Coffs Harbour AOD Agency Forum report

Coffs Harbour 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.

Coffs Harbour – Alcohol and Other Drug Sector Agency Forum

Approximately 20 people from the Coffs Harbour and surrounding area drug and alcohol field, including non-government sector and government representatives, attended a forum hosted by the Council on the 2nd of November 2000.

Mr Gino Vumbaca (ANCD Executive Officer) opened the Forum and introduced Major Brian Watters (ANCD Chairman) and Mr Tony Trimingham (a NSW 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 Coffs Harbour and surrounding areas:

Alcohol is the most significant drug being dealt with.
Drink driving is very prevalent.
Binge drinking by youth is also very prevalent.
Cannabis use amongst youth is very high in the region and is often a 2nd or 3rd generation of high use.
A range of substances are available, and used in the region.
There was acknowledgement that the NSW Drug Summit had led to a significant increase in the resourcing of government services in the region.

The following themes were raised and discussed throughout the forum:

There appears to be a strong level of community denial about the problematic use of alcohol, unless it is linked with indigenous people or youth. The high rates of drink driving convictions appear to be accepted by the community. Even the penalties for drink driving appear unbalanced when compared to those given to heroin users, some of whom are on the methadone program and trying to address their problem. This represents a general over emphasis on illicit drug use in the community.
Greater co-operation with police is required. Methadone clients often appear to be targeted by police and there appears to be a lack of understanding amongst police about the services being provided by the drug and alcohol sector and the rationale for their provision.
A strong level of concern existed about the insufficient number of services to meet the demand from drug users. There are no inpatient detoxification services available in Coffs Harbour unless there is sufficient medical need to hospitalise the person. The local sector has responded by focussing on home-detoxification services but this requires a recognition that families, friends and peers will also be involved and require assistance and support. Appropriate criteria also need to be fully developed and applied for home detoxification to be successful. The gap between home detoxification and high medical need detoxification at hospitals was also discussed. The possibility of establishing low intensity inpatient detoxification beds at existing NGOs and other treatment centres (with links to hospitals and GPs), particularly in rural and regional areas was seen as a potentially low cost resolution.
Greater involvement with local government was seen to be very important, particularly in addressing high profile community concerns such as dealing with public drinking and drug use.
The issue of youth and their needs were discussed at some length. The high rates of alcohol and drug use in the region’s youth were seen as a result of many factors not the least being the lack of affordable facilities for youth, the real lack of public transport for those not actually living in Coffs Harbour and the almost continual demonisation of youth, particularly by local media. There was a need for community pride in young people not fear and/or loathing - the impact of this perception by youth was seen as a crucial factor in their social behaviour.
The issue of further restricting alcohol advertising to theatres where only R rated movies were being screened, as well as further restrictions or removal of advertising from television was also highlighted. Alcohol should only be advertised to people over 18 years of age.
The lack of Indigenous sensitive services in the region, as well as services for women, particularly single women with children and crisis services was highlighted. However, a model at Armidale that is being established with a range of services co-operating was seen as a potential solution to the lack of crisis services (includes mental health, sexual assault and drug and alcohol teams working together). The establishment of better partnerships and working relations between these health teams was seen as vital to address local service and resource issues.
The poor community attitude to needle and syringe programs was seen as a real concern for the sector, particularly as it was often based on misconceptions about the role and rationale for the programs. The role of the local media in sensationalising any discovery of a needle and syringe in a public place also placed undeserved pressure on the program. The ANCD was requested to take a greater lead in promoting the value of needle and syringe programs and educating the public.
The need for rural and regional services to have access to current communication and IT resources was seen as vital in keeping the sector informed on issues.
The impact of petrol prices on budgets that are not indexed and staff safety issues due to lack of mobile phone network coverage were also discussed.

2 November 2000

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