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Public Health – Substance Abuse

Substance Abuse

Recognizing that substance abuse is closely linked to multiple high-risk health behaviors, the Benton County Health Department provides substance abuse prevention services in a variety of areas. These include:

• Merchant education and partnership to reduce underage drinking and issues related to excessive alcohol use
• Prevention education to adolescents
• Parent education
• Implementing substance abuse prevention programming in collaboration with local businesses and community groups
• Community mobilization
• Funding for substance abuse prevention
• Program planning implementation and evaluation – technical assistance for substance abuse prevention programming
• Reconnecting Youth Program Coordinator
• Grant Writing

For further information, contact the Substance Abuse Prevention Specialist at 541-766-6247. On the Benton County website, find other resources for:

• Alcohol and drug prevention information
• HIV/AIDS prevention information
• Researched-based programs implemented in Benton County

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Website Resources for Alcohol and Drug Prevention Information

Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration

This site provides information about the National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices.

Executive Office of the President, National Drug Control Policy

The article entitled “Juveniles and Drugs” on this website gives current statistics about the prevalence of drug use in youth around the country, exactly what types of drugs are more prevalent in this population, and the signs of drug use.  (To reach the article, click on "Drug Facts" in the left column, then click on "Juveniles & Drugs.")

The following websites offer information to parents on how to talk to their children about alcohol and drugs, HIV/AIDS, sex, and violence:

American Council for Drug Education
Families Online
Mothers Against Drunk Driving
Parent Action on Drugs Prevention, Education, Support
Straight Talk: A guide to discussing alcohol and other drugs with your children

National Families in Action: a guide for parents
Parenting is Prevention

Talk With Your Kids
This website offers tips on how to talk to your kids about alcohol and drugs, HIV/AIDS, sex, and violence.

Parents. The Anti-Drug

This website focuses on how to talk with teens.

The Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP)
This site provides many links to prevention resources. CSAP is the sole Federal organization with responsibility for improving accessibility and quality of substance abuse prevention services.  The Center provides national leadership in the development of policies, programs, and services to prevent the onset of illegal drug use, underage alcohol and tobacco use, and to reduce the negative consequences of using substances.

The Oregon Partnership
Oregon Partnership, a statewide non-profit organization, promotes healthy kids and communities through drug and alcohol awareness, prevention programs, and a 24-hour crisis line for treatment referrals.

The Department of Human Services' Office of Mental Health and Addiction Services (OMHAS)
This site describes Department of Human Services' Office of Mental Health and Addiction Services (OMHAS) and the prevention services provided to Oregon through this office. OMHAS' mission is to assist Oregonians and their families to become independent, healthy and safe by:

• promoting resilience and recovery through culturally competent, integrated, evidence-based treatments of addictions, pathological gambling, mental illness, and emotional disorders, and
• preventing and reducing the negative effects of alcohol, other drugs, gambling addiction, and mental health disorders.

OMHAS works with community partners to plan, deliver services, and increase program quality.

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Website Resources for HIV/AIDS Prevention Information

Talking with Children About HIV/AIDS (PDF) by Lynn Blinn Pike, Human Environmental Sciences Specialist, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, University of Missouri-Columbia

This article gives an overview of general facts about HIV/AIDS and suggests age-specific strategies for talking with children about the disease.

Advocates for Youth
This site offers an HIV transmission game that can be played in classrooms to demonstrate how HIV is spread by using candy to represent the virus.

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Website Resources for Researched-Based Programs

Reconnecting Youth (PDF)
Reconnecting Youth (RY) is a school-based prevention program for youth in grades nine through twelve (14 to 18 years old) who are at risk for school dropout. These youth may also exhibit multiple behavior problems, such as substance abuse, aggression, depression, or suicide risk behaviors. Reconnecting Youth uses a partnership model involving peers, school personnel, and parents.

Class Action (PDF)
Class Action is part of the Project Northland school-based alcohol-use prevention curriculum series that significantly reduces alcohol use and binge drinking by high school students.  A program for youth in grades 9 through 12, Class Action:

• Delays the onset of alcohol use
• Reduces use among youth who have already tried alcohol
• Limits the number of alcohol-related problems experienced by young drinkers

Project Northland
Project Northland is a multilevel, multiyear program proven to delay the age at which young people begin drinking, reduce alcohol use among those who have already tried drinking, and limit the number of alcohol-related problems of young drinkers.  Designed for sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students (10 to 14 years old), Project Northland addresses both individual behavioral change and environmental change.  Project Northland also strives to change how parents communicate with their children, how peers influence each other, and how communities respond to young adolescent alcohol use.  Components include:

• Parent involvement and education programs
• Behavioral curricula
• Peer participation
• Community activities

LifeSkills Training (PDF)
LifeSkills Training (LST) seeks to influence major social and psychological factors that promote the initiation and early use of substances. LifeSkills has distinct elementary (8 to 11 years old) and middle school (11 to 14 years old) curricula that are delivered in a series of classroom sessions over 3 years. The sessions use lecture, discussion, coaching, and practice to enhance students' self-esteem, feelings of self-efficacy, ability to make decisions, and ability to resist peer and media pressure.

Incredible Years (PDF)
The Incredible Years series features three comprehensive, multi-faceted, and developmentally-based curricula for parents, teachers, and children. The program is designed to promote emotional and social competence and to prevent, reduce, and treat behavioral and emotional problems in young children (2 to 8 years old).

BASICS, Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention of College Students (PDF)

BASICS, Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention of College Students: A Harm Reduction Approach, is a preventive intervention for college students 18 to 24 years old. It is designed for students who drink alcohol heavily and have experienced or are at risk for alcohol-related problems such as poor class attendance, missed assignments, accidents, sexual assault, and violence.

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