Features
Getting with the Program
Tobacco Sales Monitoring and Enforcement
The Tobacco Retailer Inspection Program works synergistically to reduce tobacco sales to minors through monitoring sales and enforcing legal sanctions on those who sell to youth under 18 years of age. Since the inception of TRIP in 2000, the IPRC has observed a 28 percent reduction in noncompliant stores statewide. This translates to fewer youth accessing tobacco products, which helps to delay first use.
After School Programs
Afternoons R.O.C.K. in Indiana is a program administered by the IPRC in partnership with the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration’s Division of Mental Health and Addiction, along with community-based partners such as Boys and Girls Clubs, faith-based entities, and other youth-serving agencies. The acronym “R.O.C.K.” represents the mission of the program to provide Recreation, Object lessons, Culture and values, and Knowledge via active, entertaining, focused, and supportive prevention activities designed to teach youth about social and media influences, conflict resolution and refusal/resistance skills, gang and violence prevention, and the structuring of leisure time to be free of alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use. Afternoons R.O.C.K. in Indiana programs reach up to 15,000 youths, ages 10–14, across Indiana each year.
Problem Gambling Prevention
In Indiana, 3 percent of the adult population are problem gamblers. Risk factors associated with youth substance abuse are also related to youth problem gambling. To reduce risk among youth, the Indiana Problem Gambling Prevention Initiative (IPGPI) has collaborated with Indiana’s Afternoons R.O.C.K. program to incorporate prevention activities beginning this fall. The IPRC monitors gambling behavior among youth through its Indiana Survey. IPGPI provides information and technical assistance to Indiana organizations seeking to prevent problem gambling by children, adolescents, and young adults.
Prevention planning with geographical information systems
PREV-STAT is a geographical information system that allows prevention providers to hone in on a community’s risk and protective factors for planning purposes. By tapping into rich sources of data such as the U.S. Census Bureau, PRIZM (a lifestyle segmentation data set), and CrimeRisk (a compilation of crime indexes and reports), and drawing from Indiana specific sources of data, PREV-STAT creates profiles for prevention planning and grant writing. PREV-STAT played a significant role in helping communities acquire more than 1.5 million dollars for prevention in 2005.
Monitoring risky behaviors
In addition to its programs, the IPRC monitors drug prevalence rates, gambling behaviors, peer perceptions, risk and protective factors, and the prevalence of specific violent behaviors among Indiana’s sixth through twelfth graders through the Indiana Survey. Data from this survey help schools acquire grants to fund and sustain prevention and treatment needs.
The Prevention Prescription
IPRC improves lives in Indiana for nearly 20 years
It’s whenever someone gets “carded” trying to buy tobacco. It’s there when your son or daughter completes a gambling and drug-use survey at school. Every time a child connects with an inspiring mentor in a YMCA or Boys and Girls Club after-school program, opening their eyes to a whole new world of possibilities, the Indiana Prevention Resource Center (IPRC) is there, working to reduce problem gambling, and alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use across the state.
Since its inception in 1987, the IPRC has strengthened Indiana’s prevention efforts through education, research, and resources. “We envision an Indiana prevention system that promotes and sustains healthy behaviors and environments,” says Ruth Gassman, executive director of the IPRC and an associate professor in applied health science.
The state is clearly benefiting from the support. In 2006, the Indiana Survey revealed that:
- 39.4 percent of Hoosier youth who participated in the survey have never experimented with drugs or alcohol.
- Youth who engage in after-school activities are less likely to experiment with alcohol, tobacco and marijuana.
As Indiana’s designated Regional Alcohol and Drug Awareness Resource Network (RADAR) State Center, IPRC provides comprehensive information on addictive substances, access to government publications, and referral services to all Indiana residents. The center is also poised to be a crucial part of IU’s Life Sciences Initiative.
Mohammad Torabi, chair of the Department of Applied Health Science, says the center’s goals mesh perfectly with HPER’s life sciences mission. Torabi has been involved with the IPRC for the past 17 years as a researcher administrator, and interim director.
“As far as the life sciences are concerned, we have a major impact on productivity and economic growth for the state,” Torabi says. “A person who is hooked on tobacco and other drugs cannot be a healthy citizen, cannot be a productive citizen, and is a burden on the taxpayers.”
IPRC programs [see sidebar] such as the Tobacco Retailer Inspection Program, Afternoons R.O.C.K. in Indiana, and the Indiana Problem Gambling Prevention Initiative have a direct impact on the onset of initial drug use and engagement in problem gambling.
In addition to its programs, the IPRC provides grant assistance, program planning and administration, evaluation, community analysis reports, research and reference services, and education and training for prevention providers. Schools, health departments, social workers, coalitions, and program administrators rely heavily on the IPRC’s research and evidence-based practices to address public health issues such as problem gambling, youth access to tobacco and alcohol, and substance abuse.
Barbara Seitz de Martinez, IPRC’s deputy director and head librarian, says the center’s Web site is one of the most accessed sites for information on alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs.
As the IPRC moves toward its twentieth anniversary, the center will expand its offerings to include secondary and tertiary prevention education, resources, and research. An example of secondary prevention is the standardization of screening for alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use among primary care nurses, physicians, and other health care providers. “Research indicates that we can reduce substance use and related problems if we make screening part of the standard health care routine,” says Gassman. While the IPRC has historically focused on primary prevention for youth, with the goal of preventing first use of tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana, “the fact is, most people in society have used these substances,” says Gassman.
“We have to acknowledge that and apply interventions to appropriately address individuals’ involvement with alcohol and other drugs. Early intervention reduct alcohol and other drug intake and lessen the overall costs to the health care system,” Gassman explains.
Gassman says people tend to think of alcohol and drug addiction in extremes: those who’ve never touched a drug and those who are on skid row.
“We’ve been blind to the largest segment of our population, which includes those who are not addicted, but suffer from problems directly associated with their alcohol or drug use, such as injury, drug interactions, sleep disturbance, sexual dysfunction, and mental illness,” she says. “Problem use” is defined as drinking and using other drugs above safe limits on a regular basis, causing further life complications such as steady unemployment, economic hardships, or family dysfunction.
“Many Americans may turn to alcohol and drug use to cope with physical or psychological hardships,” says Gassman. “We’re recognizing that all levels of prevention need to be integrated to best serve the public and fill the gap.”
Torabi says that as he travels around the country, people tell him they want to model their prevention resource centers after the IPRC because it has been such a huge success for the state. “We are attacking the major public health problems in the state of Indiana,” says Torabi.
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