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Community report—Brisbane, QldBackgroundThe National Indigenous Drug and Alcohol Committee (NIDAC) of the Australian National Council on Drugs (ANCD) has determined that it will hold an alcohol and other drug (AOD) agency forum in conjunction with its meetings. These forums will focus on Indigenous AOD issues. Through these forums the NIDAC is able to ensure that the views of a range of stakeholders, e.g. Indigenous organisations, non-government organisations etc, that deal with Indigenous AOD issues are considered as part of drug policy advice. The NIDAC produces a report from each forum which aims to provide a brief description of the issues raised by forum participants. These reports are made available on the ANCD’s internet site to enable forum participants and interested others to access the issues that were discussed. The NIDAC also provides a copy of each report to the ANCD, as well as the Premier or Chief Minister and the Minister/s responsible for AOD and Indigenous issues in each jurisdiction, to ensure that the Government is aware of the issues that were raised. It should also be noted that the issues raised at the forums are not necessarily areas that the NIDAC agrees with or is able to address. They do however provide the NIDAC members with an important insight into community concerns and perceptions about specific AOD issues. In addition, the NIDAC believes that it has an obligation to participants to report the issues and concerns raised in an unfettered manner. Brisbane 2006Approximately 80 people from Queensland participated in the NIDAC’s AOD agency forum, which was held at the Novotel Hotel, Brisbane on 18 May 2006. The forum participants included representatives from a range of non-government organisations and government departments. The NIDAC Chair, Associate Professor Ted Wilkes, officially welcomed participants to the forum, explained its purpose, and then introduced the Executive Officer of the ANCD, Mr Gino Vumbaca. Mr Vumbaca gave a brief presentation that:
At the conclusion of his presentation Mr Vumbaca opened the floor for questions or comments about current and emerging AOD issues in Queensland, with the NIDAC members responding where possible. The following issues were raised:
Forum participants commented that services did not always extend to people in need. In particular, Indigenous people with drug and alcohol problems who were homeless or in prison were often not receiving the services that they needed to address their drug and alcohol issues. It was also noted that there was a lack of aftercare services, particularly in rural areas. Another issue raised at the forum involved drug and alcohol services that had clients with both drug and alcohol and mental health issues. Drug and alcohol services are experiencing difficulties referring clients onto mental health services because clients are assessed by mental health as having a drug and alcohol problem. Drug and alcohol services on the other hand feel that the client’s mental health needs extend beyond the skills and expertise of their service. The outcome is that clients are not able to receive the assistance they require. It was also raised by participants that there is a perception in the community that Indigenous people are too hard to work with due to the complexities of their needs resulting in them not receiving the services they needed. Forum participants spoke at great length about the need for services to work in partnership with one another. Currently difficulties are experienced by organisations and workers in the drug and alcohol field because services often don’t work effectively together. This was highlighted as a particular issue in outback and rural areas where it was perceived that there was a greater need for services to work together. It was suggested that the non government sector as well as the government and non government sectors needed to work together more and that tremendous benefit could be obtained if the State and Commonwealth governments were able to work more effectively with one another. Some forum participants shared how they had been successful in forming positive partnerships with other bodies such as Police and that when this had occurred it had made significant differences to the outcomes for their clients. Forum participants expressed their concerns about Indigenous people increasingly identifying prisons as a safer place or a place of belonging for them to live in. Participants explained how individuals leaving prisons would often commit further offences so they would be sent back to prison in order to access shelter and food. Participants expressed particular concern with youth who had no where to go when they come out of detention. Concern was raised by forum participants with the way the media targeted Indigenous people. The recent media focus on Indigenous communities and how communities were seen to support activities such as violence and sexual abuse of children was raised. Participants expressed that they felt all Indigenous people were often branded the same and that this was mostly in a negative light. Participants identified the importance of Indigenous people being included in decision making processes to enable effective resolution to the issues facing Indigenous people. Participants felt that decision and systems were identified as largely being made and controlled by non Aboriginal people. Participants spoke of Indigenous workers continuing to be paid minimal wages. Some services are faced with operating 24 hours a day 7 days a week and staff not being paid comparatively with other services such as government services for working evenings and weekends. This has resulted in good workers moving into government positions because services can’t afford to compete with the government sector. Issues around reporting to funding bodies were raised as a major concern for forum participants. Participants shared that services are often funded by multiple funding bodies that have their own individual reporting requirements. This has caused huge demands on services to comply with the requirements of funding bodies. Some services also do not have the resources to do the reports which then results in their funding being cut because they are unable to meet the reporting requirements of the funding body. It was highlighted within the forum that this issue is not unique to Indigenous services and that many non government drug and alcohol services face the same issues. Staff within services are also often not experienced in writing funding submissions and therefore face problems with obtaining funding from funding bodies. Requests were made by the participants to have a reporting process in place that was the same with different funding bodies. This would cut back on duplication and make it easier for services to learn how to write these reports. Many participants reported that they had received funding from Commonwealth sources over the last few years. Concern was raised that most of this funding is not ongoing and services are often unable to obtain funding from elsewhere and therefore are left with no choice but to discontinue running programs and services that may be otherwise achieving positive outcomes and meeting the needs of clients. The expectation that the Qld government should provide ongoing funding for these services was also discussed at the forum however participants were informed that this was not taking place due to a lack of funding. A request for greater collaboration between the state and Commonwealth governments over the issue of funding was made by participants. Participants also raised that there was little funding available for capital works or infrastructure improvements and that current funding arrangements often set up competitive tendering arrangements. Another issues raised related to many services not knowing the true costs of setting up and running services and therefore did not seek adequate funding when they submitted their submissions. This resulted in them experiencing difficulties with covering all the costs associated with the project or service. Forum participants spoke of their desire to have benchmarking in Queensland to guide services with funding issues. Participants identified this as being present in other states and that it would be a useful guide for them. More clients are being diverted from the court and prison system to drug and alcohol services then previously encountered. Services that were predominately providing services for voluntary clients are now also dealing with diverted clients. Participants agreed that diverted clients are providing many more challenges for services as they often present with behaviours learnt in prison that they then bring with them into residential services that are causing problems for the other clients and service. Participants also spoke of the difficulties they face when they make good progress with clients but then when the client returns to their home they are faced with the same challenges which led to their problems. Concern was also expressed with Indigenous youth and how they are increasingly becoming angry about their situation and that youth as young as 8 and 9 are now going into juvenile detention centres. There was a consensus amongst the group for there to be education and intervention targeted at youth to address the issues that are occurring and that if positive intervention does not occur today’s youth will be lost. 18 May 2006
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