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Health & Fitness

To Prevent Teen Substance Abuse, Town Meeting Planned For Students and Parents

The 2nd Annual West Hartford Town Hall Meeting to Prevent Teen Substance Abuse, for middle and high school students and their parents, will be held on April 8 at the Town Hall Auditorium.

The 2nd Annual West Hartford Town Hall Meeting to Prevent Teen Substance Abuse, for middle and high school students and their parents, will be held on April 8, 2013 (5:30 – 8:30 PM) at the Town Hall Auditorium.   The program, "What's the Buzz? Choices and Consequences," is designed to raise awareness, educate and empower the community to prevent underage drinking and prescription drug abuse and misuse in West Hartford.

Underage drinking and prescription drug abuse and misuse is a rising problem nationally and in West Hartford, according to the bi-annual West Hartford School Survey, taken in 2011:

  • 56% of West Hartford high school students who reported drinking in the past month also reported having been drunk at least once in the past month.
  • 19.6% of West Hartford high school students reported having mixed drinking and prescription/over the counter drugs.
  • 21.3% of West Hartford high school students reported having taken pills without knowing what they were.

 

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The free event, sponsored by the West Hartford Substance Abuse Prevention Commission and the Capital Area Substance Abuse Council, with support from the Institute for Community Research, will include a panel discussion with local adult and teen experts who will offer tools to keep youth safe and tackle this issue in West Hartford.  Additional partners include the West Hartford Community of Concern and the Town of West Hartford Department of Human and Leisure Services. 

The panel discussion will be moderated by Rick Green, political editor and columnist at The Hartford Courant.  Panelists include John Gadea, Director of the CT Drug Control Division of the Department of Consumer Protection, Dr. Robert Fuller, Clinical Chief of Emergency Service at UConn, Courtney Grant, Community Relations Officer at the West Hartford Police Department, and Geoff Genser, a local therapist.  The panel will also include Conard students George Angeles and Libby Nunez and Hall student Celia Binder.

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 The evening’s program includes:

 5:30-6:30 PM     

- Mini expo with community resources

- Musical entertainment by Hall High School's A Cafella and Conard High School's Be S#arp

 6:30-8:00 PM     

- World Premiere of "Epic Bail, and "Not a Prescription for Dating," two research-based videos, written and acted by West Hartford teens

- Panel discussion with local adult and teen experts on issues raised in video

 8:00-8:30 PM       

- Teen entertainment

Additional information is available from Jeff Bersin, Chair, West Hartford Substance Abuse Prevention Commission, at whsapc.chair@comcast.net  or Paige Nuzzolillo,  Substance Abuse Prevention Research Educator, The Institute for Community Research, at paige.nuzzolillo@icrweb.org,

The West Hartford Substance Abuse Prevention Commission was established in 1989 for the purpose of advising the Town Council on ways that it may help address the problems of substance abuse in the entire West Hartford population.  The Institute for Community Research (ICR), based in Hartford, uses the tools of research to build community capacity and foster collaborative community-based partnerships. By gathering information in partnership with residents, the organization helps communities locally and globally to ask better questions and get better answers about the complex problems they face.

 

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