This month is Alcohol Awareness Month. Established in 1987 by the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc. (NCADD), the theme this year is “Healthy Choices, Healthy Communities: Prevent Underage Drinking.”
“We chose a theme that will allow NCADD’s National Network of Affiliates and other NCADD Alcohol Awareness Month supporting organizations across the country to address this critically important public health issue through a broad range of media strategies, awareness campaigns, programs and events in their local communities,” said NCADD President and CEO Robert J. Lyndsey.
Meanwhile, on April 5, Screening for Mental Health, Inc.’s (SMH) 13th annual National Alcohol Screening Day was a great success, with an excellent response from students being a notable factor in a big turnout. Something in the order of 15,000 students took in-person and online screenings on hundreds of campuses nationwide.
“We conducted our NASD event on campus and, in just under three hours, we screened 150 students, 10 percent of whom reported at-risk drinking,” said Pace Cooke Emmons of Meridian Community College in Meridian, MS. “Of this number, 75 percent were under age.” Similar feedback came in to SMH from around the country.
“NASD is about the screenings and also about alcohol awareness,” said SMH president and CEO Douglas Jacobs, M.D. “We want people to, in the first instance, consider whether they may have an issue with alcohol and, if they find that might be the case via our screenings, to seek further help. On that score, the day was an enormous success and that’s very pleasing.”
SMH’s free and anonymous online alcohol screenings are available at all times at www.HowDoYouScore.org.
NASD is held the Thursday of the first full week of every April.