For this year’s National Alcohol Screening day, representatives of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), the Yale Center for Injury Prevention and Control Research, and the Yale-New Haven Hospital Emergency Department’s Project ASSERT, spent the day talking to hospital staff and patients about alcohol awareness.
MADD CT Program Coordinator Johanna Krebs said her organization values events like this not only to draw attention to the dangers of drinking and driving, but also to spread the word about their lesser known services like victim advocacy.
What MADD refers to as their “best kept secret” is actually a main pillar of their organization. Victim advocates offer free assistance navigating the legal system, emotional and moral support, and provide coping resources and referrals.
Yale Injury Prevention Researcher Dr. Federico Vaca echoed the necessity of increasing awareness outside of the usual scope. By holding events in places like hospitals, doctors and medical professionals get prevention information to take back to both their patients and their families.
“Without raising awareness and having important discussions with not only our patients but also our colleagues in medicine,” he said, “they might never know that their alcohol use patterns are putting them are considerable risk for serious alcohol-related injury event, diseases, and alcohol use disorder.”
The event was held on April 11th on the 2nd floor of Yale-New Haven Hospital.