Faculty and Staff News

Top Federal Experts Use Virtual Town Hall Event to Announce Success of Major Community Based Drug Prevention Effort. New Nationwide Study Shows Reduced Risk of Substance Abuse in Children

On Wednesday, September 9, 2009,  the National Institute of Drug Abuse, the Journal of the American Medical Association, and UW's Office of Media Relations and Communications issued press releases on the results of a rigorous test of "Communities that Care" (CTC), a prevention system that provides community coalitions with scientific tools to assess  and prevent an array of problematic youth behaviors. CTC was developed by David Hawkins, Rico Catalano and colleagues at the Social Development Research Group (SDRG). The test of CTC was itself remarkable: a rigorous five-year experimental study of CTC in twelve communities across seven states, collaboratively funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, the National Institute for Mental Health and the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention. The results of the test, soon to be published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, speak to the power and efficacy of CTC. Eighth graders in the towns that offered the  CTC prevention system had significantly lower levels of binge drinking, alcohol and smokeless tobacco use, and engaged in fewer delinquent behaviors.  Notably, rates of binge drinking were 37 percent lower among eighth-grade students in communities that used a CTC prevention system designed to reduce drug use and delinquent behavior compared to teenagers in communities that did not use the system. "What makes this system difference from other prevention efforts", David Hawkins notes, "is that it provides community coalitions with scientifically based tools with which to make decisions based on what is important to each town [.] The key is empowering each community to make scientifically grounded decisions about what program they need."

In conjunction with the press releases, NIDA will held a press event at the National Press Club.  This will be a webcast featuring David Hawkins and federal leaders such as national drug control director Gil Kerlikowske in a live town hall. Other national and local news agencies are very likely to pick up on this story-we will post information as it becomes available.  The webcast and other materials related to this important study can be found below:

• National Institute on Drug Abuse virtual town meeting on SDRG's prevention research. Here's the link to the webcast.
• Embargoed by the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine for release at 4 p.m. EDT (1 p.m. PDT) Monday, Sept. 7, 2009
• Drug Czar, Top Federal Experts Use Virtual Town Hall Event to Announce Success of Major Community Based Drug Prevention Effort
• More information available at The Social Development Research Group (SDRG) Website