Alcohol & Other Drug Use in sonoma county

	Community Indicators of Alcohol & Drug Abuse Risk: Sonoma County 2004 Introduction Full text
	California Alcohol & Drug Impact Report: March 2005 Introduction Full text

Introduction to the Community Indicators of Alcohol & Drug Abuse Risk: Sonoma County 2004

(taken from the text of the report)

In the mid-1990s the California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs (ADP) began work on improving the state’s prevention information systems. A primary goal of this effort was to develop a management information system for consistently and uniformly documenting a) levels of needs for state substance abuse prevention programming b) the nature and extent of program efforts in prevention implemented throughout the state, and c) the effectiveness of these prevention efforts in obtaining intended outcomes.

A key component of this information system was the continuous collection, monitoring, and reporting of selected community-level indicators that would serve as direct and indirect measures of alcohol and other drug use prevalence and related problems. This information system was designed to assist with statewide prevention planning and policymaking by providing useful, systematic data about prevention needs and related conditions throughout the state.

The present report is a product of this ongoing effort. It has been prepared by the Center for Applied Research Solutions (CARS)–formerly the EMT Group, Inc.–through ADP’s Community Prevention Institute (CPI) training and technical assistance contract. The purpose is to provide timely, relevant information on the status of alcohol and other drug use problems in California in order to facilitate planning and monitoring of prevention outcomes at the county level. Specifically, the report may serve as a tool for planners, policy-makers, and practitioners in the field in their efforts to:

• Determine the prevalence of a problem in the community;
• Identify patterns of need for services;
• Forecast service needs;
• Establish appropriate program resource levels;
• Understand environmental influences in the community; and
• Determine whether intended social change is occurring.

The report compiles data on 26 community indicators, including measures of risk factors associated with alcohol and other drug use, measures of overall substance use prevalence, and measures of the consequences associated with problem use. Each indicator and its population-based rate is reported in six-year trends with state and county-level comparisons to allow for monitoring of changes in problem status over time and across geographic area.

Introduction to the California Alcohol & Drug Impact Report: March, 2005

(taken from the text of the report)

The County Alcohol and Drug Program Administrators Association of California [CADPAAC] represents the local level service systems for the prevention and treatment of alcohol and other drug problems in the state’s fifty-eight counties. CADPAAC’s mission is the reduction of individual and community problems related to the use of alcohol and other drugs. This report is intended to present the reader with a broad overview of the important dimensions of Alcohol and Other Drug problems in California. Alcohol and Other Drugs

AOD

This report refers to Alcohol and Other Drug [AOD] problems. This term is chosen for two reasons.

1. Alcohol is a drug affecting the central nervous system and other physiological functions no less than does heroin or methamphetamine.

2. The consequences of the use of alcohol and other drugs extend far beyond the individual and are not restricted simply to the lives of persons who might be labeled as alcoholics or addicts.These problems have an impact not only on the individual, but on their families, friends, peers, and communities.

What Does It All Mean?

This report has gathered information from a number of sources of statewide data. For the sake of brevity the data are presented in graphical format with explanatory text about the indicator and its significance. Explanations of why a particular measure might be going up or down are beyond the scope of this brief report.

This document deals with the What of AOD problems rather than the Why. From a perspective that takes in the 58 counties, 1,000 school districts, 500 cities and 35 million people in California, the ability to explain the broad and frequently unseen forces that work to create and maintain AOD problems in California is of necessity limited in an overview such as this one.

We may not be able to explain why DUI arrests, for example, are decreasing or why more adolescents are not abstaining from AOD use. In any event, the impacts are indisputable and often tragic. It is not acceptable that in 2003, 1,378 persons died in DUI related crashes or that only one third of 11th grade students abstain from using AOD.

The task can seem overwhelming at the statewide level, but at the local level, causes can be more proximate and thus more accessible to identification and intervention. There are many instances where local leadership has made a real difference.

The reader is encouraged to discuss the data presented here with policymakers and stakeholders in their communities. While statewide data are not always useful in explaining local level variation, they do form a starting point for an informed discussion of whether local figures are better or worse than the statewide baselines.

These documents are saved in Adobe Acrobat format and you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the reports. Visit our page to download Acrobat Reader.