263290 Strengthening community capacity to prevent underage drinking with new technologies

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

William Beard Jr. , SAMHSA Underage Drinking Prevention Education Initiative, ICF International, Inc., Rockville, MD
As a major risk factor for a number of negative health outcomes, underage drinking is commonly recognized as one of the prime behavioral health issues affecting our youth today. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) aims to prevent and reduce the prevalence of underage alcohol use. Through the use of emerging technologies, SAMHSA has further advanced UAD underage drinking prevention initiatives by developing and incorporating Web 2.0 technologies, such as widgets, interactive applications, and social media, to increase awareness, engage and mobilize various audiences, and strengthen the capacity of communities to actively participate in underage drinking prevention initiatives. These technologies have provided an additional avenue for audiences to receive information, resources, training, and technical assistance for underage drinking prevention initiatives and activities. Furthermore, SAMHSA uses technological processes to evaluate and capture outcomes from underage drinking initiatives. These processes allow program administrators and community-based organizations to collaboratively focus on attaining shared goals and program purposes, identifying and comparing effective practices, and improving service delivery. As technology continues to evolve, SAMHSA will continue to integrate the latest advancements into and develop new technologies for use in underage drinking prevention activities.

Learning Areas:
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Communication and informatics
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Public health or related education

Learning Objectives:
Describe new technologies the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's Underage Drinking Prevention Education Initiatives provide to help communities prevent and reduce underage drinking.

Keywords: Alcohol, Prevention

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am contract manager for the SAMHSA Underage Drinking Prevention Education Initiative contract. As such, I have planned and directed development and implementation on behalf of SAMHSA of tools and resources featured in this presentation.
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.