The Voice of New Hampshire’s Young Adults: Results of the 2015 Young Adult Needs Assessment

In partnership with the NH Department of Health & Human Services, Bureau of Drug and Alcohol Services, JSI — the state contractor for the New Hampshire Center for Excellence— coordinated with the State’s Regional Public Health Networks to participate in a comprehensive assessment of young adults.

The focus of the assessment was on the risk behavior, perceptions, and attitudes as they related to binge drinking, prescription drug misuse, and illicit opioid (heroin) use among young adults. The goals of the assessment were to:

• Identify opioid misuse prevalence among 18-20 and 21-25 year olds to define baseline numbers and to use for evaluation of future program implementation.
• Identify alcohol misuse (binge drinking) prevalence among 18- 20 and 21-25 year olds to define the baseline and use for evaluation of future program implementation.
• Identify factors related to use of opioid use and binge drinking that could inform strategy development.