"What are you waiting for -- last call, or a wake-up call?" is the question to be posed by alcohol research and treatment leaders at a media briefing to be held 10:30-11:30 A.M., Tuesday, April 4, in Georgetown University's Copley Hall. The briefing launches the second annual National Alcohol Screening Day (NASD), a national outreach program designed to educate people about alcohol use disorders, screen them for a range of problems including risky drinking, and refer those in need to treatment resources. NASD is the result of a collaboration among the National Institutes of Health's National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT), and the nonprofit Screening for Mental Health, Inc. (SMH).
Following a welcome by James Donahue, Ph.D., the Georgetown University Dean of Students, the media briefing will feature remarks by Senator Joseph R. Biden of Delaware, Enoch Gordis, M.D., Director, NIAAA, Nelba Chavez, Ph.D., Administrator, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Ms. Michelle Perry, a drinking driving crash survivor, and Mr. Jeffrey Levy, the father of a college student who died in an alcohol-related incident. Patrick Kilcarr, Ph.D., Director, Student Health Education, Georgetown University, will moderate the briefing. Georgetown is one of about 400 colleges that will conduct NASD screenings April 6.
Persons who visit one of the free, anonymous screenings at an anticipated 1500 sites across the country can assess their alcohol use and learn about the full range of drinking problems as well as what to do and where to go if they need help. "We hope that the second annual National Alcohol Screening Day will build upon last year's success to increase public understanding of alcohol abuse and alcoholism as clinical disorders for which we now have proven, research-based treatments," says NIAAA Director Enoch
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Contact: Ann Bradley
abradley@willco.niaaa.nih.gov
301-443-3860
NIH/National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
29-Mar-2000