New & Noteworthy

 

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                        Valley-Wide Prevention Planning Summit

 

Did You Know?  Youth are less likely to drink alcohol or use other drugs if they see a moderate to great risk in doing so and if they think their parents disapprove of them using alcohol or other drugs.  Below is some data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey taken by 6th, 8th, 10th and 12th graders in Roanoke City, Salem City, Botetourt County and Craig County. 

 

  • 71% of middle school age youth (MS) and 66% of high school age youth (HS) indicated that there is moderate to great risk in drinking one or two drinks nearly every day. 
  • 86.4% of MS and 73.2% of HS youth indicated that their parents feel that it would be wrong or very wrong for them to drink regularly.
  • 14.3% of MS and 39.1% of HS youth reported having at least one drink of alcohol on 1 or more of the past 30 days.
  • 25.6% of HS youth report having 5 or more drinks of alcohol in a row (binge drinking) on 1 or more of the past 30 days.
  • 3.8% of MS and 16.6% of HS youth report taking over the counter drugs to get high
  • 3.2% of MS and 19.3% of HS youth reported taking prescription drugs to get high

On Wednesday September 23, 2009, the Roanoke Area Youth Substance Abuse Coalition (RAYSAC), sponsored the first ever “Prevention Planning Summit”.  The day long event, held at the Roanoke Higher Education Center and facilitated by Blue Ridge Behavioral Healthcare prevention staff and the RAYSAC Coordinator, was the first step towards unifying the substance abuse prevention efforts of Prevention Planning Teams in Botetourt County, Craig County, Roanoke City, the City of Salem, and the Roanoke County Prevention Council, to develop a valley-wide plan to reduce substance abuse among youth.  Dee Sheffer, RAYSAC Co-Chair, said it best during her opening remarks, “Today we move forward the efforts of each individual team to also incorporate efforts that reflect the valley-wide perspective”.

 

The Prevention Planning Team members reviewed youth risk behavior data from each jurisdiction to identify the primary youth substance abuse problems in the valley.  Based on the data and discussions the Teams identified the top three areas of concern in the Roanoke Valley:

  1. Valley-wide youth perceive that alcohol is VERY easy to access; they know how to get it. 
  2. Binge drinking across the Valley is an area of concern and is seen as acceptable by both youth and adults and youth do not recognize the risks associated with binge drinking.
  3. Youth abuse of prescription/over the counter drugs is rising and is potentially due to low perception of harm and ease of access.

Once the problem statements were defined the focus turned to “Now what are we going to do about it”?  Using evidence-based prevention strategies for community change the Summit participants discussed how to change the environment that supports and often promotes underage drinking and prescription (Rx) and over-the-counter (OTC) abuse.  The RAYSAC steering committee, over a three month period, will complete strategic planning and develop an action plan specifically tailored to address these problems.  This strategic plan will serve as the “roadmap” for RAYSAC to address youth substance abuse in the valley in the coming years.

 

If you would like more information about the Prevention Planning Teams or RAYSAC visit our website at www.RAYSAC.org .

 

The RAYSAC Prevention Planning Summit was funded in part by Roanoke City Public Schools, the Governor’s Office for Substance Abuse Prevention (GOSAP) Think Don’t Drink grant and the Drug Free Communities grant.