Public Health Promotion Project-
“The health promotion project plan on the prevention of alcohol use among youths of aboriginal traits”
Executive Summary
Usage of alcohol by youth is dangerous, not only because of the risks involved with acute impairment, but also because of its consequences on their long-term development and well-being. Road accidents due to drink and drive are perhaps the most visible of these dangers, with alcohol being implicated in nearly one-third of youth traffic mortalities. Underage alcohol use is also associated with suicide, violence, educational failure, and other behavioural problems. All of these problems are expanded by early onset of teen drinking: the lesser the age of the drinker, the worse is the problem. This program aims at setting certain steps in order to create awareness about the alcohol consumption and prevention youths of aboriginal traits.
Table of Contents:
Executive Summary 2
Table of Contents: 3
Introduction 4
Health Promotion and Target Group 5
Aims of Health Promotion 5
Health Promotion prevention management perspective 6
Secondary prevention 6
Stakeholders and community consultation 6
Health Message/Logo 7
Health Promotion Activity 7
Health Promotion Evaluation 9
Conclusion 9
References: 10
Introduction
Teenage and youth are considered to be a crucial developmental period that is marked by a series of life transitions, for e.g., entering employment after leaving the compulsory education system. Young people often have greater freedom and less social control than they experienced during childhood and the risk of alcoholism increases significantly. Better childhood health and nutrition, extensions to education, delays in family formation, and new technologies offer the possibility of this being the healthiest generation of adolescents ever. But these are also the ages when new and different health problems related to the onset of sexual activity, emotional control, and behaviour typically emerge. Global trends include those promoting unhealthy lifestyles and commodities, the crisis of youth unemployment, less family stability, environmental degradation, armed conflict, and mass migration, all of which pose major threats to adolescent health and wellbeing (Patton et al., 2016). This appears to be a particular issue in Indigenous communities. In Australia, robust legal and regulatory interventions to address alcohol misuse and associated harms have been shown to have mainly positive effects (d’Abbs, 2015). Also, for populations living in remote areas, regulatory interventions known as ‘Alcohol Management Plans’ (AMPs) have been used by State and Commonwealth Governments during the past two decades. (Clough et al., 2017). Alcohol use was estimated to be responsible for 4.6% of the total burden of disease and injury and 3.4% of deaths (more than 5,000 deaths) in Australia in 2011, based on revised estimates from the Australian Burden of Disease Study 2011 (AIHW 2018). Excessive consumption of alcohol increases the risk of people putting themselves and others at risk of harm (AIHW 2017).
The NDSHS showed that in 2016 almost 1 in 6 (17%) recent drinkers aged 14 and over put themselves or others at risk of harm while under the influence of alcohol in the previous 12 months—significantly down from 21% in 2013 (AIHW 2016). In 2016, the most likely risky activity undertaken while under the influence of alcohol was driving a motor vehicle (9.9% of recent drinkers) (AIHW 2017). Overall, more than 1 in 5 (22%) Australians had been a victim of an alcohol-related incident in 2016—down from 26% in 2013. Between 2013 and 2016, verbal abuse (22% and 19%, respectively), being put in fear (13% and 11%) and physical abuse (8.7% and 7.3%) all declined (AIHW 2018). One such program that aims at creating awareness about the alcohol consumption among youth is needed in order to curb this problem and this program can serve the purpose.
Health Promotion and Target Group
About 1 in every 20 young people in Australia is Indigenous, and more than half of these young Indigenous Australians live in New South Wales and Queensland. In 2016, there were around 242,000 Indigenous people aged 10-24 in Australia-5% of the total Australian youth population. Of these, around 36% were aged 10-14, 34% were aged 15-19 and 30% were aged 20-24. Among young Indigenous people, 91% identified as being of Aboriginal origin only. The Indigenous population has a much younger age distribution than the non-Indigenous population (AIHW 2018).The median age of the Indigenous population in the 2016 Census was 23, compared with 38 for the non-Indigenous population (ABS 2017c). In 2016, 34% of Indigenous Australians were aged under 15, compared with 18% of non-Indigenous Australians, and only 4.3% of Indigenous Australians were aged 65 and over (AIHW 2018).
Aims of Health Promotion
The plan aims at targeting and raising awareness on alcohol use among the Aboriginal group of youth from Australia. Programs targeted at vpeople should:
Providing information through the mass media and other channels on a variety of issues;
Involvement and development of school-based policies and incorporation of best practice;
Addressing of behaviours associated with drink driving;
Facilitating the introduction of appropriate alcohol policies in sporting groups and recreation clubs;
Should be based on a harm reduction approach to minimize violence.
