Wood County Prevention Coalition
Uniting For A Drug-Free Community Since 2004
Teen Drinking and Driving, A Dangerous Mix
Car crashes—the #1 killer of teens—take about 3,000 young lives every year. We should know that the main cause of teen crashes is driver inexperience. All new drivers—even high academic achievers and "good kids"—are more likely than experienced drivers to be involved in a fatal crash. It's a fact.
Teen drivers are three times more likely than more experienced drivers to be in a fatal crash. Drinking any alcohol greatly increases this risk for teens. And while fewer teens are drinking and driving, this risky behavior is still a major threat:
- An average of 1 alcohol-impaired-driving fatality occurred every 51 minutes in 2012. (NHTSA)
- One in 10 high school students drink and drive. (CDC)
- Young drivers (ages 16-20) are 17 times more likely to die in a crash when they have a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08% than when they have not been drinking. (CDC)
- In 2012, 18% of drivers age 16-20 involved in fatal crashes had a Blood Alcohol Content of .08 or higher. (NHTSA)
If you are a parent, you have the greatest influence over your teen's behavior. In fact, leading experts believe parents play a key role in preventing teen car crashes and deaths. Here’s what you can do:
- Understand that most teens who drink do so to get drunk.
- Recognize the dangers of teen drinking and driving and that teen drivers are at much greater risk of crashing after drinking alcohol than adult drivers.
- Provide teens with a safe way to get home (such as picking them up or paying for a cab) if their driver has been drinking.
- Model safe driving behavior.
- Consider tools like parent-teen driving agreements to set and enforce the "rules of the road" for new drivers. Safe driving habits for teens include the following: Never drink and drive - Follow state Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) laws - Wear a seat belt on every trip - Limit nighttime driving - Set a limit on the number of teen passengers - Never use a cell phone or text while driving - Obey speed limits.
The good news is that you can make a difference by getting involved with your teen's driving. Learn about the most dangerous driving situations for your young driver—and how to avoid them. Get your copy of CDC's parent-teen driving agreement and learn more about safe teen driving at www.cdc.gov/ParentsAreTheKey.
Take the first step: Talk with your teen about the dangers of drugs and alcohol and about staying safe behind the wheel. Then, keep the conversation going!
New program aims to end cycle of violence
The Columbus Dispatch 5/25/2017
Calling violence a public health crisis of epidemic proportions, Columbus officials are creating a program that will send social workers to the streets in an effort to address the trauma caused by homicides and other violent acts.
The initiative, which will be piloted in the Linden and Hilltop neighborhoods, represents an expansion of Columbus Public Health’s Community, Action, Resilience and Empowerment (CARE) Coalition.
Funded by $175,000 in general fund money, the effort will start July 1 and run through Dec. 31, 2018. It will focus on educating the community about the kinds of trauma people experience and offering them services.
“To have a trauma-informed lens means you’re asking what happened to a person instead of just accusing them of doing the wrong thing,” said Marian Stuckey, who oversees the CARE program.
“You want to change your perspective into one that values the trauma they’ve experienced and think about their behaviors in a different way because of that. So it’s not what’s wrong with the person; it’s what happened to them.”
Workers will go into neighborhoods within 48 hours of a violent or traumatic event and try to help the community cope and build resiliency. They also will create community coalitions in both Linden and the Hilltop. Plans are to knock on doors and hold meetings to educate and train neighborhood residents about trauma.
“Violence is on the rise in our country, and Columbus is not immune to that, and this is a recognition that ... we cannot police our way out of violence,” said City Council President Zach Klein. “It’s also a recognition that trauma that individuals receive throughout their life in various ways — whether it be personal, socioeconomic or because of violence in their community — can lead to violence.
“We are testing how we can intervene in someone’s life and intervene in a neighborhood in order to address that trauma to prevent violence from occurring.”
Trauma-informed care can involve a number of traumatic life experiences, such as childhood abuse or mental health issues in a family, said Dr. Teresa Long, the city’s health commissioner. It is already used, she said, in local schools and by agencies that address children’s services and developmental disabilities.
“This will build stronger, more engaged neighborhoods, and that is a resiliency factor,” she said.
The announcement of the initiative comes on the heels of the People’s Justice Project reiterating their request for an investment in community-focused public-health initiatives to fight gun violence. Lead organizer Tammy Fournier-Alsaada said that violence must be addressed as a disease that affects public health.
Overdose deaths continue to soar in Ohio
By Alan Johnson and Catherine Candisky
Columbus Dispatch May 28, 2017
They died in restaurants, theaters, libraries, convenience stores, parks, cars, on the streets and at home.
At least 4,149 Ohioans died from unintentional drug overdoses in 2016, a 36 percent leap from just the previous year, when Ohio had by far the most overdose deaths in the nation, according to figures compiled by The Dispatch from county coroners.
And the grim toll is getting worse: Many coroners said that 2017′s overdose fatalities are outpacing 2016′s.
Last year’s total smashed the record of 3,050 set in 2015. An average of 11 people died each day in 2016 from heroin, fentanyl, carfentanil or other drugs.
The new number was obtained by The Dispatch by contacting the coroner’s offices in all 88 counties. The Ohio Department of Health collects overdose data to release annually in August, but given the growing drug crisis in Ohio, and the General Assembly’s ongoing debate on the state’s two-year budget — including more than $170 million added by the Ohio House to battle the drug epidemic — updated numbers are particularly important now.
Ohio’s final 2016 total will be even higher because not all coroners have completed their overdose tally, and coroners in six smaller counties (representing 1.8 percent of Ohio’s population) did not respond to the newspaper’s repeated requests for 2016 totals.
The rapid rise in drug deaths is most pronounced in large urban counties such as Cuyahoga, where the 666 deaths easily led the state in 2016. The others are Franklin, Hamilton, Lucas, Montgomery and Summit. In one year, the overdose-death count in Ohio’s six biggest counties doubled.
The 2016 numbers raised the state’s death toll from drugs to 17,000 since 2003. The devastation is evident statewide, in big cities and small towns, urban and rural counties, rich and poor areas.
Dr. Lisa Deranek, the Medina County coroner and an emergency-department physician, is dealing with multiple deaths a week from opioid overdoses as head of the coroner’s office while also treating overdoses in the emergency department. Sometimes she has revived the same person several times a week.
Deranek said she and others on the front lines are exhausted.
“It’s a growing, breathing animal, this epidemic,” she said.
While heroin continues its role as a killer, coroners’ 2016 autopsy reports show that fentanyl, a synthetic opiate 50 times more powerful than morphine, and carfentanil, an animal tranquilizer so strong that an amount the size of a grain of salt can be deadly, have flooded Ohio and are largely to blame for the spike in deaths.
RSVP to the next WCPC Community Meeting!
Wood County Prevention Coalition Meeting
Friday, Sep 29, 2017, 08:30 AM
Wood County Educational Service Center, 1867 N Research Drive, Bowling Green, OH
RSVPs are enabled for this event.
About Us
Our Vision: Helping youth be drug-free, productive and responsible citizens.
Our Mission: We are a coalition of compassionate community members working together to coordinate high quality programs for the prevention of youth substance abuse in Wood County.
Email: mkarna@wcesc.org
Website: wcprevention.org
Location: 1867 Research Drive, Bowling Green, OH, United States
Phone: (419)-354-9010
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WCPCoalition
Twitter: @woodpccoalition