A four-year study conducted with support of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has found that specialized, community-based prevention programs work to significantly reduce instances of drug and alcohol abuse among teens.

The study, called the Community Youth Development Study, was conducted in 24 communities across the country and included over 4,000 young people. A Sept. 7 release from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) provided the following details:

• Twelve communities were randomly assigned to undergo CTC training and implementation, and 12 served as the control communities that did not implement CTC.
  
• The coalitions chose and implemented from two to five evidence-based prevention programs tailored to their risk factors, from a menu of tested and effective prevention strategies.
  
• The strategies focused on a variety of topics depending on community need, including alcohol and drugs, violence prevention, reducing family conflict, life skills training, HIV/AIDS prevention, dating safety, tobacco, and anger management.
  
• The youth were surveyed annually for four years concerning their risky behaviors to determine the impact of delivering programs through the CTC system.

"The results of this trial confirm that tools do exist that give communities the power to reduce risk for multiple problem behaviors across a community," NIDA Director Dr. Nora Volkow said in the NIH release. "What makes Communities That Care unique is that it enables communities to identify their own special issues so they can hand pick the right prevention programs."

Labels: prevention, community_programs

Posted By: Aspen/CRC