Townsville AOD Agency Forum report

Townsville 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 are now also being conducted around the country. These forums form part of the Councils 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 agency forum in Townsville was jointly hosted by Drug-Arm which organized and co-ordinated the event. The Prime Ministers Office was also represented at the forum.

Townsville Alcohol and Other Drug Sector Agency Forum

Approximately 20 people from the Townsville drug and alcohol field, including non-government sector, police and government representatives, attended a forum hosted by the Council and Drug Arm at the Plaza Hotel on Tuesday, 16 May 2000. Unfortunately due to the late confirmation of the forum and a major military parade being held at Townsville at the same time as the forum there were not as many participants as could be expected.

Mr Young (Drug-Arm, Executive Director) gave a brief introduction to the forum and then Mr Vumbaca (ANCD Executive Officer) introduced Mr John Perrin (Senior Adviser on Social Policy to the Prime Minister) and Major Brian Watters (ANCD Chairman).

Mr Perrin gave a brief outline on the Governments Tough on Drugs Policy and described how it is one of the most important social policy initiatives of the government and has the keen interest of the Prime Minister. The issue of treatment and its importance were discussed with reference to the need for more resources which the government had begun to address with an additional $500 million in funding.

Mr Perrin described the ANCD as the most important body on advising on drug policy in Australia. He acknowledged the diversity of views on the Council as one of its strengths and the key role it plays in determining allocation of funds as well as policy areas such as Diversion.

Major Watters outlined the role of the Council, its Terms of Reference, the Key Activity and Broader Relationship Areas within the Councils Work Plan and the individual Council members. 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.

Major Watters also acknowledged the need for a focus on primary prevention and addressing the problems caused by alcohol in the Australian community.

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

Council members in attendance were:

Major Brian Watters (Chair)
Mr Dennis Young
Other members of the panel were:
Mr John Perrin (Prime Ministers Office)
Mr Gino Vumbaca (Executive Officer)

The following themes were raised and discussed throughout the forum:

The need for Indigenous people to be involved in the delivery of Indigenous services.
There was a lengthy discussion on the availability of detoxification services. Whilst there are currently 4 beds at the local hospital there was some discussion on the difficulty for this service to cope with demand and in particular the specific needs of clients (eg women, youth etc).

Although the option of increasing home detoxification services was seen as part of the response to this demand there was concern about the number of homeless people (or people within inappropriate homes) that required detoxification.

It was also acknowledged that a consensus on the number of beds and type of detoxification facility required in Townsville was not possible at the forum. It was agreed that a needs assessment on the issue was required.
The lack of AOD services for regional centres was highlighted. In particular the implementation of the Diversion Initiative could be problematic in these areas if police are unable to divert people to agencies or services. The difficulties being faced in many of these centres was acknowledged although there was a realisation that the establishment of a full range of AOD services in every Regional center was impractical and an inefficient use of scarce resources. Discussion then centred on potential solutions for this problem with the Vietnam Veterans Counseling Service model being seen as a potential model to copy for AOD service delivery.

The possibility of encouraging jointly funded public and private ventures for the establishment and delivery of AOD services was also raised as a potential option
The difficulties for NGOs, particularly small NGOs, surrounding submission based funding were discussed. There was also some concern at the level of follow-up to ensure successful applicants were utilising the funds appropriately.
The important role of prevention, particularly in skilling young people on a range of mental health and emotional well being issues was seen as critical in reducing the uptake of drug use. The role of parents was seen as crucial.

The forum was provided with details of the upcoming National Illicit Drug Campaign and its focus on parents. The national distribution of the booklet that accompanies this campaign was requested to also be made available in a variety of community languages.
Inappropriate prescribing of morphine and the use of opiates during pregnancy were also briefly discussed.

16 May 2000

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