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Start the Conversation: Preventing Teen Substance Use Together

Hosted by: Heartview Foundation

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Please briefly describe your Communities Talk activity.

Our activity was a media campaign to encourage parents to talk with their kids about drugs and alcohol. It included electronic billboards in Bismarck and Dickinson, North Dakota. The billboards said, “Help Us End Addiction. Start the Conversation with Your Kids About Drugs and Alcohol.” Social media campaigns contained similar messaging. We also wrote a blog for our website with evidence-based tips on how parents can talk with their kids about drugs and alcohol at various ages (2–6, 7–10, 11–14, 15+, college-age). All art used was created by our substance abuse treatment patients, who were excited to see their art displayed publicly and to encourage others not to start drinking or doing drugs. The blog can be found at  https://heartview.org/get-involved/news/newsroom.html/article/2024/09/18/how-to-talk-to-kids-about-drugs-and-alcohol-at-different-ages.  

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How does alcohol and other drug misuse affect your community?

Art created by substance abuse treatment patients, to encourage others not to start drinking or doing drugs

According to the 2021 Community Health Needs Assessment completed for Burleigh County, access to mental health and addiction treatment were top concerns among community stakeholders and residents. Local adults indicated averaging 3.7 mentally unhealthy days per month and 41% indicated a need for increased and improved local addiction treatment options. In 2021, 16% of North Dakotans ages 26+ met the criteria for alcohol use disorder and 21% met the criteria for substance use disorder. Overdose deaths have increased dramatically, from 68 in 2016 to 113 in 2023. There were 107 overdoses in Bismarck alone in 2023, and 12 of those resulted in death. According to the 2021 North Dakota Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 10% of high school students misused prescription pain medicine, an increase from 4% in 2017. First Lady Kathryn Burgum has been very open about her struggles with addiction, which has helped the ongoing conversation about the need for services, but conversations about prevention have not come to the forefront. 

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Which prevention strategy(ies), as defined by SAMHSA’s Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, best fit your Communities Talk activity?

  • Information Dissemination Strategy - focuses on improving awareness and knowledge of the effects of AOD issues on communities and families through “one-way” communication with the audience such as speaking engagements, health fairs, and distribution of print materials.
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What challenge(s) did you face in planning your activity this year?

  • We would love our website to include more effective research-based messaging for youth. We had to do a lot of research to determine our messaging.
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How did you overcome these challenges?

It was a struggle to find evidence-based best practices for prevention. We had to dig deep into literature to find out what messaging actually helps, but we eventually identified some effective content. 

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What are your next steps?

Art created by substance abuse treatment patients, to encourage others not to start drinking or doing drugs
  • Create a public education campaign to raise awareness and/or change behaviors around underage drinking (i.e., create PSAs and other promotional materials)
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Which of the following best describes the primary audience(s) for your Communities Talk activity?

  • Youth
  • Parents

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