The Australian Drug Foundation (ADF) produces information and resources that can help students and families prepare for schoolies week. The ADF's DrugInfo Clearinghouse offers many free resources about teenage parties, many of which can be downloaded from the DrugInfo website at http://tinyurl.com/6d5yem.

Underage drinking has received a great deal of publicity lately.  The topic is often framed as a ‘youth binge-drinking crisis’ or ‘epidemic’.  This article by Clarissa Hughes in the July edition of Of Substance briefly outlines the social norms approach to supporting young people to make healthy choices about alcohol - by affirming the fact that most young people are already making healthy choices about alcohol.

The Australian Drug Foundation has recently updated the Drinking diary. This updated booklet still contains a diary for monitoring drinking behaviours as well as guidelines for identifying harmful drinking behaviour and ways to change drinking behaviours. The pocket-sized Drinking diary, may be a useful resource for people who are concerned about their drinking patterns and people who wish to either reduce their alcohol consumption or quit drinking.

Copies ($1.65 each) can be ordered through the ADF resource catalogue or online at www.bookshop.adf.org.au.

Alcohol and work (http://www.alcoholandwork.adf.org.au) hosts information that supports and assists individuals to assess and address their own drinking. This includes a free self-assessment tool (AUDIT) to assist a person in determining whether their drinking is putting them at risk.

The Australian Drug Foundation has recently updated the Alcohol and other drugs: a guide for parents booklet. This booklet is part of the Drugs in focus series and provides a strong grounding for parents to talk with their children about alcohol and other drugs.

The Alcohol and other drugs: a guide for parents booklet includes information and photographs of the most commonly used legal and illegal drugs including alcohol, amphetamines, analgesics (painkillers), benzodiazepines, cannabis, cocaine, ecstasy, GHB, hallucinogens, heroin, inhalants, ketamine and tobacco.

The Tasmanian Institute of Law Enforcement Studies (TILES) and the Department of Rural Health at the University of Tasmania have recently conducted the first major Australian trial of the ‘social norms’ approach to health promotion. The results are outlined in a briefing paper by Clarissa Hughes and they provide some useful insights into the application of the Social Norms approach.

Download the Social Norms Analysis Project Results, insights and future priorities from http://tinyurl.com/4vgdc9 (PDF).

This report was produced by the National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction (NCETA) at Flinders University. It comprises a comprehensive literature review addressing a wide range of social and cultural factors that potentially impact on young Australians aged 14- 24 in relation to their use and non-use of alcohol.

ADAWS (the Adolescent Drug and Alcohol Withdrawal Service) is for young people (13 – 18 year olds ) who can see their substance use is causing problems.

Thinking Drinking II: From Problems to Solutions was a conference that took place in Melbourne in February 2007. The conference sought to identify and advance solutions to problems associated with the abuse and misuse of alcohol.

Presentations from the conference are now available online at http://www.adf.org.au/article.asp?ContentID=TDII_Presentations.

A challenge for workers is to find effective ways of working with specific CALD communities to prevent drug-related harms.  This reading and resource list has been prepared as a starting point for researchers, educators and other professionals seeking current research and information relating to drug issues for CLD communities.

It can be downloaded from DrugInfo's website: Reading and Resource List [PDF 976KB]

Source: DrugInfo Clearinghouse

Vanessa Kennedy and Netzach Goren of the Centre for Youth Drug Studies at the Australian Drug Foundation recently published a paper that explores the types of prevention programs that practitioners in the prevention sector believe are effective with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) communities. Other areas of interest were the prevalence of substance use in CLD communities, obstacles to prevention work and the extent to which the evidence-base is used in the design of prevention initiatives.

The paper is available online at DrugInfo's website: Issues Paper 1 (PDF 975KB).

Source: DrugInfo Clearinghouse. 

In this article, Rob Moodie discusses the concerning rise in binge drinking among young people alongside the reduction in smoking.

The full article is available at Online Opinion.