop strategies that can reduce youth access to alcohol. The webinar will identify different sources of relevant data that can assist participants in identifying trends and developing effective community-level prevention strategies.  It will also look at examples of what different states and organizations are doing to educate the public with regard to the latest data and trends.

More information and to register: http://www.udetc.org/audioconfregistration.asp

National Prevention Week 2014 is May 18-24

What is National Prevention Week?

National Prevention Week is an annual health observance dedicated to increasing public awareness of, and action around, substance abuse and mental health issues. The observance brings together individuals, organizations, coalitions, states, and communities through local events to promote substance abuse prevention and mental health. National Prevention Week 2014 will take place this year from May 18-24, 2014.

How can I get involved?

Commitment to National Prevention Week 2014 and its theme, Our Lives. Our Health. Our Future., starts with you and your organization. Here is how to get started:   

• Visit www.samhsa.gov/prevention-week to learn more about National Prevention Week 2014 and how you can get involved. 
• Get in the spirit: watch the National Prevention Week 2014 promotional video. Share the video link and spread the word!
• Browse the Participant Toolkit to start gathering ideas for your event.

Once you are familiar with National Prevention Week and tools you can use, you can:

INFORM.  Each day of National Prevention Week is dedicated to a specific health theme.

• Sunday, May 18: Prevention and Cessation of Tobacco Use
• Monday, May 19: Prevention of Underage Drinking
• Tuesday, May 20: Prevention of Prescription Drug Abuse and Marijuana Use
• Wednesday, May 21: Prevention of Alcohol Abuse
• Thursday, May 22: Prevention of Suicide
• Friday, May 23: Promotion of Mental Health

Provide information about these topics to friends, family, colleagues, clients, and others throughout the community. 

CONNECT.  Connect with your colleagues to collaborate on raising awareness about Prevention Week themes.   

PLEDGE.  Join others and take the Prevention Pledge on SAMHSA’s Facebook page. Let colleagues, friends, and family know about the Pledge and encourage them to take it, too. This year, the Prevention Pledge features a new, digital “brick wall” component. By taking the Pledge, individuals of all ages can add their pledge brick to the growing brick wall. They also have the option of sharing their prevention story or a personal message.

April is Alcohol Awareness Month, another opportunity for community members to talk about underage drinking

Each April, the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc. (NCADD) sponsors NCADD Alcohol Awareness Month to increase public awareness and understanding, reduce stigma and encourage local communities to focus on alcoholism and alcohol-related issues.

This April, NCADD highlights the important public health issue of underage drinking, a problem with devastating individual, family and community consequences.

Annually, over 6,500 people under the age of 21 die from alcohol-related accidents and thousands more are injured.  Additionally:

~ Alcohol is the number one drug of choice for America's young people, and is more likely to kill young people than all illegal drugs combined.

~ Each day, 7,000 kids in the United States under the age of 16 take their first drink.

~ Those who begin drinking before age 15 are four times more likely to develop alcoholism than those who begin at age 21.

~ Underage alcohol use costs the nation an estimated $62 billion annually.

Reducing underage drinking is critical to securing a healthy future for America's youth and requires a cooperative effort from parents, schools, community organizations, business leaders, government agencies, the entertainment industry, alcohol manufacturers/retailers and young people.

An integral part of Alcohol Awareness Month is Alcohol-Free Weekend (April 4-6, 2014), which is designed to raise public awareness about the use of alcohol and how it may be affecting individuals, families, and the community. During this seventy-two-hour period, Americans young and old are invited to participate in three alcohol-free days.  This is a good opportunity for parents to talk with their children about alcohol and to teach refusal skills.

What parents can do to prevent drunk driving now and in the future

A story appearing on KOMO News today starts by saying:

One year ago Tuesday marks a tragic anniversary for a Seattle family.

It's the day their lives changed forever at the hands of a drunk driver. The Seattle father who lost part of his family and now wants to do everything to protect yours.

"I hope our story will remind people how bad it can be, help people change their minds," said Dan Schulte.

If Mark Mullan had changed his mind, and chosen not to drive drunk one year ago, Schulte's parents would be alive.

This tragedy happened in our community and it could have been prevented.  Preventing underage drinking is one way to prevent not only teenagers from driving under the influence but can prevent adult alcohol abuse which sometimes leads to drunk driving.  

