Community Corner
April is Alcohol Awareness Month
Each April since 1987, the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence sponsors Alcohol Awareness Month to increase public awareness and understanding, reduce stigma and encourage local communities to focus on alcoholism and alcohol-related issues. This April, NCADD highlights the important public health issue of underage drinking, a problem with devastating individual, family and community consequences. Alcohol use by young people is extremely dangerous—both to themselves and to society, and is directly associated with traffic fatalities, violence, suicide, educational failure, alcohol overdose, unsafe sex and other problem behaviors. Annually, over 6,500 people under the age of 21 die from alcohol-related accidents and thousands more are injured.
The damaging effects of alcohol are prevalent throughout our community and not limited to our youth. Cornerstone Family Programs Director of Behavioral Health and Substance Abuse Service Sylvia Lippe points out some the following facts:
· Alcohol increase the risk of oral, esophageal, breast, liver and colorectal cancer
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· Alcohol is the most commonly used and abused drug among youth in the United States
· Adults age 40 – 59 make up 50% of alcohol emergency room visits
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· One quarter of all emergency room admission, are alcohol related
· One third of all suicides, are alcohol related.
· More than half of the all homicides and incidents of domestic violence are alcohol related.
Learn more about how Cornerstone Family Programs seeks to help individuals and families affected by substance abuse at http://www.cornerstonefamilyprograms.org/Services-and-Programs/Addiction-Services.html