Broome AOD Agency Forum report

Broome AOD Agency Forum report

Background

The Australian National Council on Drugs (ANCD) has commenced a process whereby it holds a local agency forum, in conjunction with its meeting in each State and Territory. Given the Council only meets 4 times, a year a number of additional forums in rural and regional Australia are now also being conducted. These forums form part of the Council’s strategy to fulfil its role of representing the views of non-government and community-based organisations working in the drug and alcohol field.

It should be noted that all the issues raised at the Forums are not necessarily areas that the Council will be able to address. They do however provide an important touchstone for the Council's members.

The Council also intends to prepare a report on the issues affecting the alcohol and other drug sector at the completion of its rural and regional consultation forums in December 2000.

Broome – Alcohol and Other Drug Sector Agency Forum

Approximately 6 people from the Broome and surrounding area drug and alcohol field, including non-government sector and government representatives, attended a forum hosted by the Council on the 18th of October 2000. In addition visits were made to some NGOs unable to attend the Forum itself.

Mr Gino Vumbaca (ANCD Executive Officer) opened the Forum and introduced Major Brian Watters (ANCD Chairman) and Mr Arthur Toon (WA based ANCD Representative).

Major Watters outlined the role of the Council, it’s Key Activity Areas and the membership of the Council. Major Watters also stressed the importance of working in partnership across sectors and the unique position of the ANCD being at the highest level of policy making. Major Watters concluded by outlining the recently commissioned projects by the ANCD such as indigenous programs research, rural study grants and papers on effective treatments, heroin overdose and policy achievements.

The floor was then opened for questions and comments, with discussion facilitated by Mr Vumbaca.

Forum participants provided the following background information on the alcohol and other drug scene in Broome and surrounding areas:

Alcohol remains the biggest issue for the region.
The adult community believes that cannabis is a real issue of concern although the youth in the region do not necessarily hold this view.
Solvent and inhalant use is a problem for some remote areas and communities although the success of the Avgas program was acknowledged.
There are real issues about a lack of suitably trained or experienced staff for services in the region. This contributes to a high turn over of staff and employing staff with low levels of experience.
As a result of high costs for travel, food, petrol, staff and requirements such as air conditioning, the cost of providing services in the area is very high, particularly for residential programs.

The following themes were raised and discussed throughout the forum:

There is a perceived lack of strategy for the NGO sector including a further perception that the Government needs to recognise and understand the work done in the NGO sector and the type of support they require financially. Recognition of the NGO sector not being as well developed in this region, the need for better partnerships with government services and the development of policy and procedure protocols were particularly highlighted as areas for assistance.
Lack of housing options for people wishing to undertake residential treatment is a real issue that is undermining the efforts of the sector. The problem lies in the high cost of housing in the Broome region. Residential treatment requires the part payment of social security benefits to the service provider. However, because of the shortage of affordable housing in the region people are reluctant to give up their housing and are also unable to pay rent for 2 places at the same time. The result being that many forego treatment to maintain their housing.
The provision of post treatment supported accommodation in Broome for people who live up to thousands of kilometres away was seen as a more viable solution to the provision of follow up services in the many remote communities that make up the region.
Given the large distances to be covered in this and many other regions, the impact of rising fuel prices was now having a major impact on current budgets and would result in service reductions.
Funding issues were raised. In particular the difficulty associated with separate State and Federal initiatives and the problems with the preference to fund pilot programs that do not have provision for ongoing budgets if successful. This issue was particularly salient for workers in remote communities that had to bear the brunt of anger from the community for program or project closures due to lack of committed funds. The need to follow up with agencies that receive funding to support or assist in implementation was also highlighted
The issue of needle and syringe programs and some of the problems associated with providing this type of public health service within Broome were also discussed.
It was agreed that many communities require skills and knowledge on how to deal with the periodic episodes of petrol sniffing that occur. Looking at the underlying issues and providing positive response was seen as a key issue to addressing the issue effectively.
There was concern expressed about the need for a 24-hour sobering up shelter. The current shelter only receives funding for limited hours of operation that does not include Saturday or Sunday nights or daytime services.
The Forum then discussed possible innovative solutions to the issues raised. As a result, an alternative model that was based on training local people to be part of a local drug action team that could provide community based, controlled and operated treatment and services itself was highlighted. It required the community taking responsibility for its problems by taking responsibility for the solutions and offered a way around housing issues by dealing with the problem in the community. The concept of attaching rehabilitation areas to the community itself, so that people could learn skills in how to cope within their home environment, was one possible suggestion discussed further. It was also recognised that any community training model would require ongoing support and assistance for that community, as well as a long-term commitment of resources and strategy.

18 October 2000

Top of page

Whilst all care has been made to ensure only authorised material appears on this site, the Australian National Council on Drugs accepts no responsibility for inaccurate or false representations appearing herein.