Parents play an important role in preventing teen drug, including alcohol, use.  Teenagers look to their parents for guidance, even when parents no longer think they do.  Learn more from Dr. Leslie Walker, Chief of Adolescent Medicine at Seattle Children's Hospital:

Nathan Hale parent education night: Talking to kids about drugs

Raiders Against Destructive Decisions present: 

A town hall meeting for parents: 
A discussion on why, when and how to talk to your kids about drugs and alcohol!

Monday, March 24, 2014

7:00-8:30pm

Nathan Hale High School Commons (lunch room)

                            

Agenda

• 7:00-7:30 - Learn about what is happening in NE Seattle and Nathan Hale High School around drug and alcohol prevention
• 7:30-8:00 – Student- led WHY, WHEN and HOW to have the conversation with your teen.  
• 8:00-8:30 – MADD (Mothers against Drunk Drivers) speaker presents materials and tips on talking to your teen

Enjoy food, beverages, and prizes!  Leave with strategies and publications from students and MADD .

Discussion will be run by high school students for parents/guardians or anyone with a teenager in their life.  

Prevent teen drug use, prevent DUIs

Next week is Safe Roads Awareness Week in NE Seattle.  It will kick off with a walk and rally in memory of Dennis and Judy Schulte who were killed by a drunk driver near Eckstein Middle School last year.

Driving under the influence (DUI) is not only an adult problem.  As a Prevention WINS video shows, NE Seattle high school students sometimes drive under the influence resulting in life-threatening consequences.

In fact, more than 20% of NE Seattle high school seniors report riding in a car with a driver who has been drinking, according to the 2012 Healthy Youth Survey.  This is an increase from 2010.

But it's not all about teenagers riding in a car with a peer who has been drinking.  In NE Seattle, 13% of 8th grade students (Eckstein Middle School) and more than 15% of 10th grade students report riding in a car with a driver who has been drinking.  Though some of them may be riding with older peers, it is more likely that the driver who has been drinking is a parent.

It is important for parents to model safe behaviors.  Learn more from Dr. Leslie Walker, Chief of Adolescent Medicine at Seattle Children's Hospital.



Parents can learn more through three community events taking place over the next week.

Roosevelt High School Parent Education Night
Topic: Preventing teen drug use
Tonight!  March 19
7-8:30 p.m.
Roosevelt High School library

Nathan Hale High School Town Hall Meeting
Topic: Why, when, and how to talk to your kids about drugs and alcohol
Monday, March 24
7-8:30 p.m.
Nathan Hale High School Commons (lunch room)

Mothers Against Drunk Driving
Power of Parents
Tuesday, March 25
Immediately following the memorial walk and rally
Eckstein Middle School

How to address an increase in students attending school under the influence of drugs?

On Wednesday, March 19, 7-8:30 p.m., Dr. Leslie Walker, Chief of Adolescent Medicine at Seattle Children’s Hospital, will provide parents with information about how marijuana, alcohol, and other drugs affect teen health and development and what parents can do support healthy teen decision-making.  This parent education forum will be held at Roosevelt High School, 1410 NE 66^th Street. 

The event is part of a multi-pronged approach to address an increase in Roosevelt High School student use of substances, particularly marijuana, during school hours.  According to a letter that was sent to families of RHS freshmen, this year the school is “experiencing an increase in students being under the influence and/or in possession of marijuana/alcohol at school or school related activities.  In fact, our discipline incidents with respect to marijuana/alcohol use are double what they were this time last year.” 

Roosevelt High School is not unique.  Other Seattle high schools are reporting an increase in students attending school under the influence and an increase in the number of vaporizers confiscated.  (Vaporizers may be used to ingest THC or nicotine – both prohibited on school grounds.)  As noted in an earlier post, Seattle students attend school under the influence of drugs at rates higher than the King County and State averages.

A teaching moment for parents

Justin Bieber's DUI arrest was the topic of discussion over at the Seattle Mama Doc blog yesterday.

Justin Bieber was arrested early this morning in Florida for a DUI. The smirk on his face is a bit misplaced. While it’s no longer a surprise when we hear about a celebrity’s challenge with drugs and alcohol, Bieber serves up a perfect moment for education. I mean this kid (he’s 19 years old) really could have killed himself last night. Thank goodness he’s only in jail. You got Bieber Fever in your house? Now’s the moment to step in. The number one thing parents must remember is that data and research consistently show that a parent’s opinion and guidance on avoiding alcohol remains the most powerful influence over a teen’s decision to drink alcohol underage.

