By Join Together Staff | January 19, 2012 |
(http://www NULL.drugfree NULL.org/join-together/prevention/many-states-receive-failing-grades-in-lung-association-report-on-anti-tobacco-efforts?utm_source=Join+Together+Daily&utm_campaign=6de209870e-JT_Daily_News_Many_States&utm_medium=email)Many states received failing grades on the latest American Lung Association report card rating tobacco control efforts. Forty-three states and the District of Columbia earned an “F” for funding smoking-prevention programs at less than half the levels recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Alaska was the only state that funded tobacco programs at the CDC’s recommended levels, Bloomberg Businessweek (http://www NULL.businessweek NULL.com/news/2012-01-19/tobacco-policies-abysmal-in-u-s-states-lung-association-says NULL.html) reports. Overall, states’ collective spending on anti-smoking programs dropped 11 percent last year, and only Vermont and Connecticut raised cigarette taxes. Eight states rejected cigarette tax proposals, while New Hampshire decreased its cigarette tax 10 cents per pack, according to the report, the State of Tobacco Control.
“At a time when our country is trying to get a handle on health-care spending, this is an enormous expense that could be avoided by investing in effective tobacco-prevention and cessation programs and policies,” said American Lung Association (http://www NULL.stateoftobaccocontrol NULL.org/) President and Chief Executive Officer, Charles Connor.
via Many States Receive Failing Grades in Lung Association Report on Anti-Tobacco Efforts | The Partnership at Drugfree.org (http://www NULL.drugfree NULL.org/join-together/prevention/many-states-receive-failing-grades-in-lung-association-report-on-anti-tobacco-efforts?utm_source=Join+Together+Daily&utm_campaign=6de209870e-JT_Daily_News_Many_States&utm_medium=email).
« Previous Page — Next Page »Being in touch with teens via text about their drinking habits may make them put down the bottle, researchers found.
Teens identified as hazardous drinkers in an assessment group had a median of seven weeks (interquartile range three to nine weeks) with a heavy drinking day (≥four drinks for women; ≥five drinks for men) compared with a median of two weeks (IQR one to seven weeks) in an intervention group who set goals to lessen their alcohol intake through support via text messaging, Brian Suffoletto, MD, of the University of Pittsburgh, and colleagues reported online in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.
“When we used text-messaging to collect drinking data and to offer immediate feedback and support to young adults discharged from the emergency department, they drank less,” Suffoletto said in a statement.
Being in touch with teens via text about their drinking habits may make them put down the bottle.
Within the intervention group, those who had heavy drinking days, but agreed to set a goal to diminish their intake, ended up drinking heavily again only 36% of the time the following week, compared with 63% of the time for those who didn’t set goals.
Some work has shown that text messaging can be helpful for providing feedback to patients and for potentially changing behaviors, the researchers said. At the same time, they said, emergency departments provide an opportunity to screen youths for risky drinking behaviors.
READ MORE via Medical News: Texting May Turn Teens Off Alcohol – in Pediatrics, General Pediatrics from MedPage Today (http://www NULL.medpagetoday NULL.com/Pediatrics/GeneralPediatrics/30285?utm_content=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DailyHeadlines&utm_source=WC&eun=g281938d0r&userid=281938&email=rmiles null@null daybreakinfo NULL.org&mu_id=).
« Previous Page — Next Page »At the CDC, we deal with the numbers and statistics affecting the public’s health every day. I’ve worked here for most of my career, and rarely do these numbers reveal the full and tragic story they actually represent. The CDC’s report this week on prescription painkiller overdoses is one of these rare instances, confirming a story many of us have heard in communities across America.
Prescription painkillers (drugs like oxycodone, hydrocodone and methadone) killed nearly 15,000 people in 2008—one person every forty minutes. These were husbands and sons, mothers and daughters, often struggling with addiction for months or years before losing their lives. And the problem has never been worse. For every person who died of a prescription painkiller overdose in 1999, nearly four died in 2008. We are in the midst of an epidemic.
But the number of deaths isn’t the whole story. This sharp rise in prescription painkiller overdoses parallels a similarly large increase in painkiller sales. Four times as many prescription painkillers were sold in the U.S. last year than in 1999.
via CDC Report on Prescription Painkiller Overdose is a Call To Action | The Partnership at Drugfree.org (http://www NULL.drugfree NULL.org/join-together/addiction/cdc-report-on-prescription-painkiller-overdose-is-a-call-to-action?utm_source=Join+Together+Weekly&utm_campaign=e3683d2881-JT+Weekly+News%3A+A+Picture+May+Be+Worth NULL. NULL. NULL.&utm_medium=email).
