Give us your input on webinars!

Crossroads for Women is constantly expanding its reach. In addition to its 4 physical locations in Maine, the agency also provides valuable information regarding women, addiction and mental health via this blog, website and Facebook page, attracting people from all around the globe.

We are currently assessing the need for providing webinars – i.e., workshops or discussions delivered over the internet – on a number of topics related to what we do everyday. These webinars could be for therapists, case managers, nonprofit managers, people in recovery, family members and friends affected by addiction, business owners, among others. As a reader of our blog, Women & Substance Abuse, would you please take a few minutes to complete a quick, 10 question survey to help us assess interest in such webinars?

Complete the 10 Question Survey on Webinars

Thanks, in advance, for your input!

Are You a Problem Parent?

The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University released the results of their National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse XIII: Teens and Parents. It’s the 13th year they’ve done the back to school survey. This year, they’ve identified “problem parents” as increasing the risk that teens will smoke, drink or use drugs. They define problem parents as “those who fail to monitor their children’s school night activities, safeguard their prescription drugs, address the problem of drugs in their children’s schools, and set good examples.”

Here are some highlights of their findings:

• 50% of teens (12 – 17 years old) who come home after 10:00pm on a school night say that drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana or other drug use occurs
• 29% of teens who come home between 8:00pm and10:00pm on a school night say that drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana or other drug use occurs.
• Only 14% of parents say their teens usually leave the house to hang out with friends on school nights
• More teens said prescription drugs were easier to buy than beer (19% vs. 15%), the first time in the CASA survey’s history
• When teens who know prescription drug abusers were asked where those kids get their drugs:
  • 31% said from friends or classmates
  • 34% said from home, parents or the medicine cabinet
  • 16% said other
  • Only 9% said from a drug deale
• Drugs topped the list for the 13th year of the survey as the biggest concern teens face
• 28% of teens cite drugs as the biggest problem they face, compared to only 17% of parents who see drugs as the top teen concern
• Parents overwhelmingly say it is harder today to keep kids safe (84%) and to raise a teen “of good moral character” (72%)

According to Joseph A. Califano, Jr., CASA’s chairman and president, “Preventing substance abuse among teens is primarily a Mom and Pop operation. It is inexcusable that so many parents fail to appropriately monitor their children, fail to keep dangerous prescription drugs out of the reach of their children and tolerate drug infected schools. The parents who smoke marijuana with children should be considered child abusers. By identifying the characteristics of problem parents we seek to identify actions that parents can take—and avoid—in order to become part of the solution and raise healthy, drug-free children.”

Read more about the CASA survey

technorati tags: CASA survey, teens, problem parents, drinking, drugs, prescription drugs, substance abuse

What Do Family Members Know About Addiction And Its Impact?

HBO’s Addiction website has tons of information on the topics of addiction, treatment and aftercare for adolescents and adults. There is also information and resources for family members and friends to help them understand addiction.

In May of 2006, HBO teamed up with USA Today and The Gallup Poll to survey American adults with an immediate family member who has had an alcohol or drug addiction on addiction in general and the impact of addiction on their own lives. Here are a few of the findings:

• Three-quarters of U.S. adults who have a family member suffering from the disease of drug or alcohol addiction think addiction is a disease.
• Only a third of U.S. adults who have a family member suffering from the disease of drug or alcohol addiction think that there are medications available to treat alcoholism.
• Emotional and Devastating/Horrible are the words that most often asked to describe the effects of a family member’s addition.
• Almost half of U.S. adults who have a family member suffering from the disease of drug or alcohol addiction say they have felt a sense of shame about that family member’s addiction.
• 7 out of 10 U.S. adults who have a family member suffering from the disease of drug or alcohol addiction say that a family member’s addiction has had a major or minor effect on their emotional or mental health.
• Almost 1 out 10 of those who say a family member’s addiction has had a major negative impact on their financial situation say they have had to take out a loan or run up credit card bills as a direct result of this addiction.
• One third of U.S. adults who have a family member suffering from the disease of drug or alcohol addiction say the addiction has caused estrangement among family members.
• Almost half of U.S. adults who have a family member suffering from the disease of drug or alcohol addiction say their family member has never sought treatment. Of those whose family member has sought treatment, three out of ten only sought treatment after intervention.
• Family support/ pressure was most often cited as the primary reason the family member was able to overcome addiction.
• Three quarters of the respondents say their family member is/was addicted to alcohol. The remaining quarter are/were addicted to a variety of drugs.
• Over half of the respondents say their addicted family member was never evaluated for psychological illness.
• 7 out of 10 of the respondents whose addicted family member does have insurance think their insurance will provide adequate treatment of drug or alcohol addiction.