Check out this powerful infographic on girls and alcohol. One in five high school girls binge-drink. 1 in 5!

Alcohol-related injuries kill over 5,000 teens every year. Bieber’s decision-making presents a huge opportunity to protect our own children. I’m reposting this data because we just can’t forget how powerful we are, as parents, when protecting our children as they grow. Our job today is simply to remember our super power–that we have influence. Don’t brush this story off as “Bieber’s a mess and an outlier.” Lamborghini or not, every teen is at risk for making this kind of choice.

Read the entire post here.  

Alcohol, holiday celebrations & teens

Over at the Seattle Mama Doc blog, Dr. Swanson writes about alcohol and the holidays.  She starts with:

Our children are growing up with mixed messages about alcohol and drugs, at least that’s how it feels to me here in Washington. It seems to me we’re grappling with using pot and what to do with alcohol as a community. As our state legalized marijuana use this past year, we sent a big flare into the sky. It’s possible we really do one thing and then say another in front of our children and teens, particularly at times of celebration. No question they are watching. Can you seriously imagine a pro football game without beer ads or a holiday party without booze? I can’t. The great luck is that we have profound influence over our children (tah dah!); we have a huge opportunity to help them survive.

Click here to read the entire post.

Underage drinking & driving awareness event held at Ballard High School

December is National Impaired Driving Prevention Month and Ballard High School hosted an assembly about the problem.  The My Ballard blog reported about it:

Today was a memorable day for the over 500 students who filled Ballard High School auditorium to hear UW Huskies’ tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins and group of community members speak about the dangers of driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol. The assembly was a moving event that allowed all audience members to grasp the dire consequences that can result of making poor decisions before getting behind the wheel.

The assembly started with the emotional and intimate perspective of local mom Kelly Jones who tragically lost her son Kellen Jones in an alcohol related car accident outside Ballard Taco Time restaurant on April 4, 2010. Jones wanted students to hear the important message “from the heart of a mom” and impacted the attentive audience with images of the accident scene and the response of family and friends to the tragic deaths. “You have the obligation to yourself and to your family and friends to drive and ride responsibly,” said Jones to the students. Since the tragedy, Jones founded the Drive. Ride. Responsibly. campaign to spread awareness of the importance of both driving and riding responsibly.

Liberty Mutual has a great info-graphic about teenage drinking and driving on New Years Eve.  Here's the top part of it:

Prevent underage drinking, prevent driving under the influence

Last week, the Ravenna Blog reported about the sentencing of the drunk driver who killed two people and seriously injured two others in our community last spring.

This deadly incident could have been prevented, and not just by enforcing the ignition interlock law and other laws targeting adults.  It may have been prevented by preventing underage drinking.

Ninety percent of people who are addicted to alcohol or other drugs started using these substances as teens.  The earlier teenagers start using alcohol, the higher the likelihood they will be addicted as adults.  It is unknown if Mark Mullen, the man who was convicted for this tragedy, started using as a teen, but he had a long history of substance abuse, according to media reports.

Prosecutor on Mullan's alcoholism: "Losing his job wasn't enough. Losing his wife wasn't enough. Being arrested twice wasn't enough."
— Brandi Kruse (@BrandiKruse) November 15, 2013

Not all people who drive drunk are addicted to alcohol.  But over-consumption and addiction do increase health and safety risks.  By preventing youth alcohol use, a great deal of addiction and over-consumption, along with negative safety consequences such as DUIs, may be avoided.

And it's not just adults.  As a video the Prevention WINS coalition produced last year illustrates, teenagers in our community drive under the influence, too.  About one quarter of NE Seattle high school seniors report recently riding in a car with a driver who has been drinking.

Adolescent medicine nurse provides advice about binge drinking and sexual assault

Over at the Teenology 101 blog, Jen Brown, RN, writes about binge drinking:

Recently there was some media buzz about women and alcohol, and how our society should approach the topic.

