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The IOM report calls on federal agencies to fund effective, evidence-based education interventions which are part of comprehensive community programs.
Thanks to the leadership of New Hampshire's Department of Health and Human Services, and the hard work of many, New Hampshire was awarded a grant in 2004 from the federal government to help build and strengthen its alcohol and other drug prevention capacity and infrastructure. This Strategic Prevention Framework enhances New Hampshire's ability to move forward in its efforts to use proven effective programs and strategies to conduct prevention programming. This is good news for our youth, and communities. It means that the state is targeting its resources efficiently and effectively to provide sound science-based programs and services. Each element of this larger prevention grant must focus specifically on underage alcohol problems.
- Ensure that State agencies responsible for directing state and federal dollars for programs and services to K-12 schools, colleges and universities, and other settings use a framework for funding that is based on comprehensive research-based prevention efforts that include evidence-based screening and intervention strategies. This requires state agencies and grant funded community programs to have the courage to fund only those programs that are proven effective over time. It also requires easy access to quality, consistent data.
- Create an alcohol law enforcement specialist option through the Liquor Commission Enforcement Bureau in partnership with the Police Standards and Training Council, so as to support specially trained officers to become expert resources within the police department and the community in detecting and limiting underage drinking, and in using the tools at their disposal to reduce underage alcohol problems.
- Organize and conduct training opportunities for judges, prosecutors, county attorneys, and public defenders with particular attention to new staff, who work with law enforcement agencies to address alcohol and other drug problems and those involved in the legal system due to underage drinking problems.
- Conduct a study to understand the potential impacts of increasing alcohol taxes on alcohol on youth consumption, the health and safety of children and youth, state revenues, and local businesses.
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Community Recommendations:
- Work through the New Hampshire College and University Council and the New Hampshire Higher Education Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Committee to increase coordination of prevention efforts in higher education throughout the state. New Hampshire's colleges, universities, and community technical colleges should be supported and encouraged to mobilize the campuses to work closely with community partners to change any aspect of the environment that supports underage and risky use of alcohol. With the involvement and leadership of the senior administrators, staff, and students, each institution should develop and publicly distribute a comprehensive action plan for reducing high risk drinking among college students. The plan should include prevention, curriculum strategies, and policy change for reducing underage alcohol problems.
- Facilitate regional focus groups with superintendents, administrators, and athletic directors to assess the effects of underage drinking in their respective school districts and communities for the purpose of identifying a consensus for action and support to reduce underage alcohol problems in the K-12 setting. Identify opportunities for ensuring the consistency of school policies district to district.
- New Hampshire's K-12 schools should include the following in their curriculum and/or prevention efforts:
- Prevention programming based on research-based prevention programs that have been proven effective;
- Media literacy education and training to help students become informed consumers with regard to the marketing and advertising to which they are exposed. Building this skill set for adolescents is a key link in protecting against the messages that children and youth receive that promote or glamorize alcohol and drinking through the music they listen to, the messages they read, and the television and movies they watch.
- Training readily available to educators, school nurses and health professionals, athletic directors, school resource officers and student assistance personnel about alcohol and other drug prevention education, and resources including information regarding risk and protective factors and adolescent brain development;
- A comprehensive alcohol policy for all, including athletes, which is consistently enforced, and includes prevention, intervention and treatment programs and re-entry planning for students; and
- A strong link with local, community, or regional prevention coalitions.
- Provide education and training to pediatricians, family practice physicians, community health center practitioners, and other health service providers working with children and adolescents on accepted prevention practices, screening, and the adverse effects of alcohol on the developing adolescent brain and resources available for prevention, intervention and treatment.
- Utilize "shoulder tap" enforcement programs as an educational tool to educate adults that purchasing alcohol for youth under 21 is a crime. Shoulder tap enforcement programs should be used by law enforcement officials in locations with problem licensees and with the same strict guidelines and proper protections in place followed for compliance checks in using underage buyers or decoys.
- Ensure that school districts participate in the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) and other surveys so that data is available to help us understand the scope of underage alcohol problems, and specific action and resources that can be most effectively targeted.
Resources
TopA Brief Screening Test for Adolescent Substance Abuse
A Matter of Degree: The National Effort to Reduce High-Risk Drinking Among College Students
California Shoulder Tap Program
Community-Campus Partnerships for Health
Environmental Management: A Comprehensive Strategy for Reducing Alcohol and Other Drug Use on College Campuses
Media Matters: A National Media Education Campaign
National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP)Nevada Interscholastic Athletic Association ATOD Possession, Use, Abuse and Penalties Policy
Paying the Piper: The Effect of Industry Funding on Alcohol Prevention Priorities
Popular Prevention Programs Lack Nuance, Research
Community Guide to Preventing Excessive Alcohol Use
Regulatory Strategies for Preventing Youth Access to Alcohol