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Social Norms
While several resources in the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's (SAMHSA) Underage Drinking Prevention and Education Initiative's (UADPEI) can be found online at stopalcoholabuse.gov, their new toolkit, which can be accessed via Dropbox, provides essential behind-the-scenes resources and tools that will help further educate affiliates, campus communities and external constituents with the latest data on underage drinking prevention.
The partner toolkit is organized into separate folders to cover all the necessary topics. The background materials folder provides the relevant resources that set the stage for the who, what, why and how of the SAMHSA UADPEI initiative. These can be used as reference points to learn about the work, products, and tools available to you and your partners from SAMHSA. You will also have access to the most recent Report to Congress on the Prevention and Reduction of Underage Drinking and Key Substance Use and Mental Health Indicators in the United States as well as a quick overview of UADPEI to help create relevant resources for your community. All materials are provided as PDFs. New tools and resources will be added as they become available, so bookmark the Dropbox link and check back often!
Colorado’s prevention leaders developed this plan for state agencies that fund prevention programming. It proposes two bold goals: To reduce substance abuse and misuse among youth and their families; and to address the upstream risk factors that predict substance abuse and other behavioral health problems, like suicide and depression, and the protective factors that mitigate these bad outcomes, like youth resilience and social skills.
In other words, it aims to prevent substance abuse by promoting overall mental health. This plan represents Colorado’s commitment to getting ahead of substance use and abuse before it starts — and, in turn, to improving the lives of thousands of Colorado’s adults, youth and families. Putting Prevention Science to Work: Colorado's Statewide Strategic Plan for Primary Prevention of Substance Abuse, 2019-2024( (PDF – 2.1 KB).
Reports and Detailed Tables from the 2018 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH)
NSDUH provides estimates of the use of illegal substances, prescription drugs, alcohol, and tobacco, as well as mental disorders, treatment, and co-occurring substance use and mental disorders in the United States. NSDUH data also help to identify the extent of substance use and mental illness among different sub-groups; estimate trends over time; and determine the need for treatment services. Today, SAMHSA released the latest data findings from the 2018 NSDUH. These reports and detailed tables present estimates from the 2018 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH).
The DEA and Discovery Education have joined forces to combat a growing epidemic of prescription opioid misuse and heroin use nationwide. Operation Prevention's mission is to educate students about the true impacts of opioids and kick-start lifesaving conversations in the home and classroom. Since its launch, Operation Prevention has reached over 4M students nationwide. No local sponsorship or corporate funding is necessary for you to get started today.
Other Substance Abuse Materials
Drugs, Substance Abuse, and Public Schools: A Legal Guide for School Leaders Amidst Evolving Social Norms.
Alcohol Awareness Month is a public health program organized by Facing Addiction with NCADD designed to increase outreach and education regarding the dangers of alcoholism and issues related to alcohol. As Alcohol Awareness Month continues, one focus on college campuses is prevention. One prevention mechanism that has shown great efficacy is the social norms approach. Social norms are the informal rules that govern behavior in groups and societies and include things like shaking hands when meeting someone, covering a sneeze, or raising your hand to get attention in a group. According to the National Social Norms Center, the social norms approach to behavior change "combines lessons learned from a variety of fields including social marketing, sociology, behavioral psychology and evaluation research." The social norms approach considers that college students tend to overestimate the amount of alcohol use and abuse by their peers, and this is a conception that begins at a young age. According to the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation (PDF), "Only 2% of 6th-12th graders think that seniors don't drink. In reality, 25% of 12th graders report not drinking alcohol, a healthier proportion than their younger classmates perceive."
The social norms approach:
The last bullet above is important from an implementation perspective. The Social Norms Approaches Using Descriptive Drinking Norms Education: A Review of the Research on Personalized Normative Feedback recommends targeting students who are at higher risk for heavier alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems. Utilizing peers in their networks, like student athletes, those with similar academic interests, or those who participate in Greek life or other social networks, to share the social norms message is an effective mechanism for prevention. For information on how to start a social norms campaign, visit the For Practitioners section of the National Social Norms Center website.
Preparing for Opiod-Related Emergencies for K-12 Schools and Insitutions of Higher Education.
Opioid overdose deaths among children and teenagers have tripled since 1999, according to a recent U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention research article, indicating that opioid abuse and misuse continue to be a problem for schools and institutions of higher education (IHEs). To help the educational community address such an emergency, the REMS TA Center has released a fact sheet on Preparing for Opioid-Related Emergencies for K-12 Schools and Institutions of Higher Education.
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