Alcoholics Anonymous Reviews

The theme for Drug Action Week 2008 is Alcohol is a drug too.

This national week of activities runs from June 22 to 28 and aims to raise awareness about the harm caused by the misuse of alcohol and other drugs.

Recent studies into the binge drinking habits of West Australian teenagers have revealed 27 per cent of 12 to 17-year-olds drink at risky levels.

The new Alcohol and Your Family resource kit provides a suite of information booklets covering the legal and social issues surrounding alcohol and young people.

Drug and Alcohol Office community programs manager Grant Akesson said the kit was developed in response to a need by parents to have up-to-date, accurate information on talking to their teens about alcohol.

“Parents play a key role in the development of young people’s attitudes towards drinking,” he said.

“They are in an excellent position to provide education on safer alcohol use and to support the development of positive and responsible attitudes and expectations about drinking.”

Wheatbelt Public Health unit health promotion officer Fiona Hughes said the key message behind the kit is that the culture of drinking and the level of acceptance, promotion and distribution of alcohol needs to change.

“It’s not that we drink, but how we drink, that is the issue,” she said.

“Providing a positive example, explaining expectations and ensuring adequate supervision where alcohol is supplied are all recommendations made in this resource.”

The kit contains four booklets and is part of the Rethink Drink alcohol education program, a long term initiative that aims to change the drinking culture in Western Australia and encourage safer drinking settings.

Binge drinking has been a focus in the media recently, and the new Federal Government report highlights that alcohol misuse costs the community over $15 billion a year and is second only to tobacco in its contribution to chronic disease burden.

Alcohol consumption has been found to be associated with a variety of adverse health effects including liver cirrhosis, mental illness, foetal alcohol spectrum disorder and several types of cancer.

However, it is the increasing social and community consequences relating to alcohol including violence and road crashes that is causing the most harm.

More than 30 per cent of alcohol-related hospitalisations in WA are due to injury; this includes falls, assaults, road crashes and self-inflicted harm.

The Wheatbelt region has been identified as having significantly higher rates of alcohol-related hospitalisations compared to the state.

In 2006, the cost of these hospitalisations was close to $2.5 million. This does not include the costs of emergency department presentations.

The Australian binge drinking culture has become firmly entrenched in everyday life, it is not a new problem, but it is something that affects everyone.

To decrease the negative impact alcohol is having in the region, communities need to work together to change the characteristics of drinking environments that support binge drinking including community attitudes to drunkenness, the availability of alcohol, how alcohol is supplied, role-modelling, and alcohol advertising.

The new State-wide Rethink Drink campaign is a population-based education initiative aimed at reducing hazardous and harmful alcohol use by changing the drinking culture.

The four main messages of the new campaign are: Rethink the way alcohol is served in licensed venues; Rethink how widely alcohol is made available in the community; Rethink the supply of alcohol to young people; Rethink the widespread promotion and advertising of alcohol.

Over the past 12 months a total of 1,516 volunteer bar staff from Wheatbelt clubs and organisations were trained in responsible service of alcohol by Wheatbelt Police and Wheatbelt Public Health unit.

There are a range of other different strategies and resources available to assist communities, licensees and local governments in reducing the impact of alcohol in the Wheatbelt.

These include presentations for school students and parents, local government toolkits, alcohol accord and alcohol management plans, local drug action groups and community education resources.

Wagin Argus