NCSAPPA members, please save the date!

Tuesday, October 19, 2010 the North Carolina Substance Abuse Prevention Providers Association will host its Annual Meeting.  NCSAPPA members also have the opportunity to attend the Addiction Professionals of North Carolina’s Fall Conference, October 20-22, 2010, at the same location, at the member rate.  Details to follow from APNC.

If you wish to attend the NCSAPPA Annual Meeting please RSVP to candace.jackson@governorsinstitute.org or 919-256-7420 by September 30, 2010.

In addition to listening to the presenters, there will be opportunity for participants to discuss with the speakers the implementation issues for our service delivery system in North Carolina.

Key Issues Impacting the Substance Use Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery Systems and the SAMHSA Ten Strategic Initiatives:   Shannon Taitt, Partners for Recovery, CSAT Coordinator, SAMHSA

Why a Resiliency and Recovery Oriented System of Care is Important to People in Recovery:
Steve Gumbley, New England ATTC and Center for Alcohol & Addiction Studies, Brown University

Parity and Health Care Reform – A National Overview and Dialogue on Implementation Issues:
Dan Belnap, Policy Associate, Legal Action Center

Substance Abuse and Universal Insurance Coverage:  Experiences from Pioneering States:
Barbara Cimaglio, Deputy Commissioner for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Programs,
State of Vermont

Michael Botticelli, Director of the Bureau of Substance Abuse Services,
Commonwealth of Massachusetts

There is no charge to attend this conference, but enrollment is limited to two individuals per program.  Preregistration is required.  To reserve your place go to www.ncsapa.org and register using the button on the left of the home page.

Agenda
8:00-9:00 am       Registration
9:00-10:00 am     Overview of Health Reform
10:00-12:00 pm   Breakout Sessions

• Prevention for the Health of North Carolina: How Can We Use Prevention to Improve Population Health?
• Transformation of the Health Care System: New Models of Care and Payment Methodologies Focusing on Primary and Acute Care
• Expanding Coverage to the Uninsured: Medicaid Expansion and Health Insurance Exchanges

12:00-2:00 pm Lunch and Keynote Address
          Remarks and Introduction of Keynote Speaker-Lanier Cansler, CPA
          Secretary, NC Department of Health and Human Services

          Keynote: Health Reform-A View from the Federal Level  
          Cindy Mann, JD
          Director, Medicaid and State Operations, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
          US Department of Health and Human Services

 2:00-4:00 pm Breakout Sessions

• Transformation of the Health Care System: New Models of Care and Payment Methodologies Focusing on Long-Term Care
• Provider Supply: Do We Have Enough Health Professionals to Meet the New Demand?
• HIT and Quality

4:00-6:00 Reception

Read Full Announcement

“[T]his study provides pieces of evidence in support of both sides of the debate about the type of drinker who contributes the most to the alcohol-related fatal crash problem. Our results show a positive relationship between heavy abusive drinking… and alcohol-related fatal crashes. When the relationship is adjusted by the number of drivers in each drinking category, however, those who contributed the most to the alcohol-related crash problem are the current normative drinkers, who are much more numerous than symptomatic drinkers. This finding suggests that focusing on the heavy drinker and ignoring the current normative drinker in the design of programs aimed to curb the alcohol-related crash problem could be a mistake.” (p. 728)

In particular, they estimated that about one-quarter of the drinking population could be classified as heavy drinkers based upon either having a diagnosable alcohol disorder or having engaged in binge drinking in the past year. They estimated that this quarter of the drinking population was involved with nearly half of the ARTCDs, and thus concluded that this segment of the population (about 16% of the overall population in the country) was disproportionately responsible for ARTCDs. However, they also estimated that those categorized as normative drinkers (the three-quarters of the drinking population who were not classified as heavy drinkers) were involved with just over half of the ARTCDs and thus were a very important segment of the population to target for prevention (about half of the overall population of the country).

Based on this information, it seems reasonable to recommend that communities prioritize effective and cost-efficient prevention strategies that target heavy drinkers – the population that is disproportionately responsible for ARTCDs. Because this involves identifying ways to influence the choices that these individuals make, it is important to understand their environment – where, when, why, etc. they choose to drink heavily and drive a vehicle. Just behind this in priority, then, would be implementation of effective and cost efficient prevention strategies that target non-heavy drinkers. Because they may make choices to drink and drive in different conditions and for different reasons than heavy drinkers, it seems advisable to assess, and possibly then plan for different prevention activities to target the normative (less heavy) drinkers in the community.

Please see the document below for more information concerning the stipend application for Prevention Professionals working towards CSAPC certification.

State law prevents any public venue from carrying the name of an alcohol sponsor.  It is only with special exception from the ABC Commission that such sponsorships can be approved.  This post is a guest post, by Judge Ron Bogle, on the critical importance of fighting to uphold our state’s long time ban on alcohol sponsorships of public venues.

The Raleigh Amphitheater Issue: What You Can Do

The State Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission will consider a request made by the City of Raleigh to waive an existing State regulation prohibiting the use of an alcohol product name on a public facility.  The city wants to name its new amphitheater the Bud Light Amphitheater, in exchange for $1.5 million from Anheuser Busch for its perpetual publicly supported and maintained advertising.

The commission will render its decision at its June 17th meeting in Raleigh.  Time is of the essence, and I urge you to contact the commission to express your opposition to granting of this waiver, and, in particular, to naming this public facility after an alcohol product (visit this website to comment: http://www.ncabc.com/news/announcement.aspx?aid=285).

The industry spends billions in daily consumption messaging, and all North Carolinians (responsible drinkers and non-drinkers alike) pay a heavy cost for those abusing alcohol products like Bud Light.

You can contact the commission by letter, email, preferably both, and in person by attending the June 17^th meeting at the following address if you have not already done so:

Email:  contactus@abc.nc.gov

Mailing Address:  NC Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission
4307 Mail Service Center
Raleigh, NC  27699-4307

Meeting location:  3322 Garner Road, Raleigh, NC 27610

Directions: http://www.ncabc.com/aboutus/ABCDirections.aspx

The commission members are:

Chairman Jonathan Williams
Member J.D. Lyons, Jr.
Member A.D. Guy, Jr.

The prohibition against the use of alcohol products on public facilities is sound and responsible public policy.  Most of the alcohol sold in North Carolina (and most of the problems related to the abuse or misuse of alcohol in North Carolina) involve malt beverage, the teen drug of choice.  Underage drinking alone costs our State $1.4 billion annually.  Given the price we already pay for the societal harm caused by alcohol products, we should not provide a favorable advertising position to any alcohol product through the use of a public facility.  Granting this request for waiver from the City of Raleigh will effectively eviscerate this policy, and it seems certain that efforts will follow in many other cities and towns across the State to accomplish similar advantages for other industry products.

I urge you to share this message and encourage others to contact the commission.  Together we can make a difference about this issue – we must make sure that our voice and opinions are heard loud and clear by the commission.

–Ron Bogle–