It all started when Emily Yoffe, a writer for Slate, wrote this column on college women, drinking, and sexual assault. If you don’t feel like reading the whole article, a headline pops up on the website which sums it up: “The Best Rape Prevention: Tell College Women to Stop Getting So Wasted”. (To be fair, the article is more nuanced than that, and I’m not convinced Ms. Yoffe wrote that tagline.)

The response to the article was swift. Some responded with rebuttals while others stronglyagreed. The New York Times ran a “Room for Debate” piece that had a number of interesting viewpoints. Basically, opinions seem to fall down two lines: one party thinks women imbibing alcohol become vulnerable to sexual assault, and they should be told not to drink in order to protect themselves. The other sees this as a victim-blaming piece of advice that support a status quo in which rape culture runs rampant, and young women are expected to prevent their own rape.

So, even though I’m late to the game, I thought I’d give my take on this (although I’ve covered a lot of it in my Teens and Sexual Assault series).

I have no problem with advising women not to binge drink. I have no problem with advising men not to binge drink, either. Binge drinking is unhealthy, dangerous, and unless you’re over 21, illegal. And yet as we all know, teens and young adults both above and below 21 are binge drinking. We can educate young people, try to lower the risks, support policies that discourage alcohol abuse, and hope that the problem will diminish. But despite our best efforts, some teens and young adults will continue to use alcohol, and most in the U.S. will attend a few drunken parties.

So what is wrong with advising young women to protect themselves from becoming vulnerable? Nothing, in my opinion, as long as it’s a small piece of a much larger picture we are presenting.

Read more by clicking here.

Alcohol ads reaching too many young people

From HealthDay:

Too many young Americans are watching television ads for beer, wine and other alcoholic drinks, a new study contends.

The number and frequency of such ads exceeds the industry's own voluntary standard, said researchers from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.

Under that standard, which was adopted in 2003, alcohol companies agreed not to place any ads on TV programs when more than 30 percent of the audience was likely to be younger than 21.

If ads were curtailed to meet that standard, the "payoff in terms of reduced risk of underage drinking and harms related to it could be quite substantial," study author David Jernigan, director of the school's Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth, said in a Hopkins news release.

Add marijuana to the advertising mix
In Washington, marijuana advertising will soon be added to the mix.  Advertising for marijuana dispensaries already exists.  (When riding the bus last week, my teenager saw ads in the local paper being read by the person sitting next to her.)  While the new marijuana market rules recently adopted by the Liquor Control Board state that ads must not target children, they will none-the-less be exposed to ads.  Plus, there is little, if any, monitoring of electronic marketing, especially social media.

What can parents do?
When parents and their children see ads for alcohol, marijuana, or tobacco, talk about them.  SAMHSA provides some tips for talking to teens about what they see in the media.  Parents and their teenage children can discuss:

• What's the purpose of the ad?  Who created it and why?
• What words, images, or sounds are used to create the message?
• How does the message make you feel?
• What are the message makers trying to accomplish -- sell a product, promote a belief, etc.

Resources for parents for preventing teen drug use

Last night, a group of NE Seattle parents whose children attend Eckstein Middle School and Roosevelt High School got together to socialize, connect, and share information.  The group has been getting together for several years -- ever since a few of them took a Guiding Good Choices class at Eckstein.  Guiding Good Choices, and other evidence-based substance abuse prevention programs for parents, encourages parents to stay connected with one another and to support each other in keeping their children away from drugs.

The Prevention WINS coalition offers a variety of drug prevention "tools" for parents.  Videos featuring Dr. Leslie Walker are among them.  Here is one about networking with other parents.

Online Resources

·         PreventionWorksInSeattle.org includes a Parenting Tips & Tools page

 ·         Facebook: Facebook.com/Prevention.WINS helps parents stay connected

Classes & Guest Speakers

·         Parenting programs at Eckstein Middle School including Guiding Good Choices and the Strengthening Families Program.  

·         Start Talking Now –presentations for parents of 5^th grade students in NE Seattle.  Prevention needs to start early and is especially important during transitions, such as the transition into middle school. 

·         Sex, Drugs & Facebook – information for parents of middle school, high school, and college students about social media and drugs and how to promote healthy Internet use.

Print Resources: A Parent’s Guide to Preventing Underage Marijuana Use  (To be posted to PreventionWorksInSeattle.org by 11/15/13.) 

For more information about any of these resources, please contact the Prevention WINS coordinator.