Conference Provides Tools to Reduce Drug and Alcohol Use Among Tennessee's Youth

NASHVILLE – The Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities (TDMHDD) in partnership with the Jackson Area Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependency is hosting the Tennessee Teen Institute June 14 - 18, 2010 at Austin Peay State University.

 

The five-day camp aims to promote the development of a healthy, safe and drug-free lifestyle by impacting the attitudes and behaviors of Tennessee youth ages 12 to 18 in the areas of alcohol, tobacco, drug abuse, and violence. This year, more than 350 young adults and 82 staff members will participate.

 

“This program facilitates both the skills and education necessary for young people to develop their own action plans to implement prevention projects and programs in their schools and communities,” said TDMHDD Commissioner Virginia Trotter Betts. “It is the goal of the Tennessee Teen Institute that participants will leave this fun and fact-filled camp with knowledge that will help reduce substance abuse among Tennessee’s youth and young adults and improve community health and safety.”

 

The camp features a variety of workshops, seminars, and team building activities to help train, mobilize, and empower youth to prevent the illegal use of tobacco, prescription drugs, alcohol, inhalants, and other drugs along with other self-destructive behaviors such as careless driving and interpersonal violence.

 

Facts about drug and alcohol use among Tennessee’s youth:

 

- More than 40 percent of individuals who start drinking before the age of 13 will develop alcohol abuse or alcohol dependence at some point in their lives.

 

- In the past 30 days, 13 percent of Tennessee youth ages 12 to 17 have used alcohol, six percent have used marijuana, and 16 percent have used tobacco products.

 

- Approximately nine percent of Tennessee’s youth ages 12 to 17 have participated in binge drinking in the past month, and five percent identify themselves as alcohol dependent or as an alcohol abuser.

 

The Jackson Area Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependency was awarded a Teen Institute Program Grant by TDMHDD’s Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services funded through the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Block Grant as a primary prevention program.

 

For more information on Tennessee Teen Institute or TDMHDD’s Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services, please visit www.tn.gov/mental or contact TDMHDD’s Office of Communications at 615-253-4812

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