Traralgon AOD Agency Forum report

Traralgon 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 directly. They do however provide Council members with an idea of the major issues particular communities are facing in relation to drugs and alcohol.

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.

Traralgon – Alcohol and Other Drug Sector Agency Forum

Approximately 20 people from the Traralgon and surrounding area drug and alcohol field - including non-government sector and government representatives from a range of services such as mental health, youth orientated, maternal and child health and psychiatric services, attended a forum hosted by the Council on the 7th of December 2000.

Ms Karen Price (ANCD Project Officer) opened the Forum and introduced Major Brian Watters (ANCD Chairman) and Professor Margaret Hamilton (a member of the ANCD Executive who is based in Victoria).

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 in preparation on effective treatments, heroin overdose deaths and the Australian drug policy approach and achievements.

Discussion then commenced and was facilitated by Ms Price.

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

Alcohol is a major concern for the sector.
They report very high levels of cannabis use in the community.
Apparent cannabis induced psychosis is a major source of referrals to the psychiatric services from drug and alcohol services.
There is a high rate of prescriptions for benzodiazepines and concern over increasing poly drug use (particularly alcohol and benzodiazepines).
There have been increasing reports of chroming (sniffing), particularly among young people in the Latrobe Valley.
Some evidence of an increasing level of opiate use exists.

The following themes were raised and discussed during the forum:

Drug and alcohol issues need to be seen in the broader social policy context – that is, consideration needs to be given to community infrastructure, employment, psycho-social issues and connections to society. A social policy approach to drug and alcohol issues is needed, with regional development investment being a critical foundation for the reduction of the initial uptake of drug use, and the resulting drug related harms.
There needs to be more efforts in relation to the needs of rural youth. Issues such as the importance of role models, the strong influence of peers and family, the high levels of boredom and the need to learn how to have fun without using drugs require further investigation. This region has higher than state average levels of unemployment and a high rate of early school leavers and youth suicide. These are important indicators for drug use and need to be looked at as a whole of community issue.
There is a reported complete lack of bed-based services in the region. The closest ones are in Melbourne. There is also a shortage of mental health services and psychiatrists in the region – there are currently only three psychiatrists to service the entire region.
Given the shortage in services, participants identified that there could be some benefit in providing drug and alcohol training to professionals working in related areas such as juvenile justice, homelessness, etc. This kind of initiative could facilitate service delivery for the clients (seamlessness) and a better working relationship between the services.
Some frustration was expressed by participants over the imposition of urban models of service delivery onto rural and regional areas. The levels of cooperation between services (both within the AOD sector and peripheral services) is generally very good in rural settings in this region and some impressive innovation is resulting. Participants felt that this was not always recognised and allowed for in an overly restrictive and inflexible administration of drug treatment services/funding.
Victorian public drunkenness laws mean that often, if a person is picked up by the police and is intoxicated, he/she is taken to the watchouse overnight, rather than to a sobering up facility. A need was identified to establish sobering up facilities for non-Koorie people, as the local Koorie facility is felt to work well.
The role of local government in local drug issues was highlighted. More encouragement for local government to become involved in drug and alcohol issues was considered necessary.
Some concern was expressed about the mixed messages surrounding cannabis and whether it is a harmful drug or not. Regardless of the research, workers are reporting anecdotally that people are finding it difficult to give cannabis up and are experiencing psychological difficulties as a result of high levels of cannabis use.
Health promotion and prevention are areas that require further effort.

Karen Price
ANCD Secretariat

7 December 2000

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