FOREWORD

 

Cleveland UMADAOP operates on the belief that prevention services must be designed to reduce the risks associated with substance use and abuse across age and gender groups. Thusly, the agency designs programming to reach youth, young adults and seniors.

 

Millions of people are affected by substance abuse problems resulting in a variety of social, health and economic circumstance for communities, individuals and families. Continually, the research is showing that there is significant difference among racial groups.

 

In the “Disparities in alcohol-related problems among white, black, and Hispanic Americans. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. 2009;33(4):654-662 by Mulia N, Ye Y, Greenfield TK, Semore SE.

 

• Although African-American youth drink less than other youth (according to the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 20.4% of African Americans between 12 and 20 used alcohol in the 30 days prior to the survey, compared to 29.3% of whites, and 9.9% of African-American youth reported "binge" drinking, compared to 19.8% of whites),2 there is evidence from public health research that, as they age, African Americans suffer more from alcohol-related diseases than other groups in the population.
  
  The 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) presented the following findings

 

• ​Rates of past month alcohol use and binge alcohol use were lower among black adults aged 18 or older than the national average for adults (44.3 vs. 55.2 percent and 21.7 vs. 24.5 percent, respectively); the rate of past month illicit drug use, however, was higher among black adults than the national average (9.5 vs. 7.9 percent)
   

• The rate of need for treatment for an alcohol use problem in the past year among black adults was similar to that of the national average among adults (7.7 and 8.1 percent); however, the rate of need for treatment for an illicit drug use problem was higher among blacks than the national average (4.4 vs. 2.9 percent)
   

• One in seven (14.2 percent) black adults in need of alcohol treatment in the past year and 24.2 percent of those in need of illicit drug treatment received treatment at a specialty facility; both of these rates were higher than the national averages for adults

 

Based upon these and other correlations Cleveland UMADAOP has designed program prevention strategies to address young adults, adults and seniors, at times with some detail to gender-specifics.