Town Hall Presentation on Underage Drinking Happening this Tuesday in Colby
Saturday, March 7th, 2020 -- 10:39 AM
-There’s no doubt that when people think of Wisconsin, they tend to think of cheese and beer.Wisconsin has always been known for its alcohol culture, but state and local statistics show how dangerous that can be, especially to children in middle and high school. I spoke with Rebecca Greisen, Health Educator and Public Health Specialist for Clark County, and she discussed some statistics regarding binge drinking.
"First I want to talk about the culture of alcohol in Wisconsin .. and this might get a little long, but I think it’s important to start with this topic."
"Although heavy drinking has become quite normalized in Wisconsin (& is actually a point of pride for some), it still has many serious potential health implications such as cirrhosis of the liver, increased risk for heart attack, alcohol dependence, & fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Working for the Health Department I feel like I just need to get that information out there."
"Binge drinking is defined as consuming large quantities of alcohol in one sitting … this would be 4 or more drinks for a woman and 5 or more drinks for a man."
"Heavy drinking is defined as 2 or more drinks per day for men & more than 1 drink a day for women. So, technically if a woman has more than one glass of wine a night (on a regular basis), she would be considered a heavy drinker."
"Now we’ll hop into some numbers …"
"In the United States, approximately 80,000 deaths are attributed annually to excessive drinking & it is the third leading lifestyle-related cause of death."
"According to the Wisconsin State Health Assessment and Health Improvement Plan (which is data taken from 2017), Wisconsin continues to rank among the worst in the nation for both heavy & binge drinking among adults."
"At the time of the survey, approximately 24.3% of Wisconsin adults (or 1 in 4) engaged in binge drinking compared to the national median of 18.3%."
"In addition, 9.8% of Wisconsin adults engaged in heavy drinking, compared to the national median of 6.6% .. so we are above average compared to the rest of the nation."
"Do you mind if I go through some more data?"
"In 2012, the estimated annual costs associated with excessive alcohol consumption in Wisconsin totaled …. Any guesses? A few thousand? A few million? Well, it was actually $6.8 billion."
"In 2010, more than 67,000 people were arrested as a direct result of alcohol use or misuse in Wisconsin."
"The death rate due to alcohol liver disease has increased by 28% since 2001."
"So, we have this culture of alcohol in Wisconsin. It seems more normal to drink … than not to drink."
Rebecca also discussed some local statistics that were provided by the Clark County Sheriff’s Department.
"In 2019, do you have any guesses how many incidents were called into Clark County Sheriff’s Department in relation to drunken driving? 96! There have been 11 calls into Sheriff’s Department related to drunken driving in 2020 so far."
"Getting off on a tangent, I would actually like to talk about venues & venue options & how they support alcohol use. I grew up in Wisconsin Rapids. And my dad used to take use to local racetracks on the weekends. The main one we went to was Golden Sands Speedway located between Rapids and Plover. I noticed growing up that they hada small family-friendly or “family” area where you weren’t allowed to drink, smoke, or use foul language. Not many smaller places or venues in Wisconsin even offer that option. Bigger places like Miller Park do .. and inside Camp Randall Stadium (where the Badgers play) you can’t drink at all … but our local softball diamonds, campgrounds, & other public areas don’t really offer places to not be around alcohol."
"Now, let’s take it back to Clark County. Data from the 2019 County Health Rankings & Roadmaps website indicates that like Wisconsin, 24% of Clark County residents engage in excessive drinking. Again, we don’t have many options for people not to be around alcohol in public places."
"Now I’m not saying that I am against alcohol, or that alcohol is wrong. My point is that I think there is a time & a place. Children & young adults are highly impressionable … & they often follow by example. If it is normal for their parents to drink, kids will be more likely to drink."
Rebecca then discussed some youth data collected from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey.
"So let’s look at youth data. In the spring of 2019, I helped coordinate a big survey for Clark County called the Youth Risk Behavior Survey or YRBS. We had 740 Clark County middle school students and 774 Clark County high school students participate. From this survey, 27% of Clark County high school students reported having at least one drink of alcohol in the past 30 days (209 of the 774 surveyed) and 14% reported binge drinking in the past 30 days."
"Even more shocking, 19% of Clark County middle school students reported having at least one drink of alcohol within the past 30 days. That was 141 of the 740 who were surveyed. And these are only 6th, 7th, & 8th graders we are talking about."
As Rebecca mentioned, to make parents and the community aware of the amount of binge drinking that occurs with students, they’ll be holding a Town Hall Meeting on March 10th in Colby.
"So this brings me to the event we have coming up next Tuesday, March 10th. We will be hosting a town hall meeting on underage drinking at the Colby Community Library from 6PM-8PM. We highly, highly encourage the public (and especially parents to attend)."
"The purpose of the town hall meeting will be to have a facilitated conversation between community members, law enforcement, and school districts. How can we all work better together to address the issue of underage drinking? Anyone is welcome to attend. Organizations that have agreed to have a presence at this meeting include Abbotsford School District, Ascension Our Lady of Victory Hospital, Clark County Health Department, Clark County Sheriff’s Department, Colby-Abby Police Department, Colby School District, Neillsville Police Department and Marshfield Clinic Health System.
Childcare, a meal, and Spanish interpreting services will be provided."
"I should also mention how this event came to be. Members of a group called Healthy Clark County applied for a $500 grant through Northwoods Coalition and we were awarded. So, this money will be used to supply food & interpreter services."
Once again, the Underage Drinking Town Hall is being held this upcoming Tuesday, March 10th, from 6pm-8pm at the Colby City Hall. Rebecca also stated that any other groups or organizations who would like to attend this event are welcome.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.