The Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services is the state of Connecticut's single state agency for providing comprehensive mental health and substance abuse services throughout Connecticut. Its substance abuse prevention service system is organized to ensure that Connecticut youth, families, workplaces, schools, and communities have access to high quality and effective prevention programs. The Connecticut State Incentive Grant can also be found at this site. Foremost among these is their Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention program intended to increase social skills training for youth and parents at risk of substance abuse. The major programs include activities under the Safe and Drug Free Schools programs as well as after school programs, family resource centers, Youth Service Bureaus, and truancy and drop-out prevention programs.
Services primarily target school-aged youth and their parents.
Its Bureau of Community Health and other bureaus addresses a variety of health issues related to substance abuse prevention. Parents and children are most often the target population and services are offered in different communities at different levels across the state. The Department of Social Services supports a variety of projects targeting children, parents, disadvantaged youth and minority youth at risk for substance abuse. Services range from providing a variety of financial subsidies for poor and low income families to offering a range of child care services, peer education programs, crisis management services, family violence prevention, human resource development services, adolescent pregnancy prevention, and many others. The Department of Transportation's Division of Highway Safety administers the state's Highway Safety Program.