“The numbers are definitely increasing. We’re seeing a higher percentage of kids, they’re younger and their blood alcohol level on average is higher,” said Christy Adams, Injury Prevention Coordinator at the UC Davis Medical Center. “We see the worst of the worst. We see the kids who are so intoxicated that they need to put on life support for 24 hours to survive. We also see the kids who are involved in the motor vehicle collisions, a lot of the serious traumas and suicide attempts.”

With so many kids caught in such serious problems, the center is using a $500,000 state grant to train emergency room nurses and social workers to intervene when kids arrive.

Adams says the staff is not trained to “teach or preach” to the kids, but to sit down and follow the “F-L-O” model. “F” stands for feedback, telling kids what can happen to them if they keep binge drinking. “L” then directs them to “look” for reasons to change—how did they end up in the E.R. in the first place? Finally, “O,” encourages them to explore “options for change.”

“Most of them don’t drink this way, and so when you really put it in front of a teen or adolescent and tell them ‘this is not normal behavior,’ it really kind of gives them a little more support and reason for change.”

The program is expected to be up and running in January.

(cfu)