Binge battle: youth seek help over rising alcohol abuse

The number of young people seeking help for alcohol abuse in Melbourne's eastern suburbs has more than quadrupled in the past five years.

The Youth Substance Abuse Service, which helps young people aged 12-21 in Knox and other eastern municipalities, reported 135 young people sought help from the service last year - up from 28 in 2003.

Manager Kate Catchlove said the rise in presentations showed society was starting to be aware of the impact of alcohol.

"More people are recognising this as more of an issue compared with five years ago and are seeking assistance.

"It's a really good opportunity to put it out there that there's an issue with alcohol and our culture that we have to attack.''

She said almost 900 people used the service in 2003-07. Many clients were using a combination of alcohol, cannabis and amphetamines.

Ms Catchlove said the underlying reasons for substance abuse were the same as in previous years.

"Unfortunately, this kind of drug use is often symptomatic of a young person having experienced extreme childhood trauma.''

Eastern Access Community Health drug and alcohol services manager Darrell Hinga said he'd seen a rise in the number of youth in need of alcohol counselling.

"It is not as significant as YSAS. Ours has remained quite steady in terms of people needing alcohol-related services.'' Mr Hinga said more funding would enable bigger and better services to meet the demand.

"If we were given the tools to get out there and target people, we would experience the rise in people in the need of alcohol services.''

He said it was unfortunate money was not being directed to treating people for early intervention.

A spokesman for the State Government said it was concerned about evidence showing an increase in harmful binge-drinking among young people. It had released a Victorian Alcohol Action Plan, which includes funding for family therapeutic intervention for youth abusing alcohol.

The Opposition's drug abuse spokeswoman, Mary Wooldridge, said there was growing concern from service providers and families about young people and alcohol abuse.

Camden Haven Courier