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In Oakland County 53.8% of our senior high school students in 2005 reported that they had used alcohol in the past month, compared to 47.5% of the grade 12 national sample. Our member ocalitions have adopted three strategies to reduce underage drinking.
Reduce underage access to alcohol.
Most youth have access to alcohol in homes or parties. ACHC coalitions will inform the citicizens in their communities about the laws prohibiting provision of alcohol to minors, even in their own homes. Parents Who Host Lose the Most and Sticker Shock are the programs that communicate the legal consequences of providing alcohol to minors.
Increase parent knowledge in prevention of underage drinking.
The ACHC Parent Guide to Teen Parties is distributed to help parents increase their effectiveness in preventing underage drinking. We thank Comcast for providing the funding to print these guides for our parents.
We will educate parents about the increased risk during times of transition, e.g. entering middle school or high school. Most youth who drink alcohol begin their use in 7th, 8th and 9th grades.
Increase perception of harm by youth and adults.
High levels of drinking among adolescents is particularly troubling given recent evidence that, in contrast to long-held assumptions, a tremendous amount of structural and functional brain development takes place during the teenage years. Further, preliminary data suggest that teens may be more vulnerable than adults to impairments following repeated alcohol use.
- Adolescent drinkers scored worse than non-users on vocabulary, general information, memory, memory retrieval and at least three other tests.
- Verbal and nonverbal information recall was most heavily affected, with a 10 percent performance decrease in alcohol users.
- Significant neuropsychological deficits exist in early to middle adolescents (ages 15 and 16) with histories of extensive alcohol use.
- Adolescent drinkers perform worse in school, are more likely to fall behind and have an increased risk of social problems, depression, suicidal thoughts and violence.
- Alcohol affects the sleep cycle, resulting in impaired learning and memory as well as disrupted release of hormones necessary for growth and maturation.
- Alcohol use increases risk of stroke among young drinkers.
ACHC invites health professionals to communicate the harm caused by underage drinking to their paients and to the community.
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