Reduction of alcohol-related harm for individuals, families, and communities;
Reducing of the risks to the community of alcohol-related violence and anti-social behaviour;
Reducing the personal and social disruption, loss of quality of life, loss of productivity and other economic costs associated with the harmful use of alcohol,
Increment in accession to a greater range of high quality prevention and treatment services;
Promotion of evidence-based practice through research and professional education and training
Health Promotion prevention management perspective
According to the report of Australian Health 2018, it has been reported that the number of youth involved in alcohol consumption has not increased in the recent years so the plan will constitute the secondary prevention management (AIHW 2018).
Secondary prevention
Secondary prevention aims to reduce the impact of a disease or injury or any problem that has already occurred. Since the number has not increased that means it requires the de addiction of the previously involved youth. Regular setting of health check-up camps to check for any alcohol related disease so that it could be cured right away. Setting up of de-addiction centres, school-Based Interventions could be used very effectively as school is a chief part of most young people’s lives and, as such, provides a critical setting for prevention and intervention efforts. This misperception should be corrected that everybody is drinking, youth should be taught how to say no to alcohol. Use interactive teaching techniques (e.g., small-group activities, role plays, and same-age leaders). Parents and other segments of the community should be involved. Revisit the topic over the years to reinforce prevention messages. Training and support should be provided for teachers and students (Gray et al., 2014).
Stakeholders and community consultation
Government
It can play a crucial role by incorporation certain rules that restrict the selling and purchasing of alcohol.
Increasing enforcement of underage drinking laws, and changing alcohol policies at community events, as well as increasing public awareness about the problems associated with underage drinking.
Changes to laws and policies related to alcohol’s availability and the consequences of its use lead to significant gains in public health.
Local police
It can use its power by keeping a check on cases like drinking and driving, looking for the environment where drinking is done.
Local police force can make a submission highlighting if and how severe these problems are in an area, and any concerns they may have about increased violence and other crimes.
They can also link individuals to the last venue they drank at if there has been an incident.
Adult members of the community
They can act as the main evaluators of the program, as they could be asked for what kind of changes they have observed in the youth of their community since the initiation of the program (Munro, Allan, Shakeshaft & Snijder, 2017)
Health Message/Logo
Live, Laugh, Love….Alcohol, Disease, Death…Choice is yours!
Health Promotion Activity
The following activities would be taken into consideration
Capacity building – providing improved and targeted responses to alcohol and other drug related problems through capacity building, workforce development, collaboration, evidence based practice, monitoring and information dissemination
Focusing on prevention – educating and encouraging individuals, families and communities to develop the knowledge, attitudes and skills to choose healthy lifestyles and promote healthy environments.
Effective treatment and support services – providing integrated, evidence based treatment and support services that promote positive and healthy lifestyle changes by effectively responding to an individual’s use and those affected by someone else’s use.
Intervening before problems become entrenched – implementing a range of programs and services that identify individuals, families and communities at risk and intervening before problems become entrenched.
Effective law enforcement approaches – reducing and controlling the availability of alcohol and other drugs and implementing strategies that aim to prevent or break the cycle of offending.
Involving work places – Work places are very crucial part of creating awareness, variety of people could be dealt with in a single point of time. They will in turn act as the elements for the flow of information to their respective homes.
Family Interventions – The following tips for parents emerge from practices that have been used in evaluated interventions and that appear promising based on research. To prevent or delay their children’s use of alcohol, parents can:
Monitor how much alcohol consumption is done by them, and the values communicated to their adolescents by these patterns
Actively listen and support their children through involvement in the school community.
Schedule healthy family activities and encourage alternatives to alcohol use
Families should encourage their children to be linked in with their communities through sports and other recreational activities from a young age.
Discuss and communicate clear expectations about alcohol and risky situations involving alcohol. The evidence indicates that delaying the onset of drinking until age 18 or for as long as possible reduces the risk of alcohol-related harm.
Agree on appropriate consequences for breaking family rules/expectations. Rehearse how they will communicate these expectations and consequences. Schedule to meet and talk at a time when there is minimal pressure/stress and explain clearly and directly the reasons for these rules.
Avoid trying to communicate during times when emotions such as anger and frustration are running high.
Families should avoid trying to get their point across during a heated argument (Calabria, Clifford, Rose & Shakeshaft, 2014).
