Home | Browse by Day | or Program | Author Index

170943 Culturally diverse barbershops serve as effective location for circulation of prevention information

Monday, October 27, 2008

Kathleen Herr-Zaya, BSN, MS, PhD , Bureau of Substance Abuse Services, Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Boston, MA
Sherry Tucker Brown, MS , The Tucker Brown Group, Bourne, MA
Malik K. Brown, MBA , The Tucker Brown Group, Bourne, MA
Euan Davis , Barber Time, Dorchester, MA
Stefano Keel, LICSW, MMHS , Bureau of Substance Abuse Services, Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Boston, MA
Rachel Thomas, MPH , Bureau of Substance Abuse Services, Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Boston, MA
Fernando Perfas, BSBA , Bureau of Substance Abuse Services, Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Boston, MA
An innovative health promotion outreach initiative was conducted in one hundred barber shops and hair salons located in multiple multi-cultural Boston neighborhoods. These venues were chosen because they are locally owned businesses in the heart of the communities and they are sites where pre-teen and teen drug and alcohol abuse prevention are among the many topics regularly discussed. Shop owners and stylists eagerly agreed to distribute booklets written for parents with information on how they can help prevent youth's substance abuse. Local radio personalities gave publicity to the salons and to the project during a live weekend show when they thanked those who participated. Each week the radio show aired public service announcements about alcohol and drug abuse prevention and gave the toll-free number for a 24-hour helpline. Over the project's three month timeline, customer responses regarding the booklet's effectiveness and utility were gathered.

Quantitative and qualitative data from follow-up calls made to all the shops for feedback from the owners, barbers, stylists and customers will be presented. This will be complemented by anecdotal reports; for example, when a local bank manager was given a booklet during her hair appointment, she recognized that the communities her bank serves have similar concerns and requested copies for distribution at her branch.

The “Preventing Youth Substance Abuse through Social Marketing” project of the Bureau of Substance Abuse Services of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health was done in collaboration with The Tucker Brown Group, Geovision, and Barber Time, social marketing companies.

Learning Objectives:
1. Discuss multimedia methods of effectively communicating to multicultural parents of pre-teens and teens the dangers of drug and alcohol abuse. 2. Create empowering vehicles for helping their communities through a social marketing substance abuse prevention project. 3. Evaluate and document the success of the implementation of a prevention social marketing project.

Keywords: Ethnic Minorities, Community Participation

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am the contract supervisor for the "Preventing Youth Substance Abuse through Social Marketing" program and currently supervise the majority of the Bureau of Substance Abuse Services public health social marketing projects. I have a PhD in social policy from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management of Brandeis University, and more than twenty years of substance abuse service experience.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

See more of: Using Communication to Reduce Health Disparities
See more of: Public Health Education and Health Promotion