COBTH Home ---------------- Introduction ---------------- Resouces ---------------- Public Health Champion ---------------- Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center ---------------- Boston Medical Center ---------------- Brigham and Women's Hospital ---------------- Cambridge Health Alliance ---------------- Caritas Carney Hospital ---------------- Caritas Saint Elizabeth's Medical Center ---------------- Children's Hospital Boston ---------------- Dana-Farber Cancer-Institute ---------------- Faulkner Hospital ---------------- Lahey Clinic Medical Center ---------------- Massachusetts General Hospital ---------------- Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary ---------------- Tufts Medical Center ---------------- VA Boston Healthcare System ---------------- COBTH Community Benefits Committee ---------------- COBTH Hospital Cancer Rides ---------------- COBTH Domestic Violence Council		Preventing and Reducing Youth Substance Abuse   SUBSTANCE ABUSE has a devastating impact on health, the quality of community life, and the utilization and cost of health services. Early teen drinking is associated with later alcohol abuse and dependence. Nationally, at least 20 percent of hospital inpatients suffer alcohol use disorders, which often complicate their hospitalizations. Boston has one of the highest heroin use rates in the country, and Charlestown had death rates from heroin almost 50 percent higher than the rest of the City of Boston. Citizens of Charlestown and Revere have formed community coalitions to fight substance abuse among youth, with the help of the MGH Community Benefit Program (renamed recently, the MGH Center for Community Health Improvement). These communities employ science-based strategies including raising awareness, advocating for public policy changes, implementing prevention programs and successfully developing additional treatment resources. These efforts are getting results. In Charlestown, Heroin overdose calls to Boston Emergency Medical Services were down 17.7 percent from 2003 to 2006, and drug related mortality was down 41 percent from 2003 to 2005. MGH supports the coalition and recently invested $3 million to support the Charlestown Recovery House and to open substance abuse and counseling services within the Bunker Hill Housing development. “‘Suddenly’ the paper pronounced, but we know that is not true. Drugs and addiction don’t work that way. It would be too easy. It sneaks up on you, ending innocence, destroying promise, and injuring the whole family. This time the loving arms of your parents could no longer hold you in the warmth of their protection. Your friends pass in single file. With tears in their eyes, they smile at the visions of your past, speechless with sadness. They kneel before your coffin and then share with us a comforting hug and kiss.” From “A Father’s Tale,” published in The Charlestown Patriot-Bridge, as part of a Charlestown Substance Abuse Coalition campaign to raise community awareness. This young woman would be 25 years old today.