Newswise — Stony Brook University has launched the Red Watch Band Movement, a national grassroots educational and intervention program designed to teach students to recognize the signs of toxic drinking, provide them with necessary tools to take action in cases where someone is at risk for acute alcohol poisoning, and to actually step in when help is needed.
Toxic drinking, or binge drinking, is when a person consumes so much alcohol he passes out and in some cases dies. According to The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, an estimated 1,700 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die annually from alcohol-related unintentional injuries, while some 30,000 college students require medical treatment after overdosing on alcohol each year.
The Red Watch Band was established by Stony Brook University President Dr. Shirley Strum Kenny, legendary graphic artist and advertising executive Milton Glaser, Dr. Jerry Stein, Dean of Students at Stony Brook University, Dr. Jenny Hwang, Associate Dean and Director for Prevention and Outreach at Stony Brook, and a longtime member of the Stony Brook faculty whose college-age son died from acute alcohol poisoning last year.
When Dr. Kenny learned of the tragedy, she reached out to the family with an offer to help ensure that such a tragedy would not occur at Stony Brook, or on other college and university campuses for that matter. The result was the development of the Red Watch Band Movement as an education and intervention program that launched this spring at Stony Brook to provide campus community members with the knowledge, awareness, and skills to prevent student toxic drinking deaths by calling for immediate medical help. By accessing a tool kit on the Red Watch Band Movement web site " www.redwatchband.org " colleges and universities nationwide are availed all program components.
To date, some 90 Stony Brook students have completed the training. Peer training has already resulted in several 911 calls to help intoxicated students on the campus. Each student that completes the course is given the distinctive red watch for identification.
The Red Watch Band program, Dr. Hwang said, is designed to debunk a central myth that after someone passes out from alcohol use, it's appropriate to let them sleep it off. "Because alcohol has a toxic effect on the body, especially at high levels, someone who is passed out from alcohol use needs immediate attention," she said. "NOT calling for help may result in someone's death " a death that is 100 percent preventable."
This program is "not simply about toxic drinking. It's about the importance of peers taking care of each other and having the courage to do what's right," she explained.
"Stony Brook University willingly takes on this central role in raising awareness about how to prevent death from drinking," said Dr. Kenny. "We created the Red Watch Band Movement not only to educate students about the dangers of toxic drinking but also to try to change the culture in terms of the importance what it means to get help for the person who needs it"¦to reach out on behalf of someone in need."
In the Red Watch Band Movement, Stony Brook students participate in a four-hour training curriculum, working with medical and mental health experts to learn the techniques needed to handle alcohol emergencies and the quick steps they can take to rescue an inebriated or passed-out student from serious medical problems and possible death. In the comprehensive program, students are taught to recognize the symptoms of toxic drinking, how to summon immediate help using 911, how to keep the victim awake and breathing freely and how to perform CPR if breathing stops.
To learn more, go to www.redwatchband.org.
Photo caption: Student participants of the Red Watch Band Movement receive their watches from President Shirley Strum Kenny at a ceremony at Sunwood.
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