View the complete results of the survey

If you are affected by addiction, you are not alone. Crossroads for Women will begin its next 4-week educational series, “The Effects of Addiction on Friends & Family,” starting on Tuesday, September 9th at Crossroads for Women’s outpatient office on 66 Pearl Street, Suite 202 in Portland, Maine. The series helps people learn about addiction, the effects it has on their lives and how to be supportive of an addicted loved one while also taking care of themselves. For more information or to register, call 207.773.9931, email or visit Crossroads for Women’s website.

technorati tags: HBO, addiction, family, survey, Crossroads for Women

Survey shows underage drinkers get alcohol from adults, younger girls drinking more than boys

A nationwide survey, being released today by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA), shows that more than half of the teens surveyed admitted to underage drinking and 40% of those teens got free alcohol from an adult. Among the youngest teens, girls were found to drink slightly more than boys, consistent with other findings of girls catching up to boys when it comes to underage drinking. (Read “Gender Equality in Teenagers Not Always Good for Girls”)

The survey asked detailed questions about the behavior and social situations involved in underage drinking and is based on combined data from the 2002 – 2006 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) involving responses from 158,000 people ages 12 – 20 throughout the United States.

Notable findings included:

• More than half (53.9%) of all people aged 12 – 20 engaged in underage drinking in their lifetime, ranging from 11.0% of 12 year olds to 85.5% of 20 year olds.

• An average of 3.5 million people aged 12 – 20 each year (9.4%) meet the diagnostic criteria for having an alcohol use disorder (dependence or abuse).

• About 1 in 5 people in this age group (7.2 million people) have engaged in binge drinking – consuming 5 or more drinks on at least one occasion in the past month.

• Rates of current and binge alcohol use among 12 – 20 year olds were higher in the Northeast and Midwest than in the South or West.

• Over half (53.4%) of underage current alcohol users were at someone else’s home when they had their last drink, and 30.3% were in their own home; 9.4% were at a restaurant, bar or club.

• Among youths aged 12 – 14 the rate of current drinking was higher for females (7.7%) than males (6.3%), about equal for females and males among those aged 15 – 17 (27.6% and 27.3%, respectively), and lower for females than males among those aged 18 to 20 (47.9% vs. 54.4%)

• The vast majority of current underage drinkers (80.9%) reported being with two or more people the last time they drank. Those who were with two or more people consumed an average of 4.9 drinks on that occasion, compared with 3.1 drinks for those who were with one other person and 2.9 drinks for those who were alone.

• Rates of binge drinking are significantly higher among young people living with a parent who engaged in binge drinking within the past year.

“In far too many instances parents directly enable their children’s underage drinking — in essence encouraging them to risk their health and well-being,” said acting Surgeon General Steven K. Galson. “Proper parental guidance alone may not be the complete solution to this devastating public health problem — but it is a critical part.”

The findings from this study are being incorporated into the Underage Drinking Prevention campaign, an ongoing public outreach effort by the Office of the Surgeon General, SAMHSA and the Ad Council encouraging parents to speak with their children early and often about the negative effects of underage drinking. Find out more about this campaign at www.stopalcoholabuse.gov.

Read More

From SAMHSA: New Nationwide Report Estimates that 40 Percent of Underage Drinkers Received Free Alcohol from Adults Over 21
From CNN.com: Survey: Underage drinkers get alcohol free from adults
From this blog: New Study Shows Parents Are Giving Kids Their First Alcoholic Drinks

Technorati Tags: underage drinking, teens, alcohol, parents, adults, SAMSHA, survey