Guam Celebrates Alcohol Awareness Month with Huge Campaign

In a land of white, sandy beaches, a coral table reef with deepwater channels and an average low temperature of 76 degrees, it's hard to imagine life with any problems on Guam. But high-risk drinking across the 30-mile-long United States territory has been a hindrance for the 178,000 people who live and are stationed aboard the island.

A new social marketing campaign began last week in Guam to help raise awareness of the island’s drinking problem. April was chosen as the perfect month for a campaign kick-off because of Alcohol Awareness Month, said Christine Camacho, Public Information Officer for Guam’s Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse.

The carefully planned, media savvy One Nation alcohol prevention social marketing campaign” features public service announcements, billboards, posters, even water bottles that promote healthy behaviors and alcohol-free lifestyles on Guam.

Focus groups were held during the strategy sessions for the campaign that featured all walks of life, from teenagers to grandparents, Camacho said.

"We wanted to capture the essence of our island culture featuring local people that embrace our cultural values of family, respect, identity and that live a healthy and alcohol-free lifestyle that could be modeled by others,” she said.

Focus group participants said they were fed up with alcohol billboards and sponsorship of community events, low or discount pricing of alcohol at venues such as restaurant happy hour events, and there was signage that promoted binge drinking across the street from some elementary schools. Residents knew they needed a change, and the change had to start with them, Camacho said. "We like to have big fiestas, to celebrate everything, and we serve alcohol with everything," Camacho said. “It is socially acceptable for our elders to ask the kids to get them a beer.” Now, with a partnership with Foremost Bottling Company of Guam, island residents can symbolically toast their celebrations with specially-designed water bottles, she said. To reduce the social acceptability and norm that alcohol is part of the Guam and Pacific island culture, the Guam Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, Prevention and Training hopes implementing their One Nation campaign reclaims the Pacific Island cultural values of respect and family using a positive approach. Data from the territory’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System reveals that both heavy drinking and binge drinking are significantly higher among adults on Guam as compared to the U.S. Heavy drinking among Guam males is almost double that of U.S. males (10.7% vs. 5.6%), while binge drinking among Guam males is 65% higher (34.5% vs. 20.9%).

The campaign is targeting youth ages 11-17 as well as young adults ages 18 to 30, parents and adults of all ethnicities, especially the Chamorros, Guam's indigenous people. The legal drinking age on Guam is age 18. In the campaign materials, authentic depictions of island residents including U.S. military are represented. The programmed U.S. military buildup as the Marine Corps relocates some of its operations from Okinawa, Japan to Guam will cause an unprecedented population increase, Camacho said. “We have the military buy-in. We are partnering with the military on prevention,” she added.   

Camacho said the campaign also has the youth buy-in because their youth coalitions are part of the strategizing process, even writing PSA scripts. “Youth are scheduled to discuss the campaign on local talk shows during their spring break saying it’s cool not to drink,” she noted. “If it doesn’t resonate with our youth, we don’t use it.”

According to Guam’s Substance Abuse Epidemiological Profile (2007), Youth on Guam reportedly drink as early as 13 years old; 36% of high school youth on Guam are current drinkers and about 19% engage in binge drinking – with Chamorro and other Micronesian Islander youth having the highest rate. 43% of adults on Guam are current drinkers; with males drinking more than females; and alcohol is implicated in close to one-third of all suicide-related incidents - suicide is prevalent on Guam, with an average of one suicide death occurring every two weeks.

With a Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Department of Mental Health for Guam sub-granted four community drug-free coalitions to work on prevention issues in Guam in conjunction with Camacho’s office.

The coalitions will host town hall meetings, alcohol screenings, youth conferences, 5K runs, and other events island-wide to promote the One Nation campaign.

“Our long-term goal is to extend the One Nation campaign with the outer islands as a Pacific Island campaign pledging to live a healthy and alcohol- free lifestyles,” Camacho said. The outer islands include Palau and American Samoa.

Two legislative bills that the coalitions on Guam are monitoring could also contribute to positive environmental change, including reducing the hours of sale for alcoholic beverages from 4 to 2 a.m.