Australia: the healthiest country by 2020
National Preventative Health Strategy - Overview
Action on alcohol: A role for all Australians
Table of contents
- Chair's Foreword
- The purpose of the Strategy; What is in the Strategy?
- The need for urgent, comprehensive, prioritised and sustained action; What will be different because of the Strategy?
- Prevention works; Progressive, staged and comprehensive action
The Strategy – summarised, prioritised and phased- The conceptual framework for the Preventative Health Strategy
- Strategic directions
- Ensuring effective implementation – the national infrastructure for prevention
Conclusion – a call to action- References
- Acknowledgements
Targets: a safer drinking culture for Australia By 2020:
- Reduce the proportion of Australians who drink at short-term risky/high-risk levels from 20.4% to 14.3%
- Reduce the proportion of Australians who drink at long-term risky/high-risk levels from 10.3% to 7.2%
- Reduce the proportion of Australian secondary school students aged 12–17 years who are current drinkers and consume alcohol at harmful levels from 31% to 21.7%
- Implement measures at the local, state and federal level to ensure a shift towards safety in local communities in the way licences are granted, managed and enforced across Australia
- Develop and implement a comprehensive and sustained social marketing and public education campaign, with a range of other complimentary actions, to de-normalise intoxication and long term risky/high risk drinking.
Individuals and families
Individuals
- Drink no more than 2 standard drinks on any day to reduce the lifetime risk of harm from alcohol related disease or injury
- Drink no more than 4 standard drinks on a single occasion to reduce the risk of alcohol related injury
- For women who are pregnant or planning pregnancy, not drinking is the safest option
- For women who are breastfeeding, not drinking is the safest option
Families
- Protect the health and safety of children and adolescents’ brain development:
- Children under 15 years of age are at the greatest risk of harm from drinking; it is important not to drink alcohol at this age
- For young people aged 15-17 years, the safest option is to delay the initiation of drinking for as long as possible
- Be a positive role model to children regarding responsible drinking of alcohol
Australian Government
- Regulate alcohol promotions
- In a staged approach, phase out alcohol promotions from times and placements which have high exposure to young people
- Monitor and evaluate impact of industry self regulation
- Identify shortfalls in the voluntary approach and address these through introduction of a co-regulatory agreement
- Introduce legislation if these measures are not effective
- Require counter-advertising (health advisory information) within all alcohol advertising
- Require health advisory information labelling on containers and packaging of all alcohol products to promote safer drinking
- Reform alcohol taxation and pricing arrangements to discourage harmful drinking
- Commission independent modelling for rationalised tax and excise regime
- Develop the public interest case for minimum (floor) price of alcoholic beverages to discourage harmful and promote safe consumption
- Direct a proportion of revenue from alcohol taxation towards initiatives that prevent alcohol-related societal harm
Police
- Work with the States and Territories, private security and other law enforcement staff to develop and implement best practice for policing and enforcement of liquor control laws and regulations, and managing public safety
- Liaise with families, schools and communities at times when alcohol may pose risks to the health and safety of young people
Alcoholic beverage & related industries
- Drive change in the alcoholic beverage industry to develop less harmful alcohol products
- Support the harm-minimisation goals of liquor control legislation:
- Inform and train staff to comply with and enforce Responsible Serving of Alcohol and other liquor licensing laws
- Cease inappropriate alcohol promotions
Advertising industry
- Work with the Alcoholic Beverage Industries to increase the marketing, advertising and promotion of less harmful alcohol products
Indigenous communities
- Improve the health of Indigenous Australians
- Increase access to health services for indigenous people who are drinking at harmful levels by:
- Supporting primary health care providers to work with Indigenous alcohol-dependent people
- Train Indigenous health workers
- Expanding community-based and residential alcohol treatment programs
- Facilitating coordinated case management of alcohol-dependent persons
- Implement local initiatives in Indigenous communities, including:
- Restricting physical availability of products
- Reduce the number, density and opening hours of licensed premises in areas of high alcohol-related harm
- Strengthen enforcement of Responsible Serving of Alcohol provisions
- Establish local groups of senior Indigenous men and women to promote greater individual responsibility in relation to alcohol
- Establish a multi-site trial of alcohol diversion programs
States and Territories
- Develop and implement nationally consistent best practice approaches to alcohol policy regarding:
- Alcohol outlet opening times and density
- Special licensing conditions for late night and high-risk outlets
- Responsible Serving of Alcohol training and accreditation
- Accreditation requirements prior to the issue of a liquor license
- Review the incentive structure for alcohol-related checks in primary health cares settings
- Develop nationally consistent principles and practices regarding the supply of alcohol to minors without parental/guardian consent
Local Governments
- Utilise land use planning controls to manage existing and proposed alcohol outlets;
- Consider outlet density levels
- Determine the most desirable mix of outlet types
- Define appropriate operating hours, noise restrictions, etc… for new licenses
- Require an annual liquor license renewal subject to satisfactory compliance
Primary health care
- Strengthen, skill and support primary health care to help people in making healthy choices
- Enhance the role of primary health care organisations in preventing and responding to alcohol-related health problems by:
- Developing collaborative initiatives to address alcohol-related risk factors with individuals and groups
- Increasing the uptake of pharmacotherapy treatment for alcohol dependence
- Promote the NHMRC guidelines on low risk drinking
- Develop a comprehensive network of alcohol-related referral services and programs to support behaviour change in primary health care
- Increase access to primary health care services for hard-to-reach disadvantaged individuals who are at risk of alcowhol-related harm
Workplaces
- Introduce workplace strategies to prevent and reduce alcohol-related harm, including:
- Employee health checks
- Employee assistance programs
- Develop evidence informed workplace policies
Sporting codes
- Work with Government to develop national sporting codes of conduct to take greater responsibility for players’ alcohol-related behaviour
Maternal, child and young peoples health services
- Build healthy children and families
- Protect the health and safety of the child and adolescent brain development by promoting informed community discussion about the appropriate age for young people to start drinking
- Support parents in managing alcohol issues at all stages of their children’s development
- Disseminate broadly the NHMRC guidelines on the risks of alcohol consumption for young people aged under 18 years and for women who are pregnant or breastfeeding
- Provide practical advice for handling alcohol issues among children and adolescents at key life stages and settings
Schools
- Promote key messages from social marketing campaigns within schools and develop complementary preventative health policies and programs
- Facilitate school-based parent networking for mutual support and information sharing about managing alcohol issues
Strengthen the evidence base
- Improve national reporting and monitoring of alcohol sales, by purchasing retail sales data from the private sector
- Define a set of essential national indicators on alcohol consumption and associated health and social impacts