« Previous Page — Next Page »Watch this short video about treatment and kids in recovery.
DONATE NOW (https://npo NULL.networkforgood NULL.org/Donate/Donate NULL.aspx?npoSubscriptionId=1000042/)
« Previous Page — Next Page »
DSHS Secretary Susan Dreyfus held stakeholders meetings about the affect of proposed budget cuts in September and October. Reports about these meetings were similar.
Ms. Dreyfus reported that the state government now faces “one of its hardest moments since the Great Depression” and detailed the choice points and considerations that were given to department heads.
Despite making more than $2.2 billion in cuts to social services in the past two years, she reported that, “additional reductions are inevitable.”
Reactions from those who serve the most vulnerable populations in the state might have been summed up by Sandi Ando of the National Alliance on Mental Illness for Washington and Spokane. “People will die,” she said.
.…………………………………………….
In response to the governors directive, DBHR previously submitted a budget cut proposal that will virtually eliminate substance abuse treatment services for adults in Washington.
—————————————————–
Spokane County Community Services estimated a 74% reduction in client substance abuse services based on the 2011-2013 Budget Reduction Decision Package submitted to the governor by DBHR on September 23, 2011.
————————————————————————–
On October 27 Governor Gregoire released a budget reduction document that lists the following chemical dependency items she has “tentatively chosen to include” in her 2012 supplemental budget proposal in November:
Reduce chemical dependency services $14.5 million
Reduces out-patient and detoxification chemical dependency services for 11,000 low-income clients.
Eliminate Disability Lifeline and ADATSA $5.2 million
Terminates the Disability Lifeline and ADATSA (Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment and Services Act) medical programs, affecting 15,000 clients who receive chemical dependency services.
Eliminate long-term residential and recovery house services $2.7 million
Ends funding for long-term residential services in excess of 90 days for 223 clients who are chronically chemically dependent or disabled.
Terminates funding for five recovery houses, which serve 299 clients after they have finished their residential treatment program.
Close Pioneer Center East $2.1 million
Halts funding for this Spokane chemical dependency treatment facility that annually serves 283 acute-care clients.
Convert funding to county block grant $2.1 million
Introduces flexibility for funding chemical dependency services, which will be distributed to counties
in a block grant to maximize the efficient and flexible use of resources.
Capture Criminal Justice Treatment Account underexpenditure $2.1 million
Uses underspent Criminal Justice Treatment Account funds to offset state chemical dependency costs for drug courts.
Limit detoxification visits $1.9 million
Reduces the number of admissions to two per year, which will eliminate 2,020 visits annually.
Limit chemical dependency assessments $188,000
Reduces the number of assessments to two per year, which will eliminate 251 assessments annually.
New cigarette labels mandated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will carry graphic images of the consequences of smoking, including diseased lungs and rotting teeth, the Boston Herald reports.
The new labels are a result of the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which gave the FDA authority to regulate the content, marketing and sale of tobacco products. The law requires the FDA to issue final regulations requiring color graphics illustrating the ugly consequences of smoking by June 22, 2011.
The FDA will require that the disturbing pictures cover at least half of the front and the back of a cigarette package by October 2012. The FDA will also require that the images take up to at least 20 percent of each cigarette ad.
To see examples of the new cigarette label warnings, visit the FDA website.
via New Cigarette Labels Will Graphically Illustrate Consequences of Smoking | The Partnership at Drugfree.org (http://www NULL.drugfree NULL.org/join-together/prevention/new-cigarette-labels-will-graphically-illustrate-consequences-of-smoking).
« Previous Page — Next Page »WASHINGTON — Vodka and malt beverages were the forms of alcohol most likely to have been consumed by patients who wound up at the emergency department seeking treatment for an injury, according to a small study.
In addition, more men than women presented to the ED with injuries after drinking (69% versus 31%), according to the study presented at the American Public Health Association’s annual meeting.
Men were also more likely than women to report drinking beer. However, women were more likely to have consumed spirits, wine, champagne, or flavored malt beverages, said lead author David Jernigan, PhD, of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Nearly a third of injury-related visits to emergency departments are alcohol-related, said Jernigan, who is director of the institution’s Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth.
via Medical News: Vodka, Malt Liquor Most Likely to Buy Trip to ED – in Meeting Coverage, APHA from MedPage Today (http://www NULL.medpagetoday NULL.com/MeetingCoverage/APHA/29397?utm_content=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=DailyHeadlines&utm_source=WC&eun=g281938d0r&userid=281938&email=rmiles null@null daybreakinfo NULL.org&mu_id=).
