PowerTalk 21 Day—

ER Physicians, MADD Offer Tips On Talking With Teens About Alcohol

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) is urging parents to educate themselves about how to talk with their teenagers about alcohol, especially in light of a recent report showing that more than 500 emergency department visits per day in 2009 involved underage drinking.

“We are teaming up with Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) to offer a free Power of Parents, It’s Your Influence handbook to parents as we lead up to PowerTalk 21 Day on April 21, the day for parents to start talking with their children about alcohol,” said the president of ACEP, Sandra Schneider, MD, FACEP.

Dr Schneider added, “Parents are the first line of defense against underage drinking, but it can be daunting to know exactly what to say. This booklet helps guide parents through these conversations with their kids.”

A government report issued at the end of December showed visits to emergency departments involving underage drinking spike at holidays, such as Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, and New Year’s Eve.

On average, 546 emergency department visits a day involved underage drinkers in 2009. Although the legal drinking age in the United States is 21, MADD reports that one in three eighth graders drinks alcohol and one in five teens binge drinks.

Kids who drink alcohol before age 21 are more likely to:

*Face problems in school

*Get assaulted

*Abuse alcohol later in life

*Drown or fall

*Be in an alcohol-related car crash

“I know from being a mother myself how hard it is to talk to teenagers,” said Dr Schneider. “But it’s much harder to face a child who has been seriously injured by alcohol, or who has injured someone else. MADD’s parent handbook will help parents start what could be a life-saving conversation with their child.”

Sobering Stats

The ER stats driving the MADD/ACEP collaboration came from one of a recent raft of studies from the US Department of Health and Human Services office (SAMSHA). Among other recent findings:

SAMSHA estimated there were 188,981 alcohol-related emergency department (ED) visits made by patients aged 12 to 20 in 2008, and 70 percent involved alcohol only. Among those ER patients, 30 percent involved alcohol in combination with other drugs.

Illicit drug use was indicated in more than two thirds (68.4 percent), and pharmaceutical drugs were involved in more than one half (55.1 percent) of ED visits involving alcohol in combination with other drugs among patients aged 12 to 20.

Among adolescents aged 12 to 17, three in ten (30.2 percent) alcohol-related ED visits made by females involved other drugs, whereas more than two in ten (22.9 percent) of such visits were made by males. Of patients aged 12 to 20 who made alcohol-related ED visits involving other drugs, nearly two-thirds (64.5 percent) had no evidence of follow-up care.

Teen alcohol use kills 6,000 young people each year, more than all other illegal drugs combined. So, in an effort to curb underage drinking among America’s youth, MADD created the Power of Parents program to help parents have the sometimes difficult, but potentially life-saving, conversation about alcohol with their kids.

Developed with Pennsylvania State University’s Dr Robert Turrisi, MADD’s Power of Parents handbook is based on more than two decades of underage drinking research, and has been shown to significantly reduce underage drinking behaviors, even in households with below average communication.

“After more than 30 years of saving lives and serving people, we’re excited to reveal a refreshed version of our logo and reintroduce our brand, especially leading up to PowerTalk 21 day — a day that truly signifies our real-world approach to keeping today’s youth alcohol free, so they grow up healthy and don’t become tomorrow’s drunk drivers,” said MADD CEO Kimberly Earle.

ACEP is a national medical specialty society representing emergency medicine, which is committed to advancing emergency care through continuing education, research and public education. To request a free copy of MADD’s Power of Parents, It’s Your Influence parent handbook, visit www.EmergencyCareForYou.org. For additional information, www.madd.org/powerofparents.