Alcohol use in teens has gotten more press recently because of the tragedy of a 16 year old sports star who died of presumed alcohol overdose after being found collapsed in the hallway at an unsupervised party. For 6 Practical, Advanced Alcohol Ed Tips for Teens, check out the Doc Gurley SFGate article on that topic. The wonderful Nancy Brown over at Teen Health 411 sent me a link to a great site for teens – the eCHUG site at Palo Alto Medical Foundation. It’s an e-Checkup To Go (acronym e-CHUG), but the name is truly apt in this particular case because this one’s about teens and alcohol beliefs/behaviors.
- Image by epicbeer via Flickr
I gave it a whirl. What’s the verdict?
A bit clunky out of the gate, but then, this baby cruises for the finish-line with sleek style. Overall a definite Two Stethoscopes Up! By clunky, the system has an old-school user interface, and requires a fair bit of data entry to get started. But then when you get to the alcohol questions, someone spent a great deal of time, experience and insider expertise designing questions that nail common beliefs and mistaken-beliefs among teens. What’s more, the site has a wonderful system so that you can track your own results, and see if your beliefs/behaviors change over time (cool, huh?). After you’ve logged in, it gives you a unique number to save (I emailed it to myself) so that you can compare your results the next time you visit.
Give it a try – and forward the link along to anyone who is a teen, knows a teen, or loves a teen.
BTW, Nancy has a great article up now about Finding Time To Connect With Older Teens. Check it out.