Prevention & Early Intervention Programs
Substance Abuse Prevention Program
Prevention & Early Intervention Programs
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Across the board (all ages) Alaska has one of
the highest per capita alcohol consumption rates in the nation
and the prevalence of alcohol dependence and alcohol abuse, at 14%,
is twice the national average of 7% (Gallup Corp. Telephone survey
for DHSS, ADA). This is critical information in our efforts to reduce
youth substance abuse because we know that alcoholism runs in families,
and children of alcoholics are four times more likely than other children
to become alcoholics (American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry).
The use of alcohol and other drugs among our states high-school
aged students, while high, is very similar to the national
statistics for youth substance abuse. Statistics collected through
the 2003 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) provide an improved, although
still grim, picture regarding the current pattern of alcohol use/abuse
by Alaskan youth:
- 75.1% of high school students have used alcohol at least once,
down from the 1995 YRBS of 80.1%
- 38.7% had at least one drink of alcohol in the last 30 days, down
from 47.5% in 1995
- 26.5% had a binge drinking episode, down from 31.3% drinking 5 or more drinks within a couple of hours and in the last 30 days.
Research shows that those youth who begin drinking alcohol
by the age of 13 have a higher likelihood of becoming addicted to alcohol and lifelong difficulty with substance
abuse. Again we see an improvement in the current pattern of alcohol
use in the 2003 YRBS, with a decrease from 36.7% to 23.2% of youth
under the age of 13 having used alcohol at least once.
In addition, a recent health survey shows that smoking among Alaska’s
high school students has fallen almost 50% in the past eight years.
The 2003 YRBS showed high school teens who reported smoking once in
the past month fell from 37% to 19% since the last survey in 1995.
Impacts of Youth Substance Use and Abuse
Substance use and abuse has a profound impact on Alaska’s youth. It contributes to injuries, school drop out rates, teen pregnancy, interpersonal violence, suicide attempts, depression, youth crime and many other social problems. The good news is that with the release of the full results from the 2003 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, we are beginning to see decreases in most of the youth behavior problems due primarily to the substance use and abuse rates declining.
What Works
In almost thirty years of research for the best methods to offer prevention and early intervention services to youth and families, a number of key issues have been identified for Alaska:
- Environmental and educational strategies help communities take
an active role in addressing local issues of substance abuse.
- Culturally appropriate services promote greater success in our
Alaska Native communities by implementing programs that incorporate
traditional cultural values.
- Identification of a community’s risk and protective factors
has lead to the use of the resiliency model that builds upon positive
life skills and experiences, helping youth succeed despite growing
up in a high-risk family or environment.
- More aggressive underage purchasing enforcement laws for both
alcohol and tobacco reduce teen usage and adult purchasing for youth.
- Greater emphasis on local option laws assist in giving communities more control of access to alcohol and drugs.
Community-Based Grant Programs
Currently the State DHSS, through the Divisions of Behavioral Health, Juvenile Justice and the Office of Children’s Services, issue grants to a diverse array of community-based organizations with the goal of developing creative programs focused on prevention of youth substance abuse, strengthening individual, family, school and community approaches to prevention, and increasing community readiness to decrease substance abuse among youth. State agencies work in partnership to fund communities in a collaborative manner so that services are implemented without duplication or competition
The state of Alaska is committed to continuing aggressive, targeted and integrated services to reduce and prevent substance use and abuse across the state, to empower communities as active partners and to begin changing the knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of our state’s young people in terms of health, wellness and the dangers of substance use and abuse.