Discussions by Link Youth Health Service with African parents indicate considerable concern regarding how their children would cope with the influence of Australia’s drinking and drug-taking culture. African young people themselves indicated they were concerned about alcohol and marijuana use by their peers.
Category: Research papers
One of the ways for government to influence consumption of alcohol is via pricing, and a major influence in this area is taxation. The aim of this project is to provide comprehensive data on the effects of current indirect taxation on low-strength alcoholic beverages.
This study applies contemporary sociological analysis to the world of inhalant users in Melbourne, drawing on interviews with users, ex-users and expert workers, as well as wider public accounts in research, policy and media coverage. This study also critiques current Victorian policy approaches to inhalant use and suggests ways in which harms associated with inhalant use and with existing treatment and management strategies might be reduced.
In the ten years 1992 to 2001, it was reported that approximately 31,000 Australians died from alcohol-related disease and injury. Harm from excessive alcohol use consumes expensive health care resources, contributes to lost productivity, and results in costs due to road accidents and legal actions. Early screening and intervention, particularly by GPs, has significant potential to prevent alcohol-related health and social problems.
Regular and risky drinking is common among many young Australians, leading to significant short and long-term harm; yet little is known about the effectiveness of treatment and rehabilitation programs.
Reports in the literature show that health professionals rarely give mothers advice on alcohol consumption and lactation. In one US study nearly half of mothers surveyed were advised to drink alcohol while only one sixth were advised to abstain. However, alcohol is generally reported to have a number of adverse effects on lactation and infant behaviour.
This pilot project examines alternative ‘Rites of Passage’ which have the potential to be developed into formal transition points between childhood and adulthood. Because there are no longer any formalised rites of passage, young people have adopted other processes to signify their passage to adulthood.
This randomised trial of adolescents presenting to hospital emergency departments in Perth with problems related to alcohol or other drug use, used the then recently implemented system of linking records in hospitals and medical practices in Western Australia. The aim of this research was to validate the use of hospital record linkage procedures as a method of collecting follow-up data and to use this methodology to assemble outcome data on the study cohort.
This project aims to develop a reliable multiplier method to estimate the wider prevalence of problematic alcohol use based on the innovative use of an existing AOD information telephone counselling services with the addition of brief questions on treatment utilisation.
Macquarie University – This project evaluates the Oolong House Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation program in order to identify its strengths, weaknesses, and community stability, particularly for Indigenous stakeholders. The focus of the project was on staff experiences, client intake, and the music program.