Communities Can Be ‘Trained’ to Prevent Substance Abuse

Encouraging findings for a new model:

Communities That Care (CTC), a system of individualized, evidence-based substance-use-prevention programs, reduces risky behaviors such as alcohol use, smoking, and fighting in adolescents, according to the results of the Community Youth Development Study, published in the September 7 Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.

Eighth-grade students living in communities that employed CTC strategies were about 33 percent less likely to begin smoking and drinking than peers living in control communities that had no such prevention programs, and were 25 percent less likely to engage in delinquent behavior—which can be a predictor of future substance use—than eighth graders living in control communities.

The CTC program is designed to take into account individual communities' needs in terms of behaviors that place adolescents at risk. Under the program, community leaders such as clergy, teachers, health workers, social workers, and other volunteers receive training that enables them to implement the prevention strategies based on community needs. These strategies can focus on a range of issues, such as preventing drug and alcohol use, ameliorating family conflict, reducing violence, and preventing HIV/AIDS, for instance.

Intervention communities received six training sessions delivered over the course of a year by certified CTC trainers. In addition, community leaders received training on how to implement a CTC system based on the needs of their community.