« Previous Page — Next Page »Help us score a goal for Daybreak Youth Services as we work to put teen addiction in the penalty box for good!
Spokane Chiefs vs. Everett Silvertips
Sunday, November 6th, at 6 pm
Luxury Box #13 (doors open at 5pm) at the Spokane Arena
*** Host: Couples $250/Individual $175 *** Supporter: $75 ***
Includes ticket, hors d’oeuvres, and refreshments
Hurry Only a Few Tickets Left!!
Rsvp to Marcus Riccelli at: riccelli17@hotmail.com or 509-879-7805
Please Join Hosts Marcus & Amanda Riccelli , Carl Griffin & Dr. Christine Johnson, Melissa Williams, Don Barbieri & Sharon Smith, Michael & Gretchen Riccelli, Moranco & Associates
Daybreak Youth Services is the region’s largest specific intensive drug and alcohol treatment facility for youth. Daybreak treats over 1,100 kids for substance abuse each year regardless of ability to pay. 81% of Daybreak’s child clients successfully graduate from treatment and one year later 60% remain clean and sober.
« Previous Page — Next Page »DSHS Secretary Dreyfus will hold Town Hall Meetings across the state to discuss budget reduction options
OLYMPIA – Department of Social and Health Services Secretary Susan N. Dreyfus will lead a series of Town Hall Meetings across the state in the next two months to lay out the Department’s budget reduction options as part of Governor Chris Gregoire’s call for state agencies to proposed reductions…..
SPOKANE
Wednesday, October 19 | 5:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m.
8517 East Trent Avenue, Rockford Room – Main Floor – Suite 101
Spokane, WA 99213
VANCOUVER
Thursday, October 20 | 12:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Fort Vancouver National Site – Artillery Barracks
600 East Hathaway Road
Vancouver, WA 98661
SEATTLE
Friday, October 21 | 10:30 a.m. – 12 noon
Children’s Administration
Delridge Building, Training Center
4045 Delridge Way SW, Pine Room
Seattle, WA 98106
via DSHS Secretary Dreyfus will hold Town Hall Meetings across the state to discuss budget reduction options (http://www NULL.dshs NULL.wa NULL.gov/mediareleases/2011/pr11035 NULL.shtml).
« Previous Page — Next Page »
(http://img NULL.timeinc NULL.net/time/daily/2006/0606/fofamily0603 NULL.jpg)The benefits of family dinners go far beyond what is being served on the plate. More than a decade of research by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA* Columbia) has found that the more often kids eat dinner with their families, the less likely they are to smoke, drink or use drugs. CASA Columbia created Family Day – A Day to Eat Dinner with Your Children™ in 2001 as a way to remind parents about the importance of frequent family dinners.
Family Day, which will be celebrated nationwide this year on Monday, September 26, is a national movement that reminds parents that they have the power to keep their kids substance free and that the parental engagement fostered around the dinner table is a simple and effective way for moms and dads to connect with their children and give them the confidence to make wise decisions.
According to data from CASA Columbia’s newly-released report, The Importance of Family Dinners VII, teens who have frequent family dinners (five to seven per week), compared to those who have infrequent family dinners (fewer than three per week) are almost four times likelier to use tobacco; more than twice as likely to use alcohol; two-and-a-half times likelier to use marijuana; and almost four times likelier to say they expect to try drugs in the future. Kids who have frequent dinners with their family are also likelier to say that they have an excellent relationship with their parents and are less likely to have friends who smoke, drink or use drugs.
Kids thrive on the routine established during frequent family dinners. It gives them a sense of security and confidence. There are many lessons to be learned around the dinner table. Just asking your child what the best and worst part of their day was can teach parents so much about the environment your child is growing up in.
via Studies Find That Dinner Makes a Difference; Family Day Spreads the Word | The Partnership at Drugfree.org (http://www NULL.drugfree NULL.org/join-together/prevention/studies-find-that-dinner-makes-a-difference-family-day-spreads-the-word?utm_source=Join+Together+Weekly&utm_campaign=76407a4170-JT+Weekly+News%3A+New+Program+Increases+Parents%27+ NULL. NULL. NULL.&utm_medium=email).
« Previous Page — Next Page »