Apart from the above points these points could also be taken into consideration
Providing information about the health and social effects of alcohol consumption. (This could be done through teachers, friends, parents, young volunteers, etc.).
Strengthening personal and social skills (this could be done through teachers, friends, parents, young volunteers, etc.).
Strengthening positive personal attachments to parents, guardians and/or other adults.
Providing shelter, education, vocational skills and job opportunities.
Providing opportunities to spend free time in a way that is fun, constructive and challenging.
Limiting the availability of alcohol.
Raising awareness of the problem of alcohol usage in the community.
Provide youth-friendly health and social services. Shape a community culture and youth subculture that encourage healthy lifestyles and discourage alcoholism (Munro et al., 2018).
Health Promotion Evaluation
The evaluation of the program would be done by:
Enrolling the young participants in a questionnaire on whether they enjoyed the activities, what could be improved and some alcoholism related questions, such as how many close friends do they know who are involved in alcohol consumption.
Interviewing adults in the local community to ascertain any effects of the work on the youth of their community.
Having a special team meeting at the end of each activity period to review what had happened and to compare the results with their objectives.
Asking the leaders made through the capacity building to present a report of their concerned area.
Asking those candidates to speak their hearts in front of gathering about the pre and post addition condition (Shakeshaft et al., 2014).
Conclusion
Given the high costs of alcohol abuse and dependence to both people and society, evidence-based approaches for preventing harmful alcohol use are key. Preventive efforts are the most important steps to be taken for young people, a group at particular risk for the consequences of alcohol use. Communities, schools, and workplaces provide essential venues for reaching risky drinkers with prevention messages and strategies. Research continues to support the development of new approaches and new ways of delivering effective prevention messages. Youth spend much of their time in a school environment, and schools are important places in which to provide knowledge and tools to prevent and reduce youth drug involvement. Successful school-based prevention programs, targeting those most at-risk, contribute to reduce drug-related crime. Schools provide an appropriate environment to implement prevention programs that seek to reduce the risk factors and increase the protective factors of alcoholism and future crime among youth.
References:
Alcohol Alert Number 83. (2019). Retrieved from https://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/aa83/aa83.htm
Australia’s health 2018, Table of contents – Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-health/australias-health-2018/contents/table-of-contents
Calabria, B., Clifford, A., Rose, M., & Shakeshaft, A. (2014). Tailoring a family-based alcohol intervention for Aboriginal Australians, and the experiences and perceptions of health care providers trained in its delivery. BMC Public Health, 14(1). doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-14-322
Clough, A., Margolis, S., Miller, A., Shakeshaft, A., Doran, C., & McDermott, R. et al. (2017). Alcohol management plans in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (Indigenous) Australian communities in Queensland: community residents have experienced favourable impacts but also suffered unfavourable ones. BMC Public Health, 17(1). doi: 10.1186/s12889-016-3995-8
d’Abbs, P. (2015). Widening the gap: The gulf between policy rhetoric and implementation reality in addressing alcohol problems among Indigenous Australians. Drug And Alcohol Review, 34(5), 461-466. doi: 10.1111/dar.12299
Gray, D., Wilson, M., Allsop, S., Saggers, S., Wilkes, E., & Ober, C. (2014). Barriers and enablers to the provision of alcohol treatment among Aboriginal Australians: A thematic review of five research projects. Drug And Alcohol Review, 33(5), 482-490. doi: 10.1111/dar.12137
Munro, A., Allan, J., Shakeshaft, A., & Snijder, M. (2017). Riding the rural radio wave: The impact of a community-led drug and alcohol radio advertising campaign in a remote Australian Aboriginal community. Australian Journal Of Rural Health, 25(5), 290-297. doi: 10.1111/ajr.12345
Munro, A., Shakeshaft, A., Breen, C., Clare, P., Allan, J., & Henderson, N. (2018). Understanding remote Aboriginal drug and alcohol residential rehabilitation clients: Who attends, who leaves and who stays?. Drug And Alcohol Review, 37, S404-S414. doi: 10.1111/dar.12656
Patton, G., Sawyer, S., Santelli, J., Ross, D., Afifi, R., & Allen, N. et al. (2016). Our future: a Lancet commission on adolescent health and wellbeing. The Lancet, 387(10036), 2423-2478. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(16)00579-1
Shakeshaft, A., Doran, C., Petrie, D., Breen, C., Havard, A., & Abudeen, A. et al. (2014). The Effectiveness of Community Action in Reducing Risky Alcohol Consumption and Harm: A Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial. Plos Medicine, 11(3), e1001617. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1001617