April is Alcohol Awareness Month
Alcohol Awareness Month, held every April, is an opportunity to raise awareness of alcohol abuse and encourage people to make healthy, safe choices. Learn more...
Bullying and Substance Abuse
Bullying is linked to many negative outcomes including impacts on mental health, substance use, and suicide. Learn more...
Prevention Connection
Read the Spring 2010 issue today...
Legal Harms:
Are You At Risk?
Some parents believe it's okay to host underage drinking parties when adults are home...The reality is both can cause physical harm to our kids and both may have legal consequences for those under and over age 21.
Talk Early. Talk Often. Get Others Involved.
UnderageDrinking.SAMHSA.gov is a public education website developed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in support of the Surgeon General's Call to Action to communicate to parents about how they can help reduce their child's risk of becoming involved with alcohol.
The site's main focus is to provide parents with information and tools to help them have open and ongoing conversations with their preteen and teen children about the dangers of underage alcohol use. The site also includes information about "risk factors" that increase children's risk of using alcohol.
STOP underage drinking. Get the facts, tools and advice you need to start talking real.
Keep Talking Montana
Parents, we need your help. Studies now show that parental disapproval of underage drinking is the number one reason that children choose not to drink alcohol.
That's an important thing to remember because, here in Montana, underage drinking is a serious public health concern. Alcohol remains the number one drug of abuse for Montana's youth.
In fact, in 2008, results from the statewide Prevention Needs Assessment Survey of 16,911 students in grades 8, 10 and 12 revealed that 21 percent of 8th graders, 41 percent of 10th graders and 53 percent of 12th graders had used alcohol within the past 30 days. Even more frightening, more than one in ten 8th graders (11%), one in four 10th graders (25.7%) and one in three 12th graders (37%) had engaged in binge drinking. This is defined as having had five or more alcoholic drinks in a row during the past two weeks.
Binge drinking begins as early as sixth grade, and new evidence shows that underage drinking can cause permanent damage to a tee's rapidly developing brain. As a result, the need for parental involvement has never been greater.
