Implementation

Visitors to the nine-day State Fair of West Virginia can now breathe a little easier this summer thanks to the efforts of a CADCA Alliance in West Virginia who obtained designated outdoor smoking areas throughout the fairgrounds.

The 2011 Session of the Maryland General Assembly has voted to raise an alcohol-specific tax for the first time in 40 years, pending the signature of Governor Martin O’Malley. Community organizers and researchers hope the tax will save money for community-service programs and save lives.

While fewer youth and adults smoke tobacco today then a decade ago, national data shows that those declines are leveling off. Widespread public education, environmental policy changes, and effective smoking cessation approaches have significantly reduced smoking rates, but for people with mental illness and/or substance use disorders, a coalition in Connecticut noticed that smoking rates were much higher than its general population.

According to a recent issue of the Drug Abuse Warning Network Report, a national survey of general hospitals performed by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), concluded that children age five and younger made up 68.9 percent of an estimated 100,340 emergency room visits for accidental drug consumption. The survey did not include children's or other specialty hospitals.

Virginia's SAFE Coalition has received the National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors 2010 National Exemplary Award for Innovative Substance Abuse Prevention Programs, Practices, and Policies for decreasing lifetime inhalant use among eighth-graders in their county.

This document outlines the 15 core competencies that facilitate implementation of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's Strategic Prevention Framework and the skills required to support the process.

This primer assists your coalition in the implementation of comprehensive strategies designed to achieve population-level reductions of substance abuse rates. It describes the importance of community mobilization and the necessity of seeking meaningful environmental change—two strategies that research indicates can influence substance abuse rates in an entire community.