returning real benefits to young people and families

The NSW Government has welcomed new figures showing large reductions in the use of heroin, cannabis, cocaine and amphetamines in NSW - particularly by young people.

NSW Premier Bob Carr said the findings of the 2004 National Drug Strategy Household Survey for NSW confirmed the success of the historic 1999 NSW Drug Summit.

Since the NSW Drug Summit , the State Government has allocated an additional $434 million to drug programs.

The Government's strategy was to target four key areas - education, prevention, treatment and law enforcement.

In practical terms this has meant 3,600 additional drug treatment places, hundreds of additional residential rehabilitation beds, 3,000 more detoxification places and the diversion of more than 6,500 drug offenders into treatment and rehabilitation.

This approach appears to be paying dividends.

The National Drug Strategy Household Survey reveals that in New South Wales from 1998 to 2004:

* Use of any illicit drug is down from 19.8 per cent to 14.6 per cent;

* Cannabis use is down from 16.7 per cent to 10.7 per cent;

* Heroin use is down from 0.6 per cent to 0.1 per cent;

* Cocaine use is down from 2.1 per cent to 1.2 per cent; and

* Amphetamines use is down from 3.8 per cent to 3.1 per cent.

In other encouraging news - the statistics show that the fall in drug use for cannabis and heroin appears to be greatest amongst young people. This is particularly important given recent medical evidence showing cannabis is not a harmless drug.

These positive results show the NSW Government's comprehensive approach is returning real benefits to the community, young people and their families.

essential service to keep its doors open

One of the State's important drug and alcohol services which helps people in regional NSW, has had its funding secured.

The Lyndon Withdrawal Unit at Orange has been offered funding of $1.5 million over the next two years - enabling this essential service to keep its doors open.

The NSW Government had argued the case for funding for the Lyndon Withdrawal Unit to the Commonwealth, suggesting that unspent funds from the jointly funded Illicit Drug Diversion Strategy be used to restore the Unit's funding levels.

Making the announcement with the Federal Government's Parliamentary Secretary for Health, Christopher Pyne - the NSW Government said Lyndon was an important drug and alcohol service, providing crucial residential detoxification services for the Central West.

"In NSW we are committed to families and communities in rural and regional NSW who are coping with drug and alcohol issues"

In committing to families and communities in the Central West - the NSW Government has also provided $434,925 to the Lyndon Therapeutic Community at Canowindra this financial year for five long-term residential beds and also a NSW Health NGO grant for residential rehabilitation services.

making a difference by sharing responsibility

Making a difference by sharing responsibility is the theme highlighted in a new DVD produced by the Wagga Wagga Community Drug Action Team.

Launched by the NSW Government, this leading edge DVD Drugs -Everyone's Concern, includes vision of CDAT members talking with young people, community art, drama, music and social activities.

The advertisement explains there are no simple solutions to the drug problem, but that we can all make a difference if we share responsibility.

Another undertaking that the Wagga Wagga CDAT is currently involved in, is the Riverina Murray Family Drug Support Project.

This project aims to provide families and friends of illicit drug users with management and coping skills.

Since its inception, the Wagga Wagga CDAT has received grants of $15,000 over the 5 year period from the NSW Government's Drugs and Community Action Strategy and Community Drug Information Initiative. 

Drug Action Week 2005 focussed on a range of activities across the State highlighting what communities can do to address drug issues at a local level.

As part of this very important week, the NSW Government has announced a new drug and alcohol information card for young people.

The Drug Smart Z-Card dispels common myths about some of the drugs that young people may encounter and provides accurate information on drug and alcohol related issues.

The Government's original Z-Card card was produced in 2002 and proved to be very popular with young people, with 400,000 being distributed over a 12-month period.  This second generation Drug Smart Card has been updated to reflect drug trends and includes contact details for services to give further information and help. 

The card presents real life situations that young people may encounter and encourages them to think about their behaviour and get help if they need it.

Drug Smart is part of the NSW Government's ongoing plan to tackle drug and alcohol abuse through prevention, education, treatment and law enforcement.

And in what can only be seen as an excellent example of Government and business working in partnership to tackle problems affecting the community  - three special offer video coupons from Civic Video have been included in the Drug Smart card.

This will encourage young people to keep Drug Smart, read it and consider its messages.

DrugsSmart card .pdf

servicing young people and families in the Illawarra

In our continuing series on the important work done by Non-Government Agencies - Mark Buckingham CEO of Kedesh Rehabilitation Services outlines the important work done by this individual addiction treatment service.

QU_What is your programme based on?

The programme is designed to address the psychological aspects of addiction and is based on the principles of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).

The organisation has been in operation for over 25 years providing a drug and alcohol residential rehabilitation service within the Illawarra.

Kedesh admits approximately 200 clients into the service each year. Sixty percent of admissions have a co-morbid mental disorder in addition to their drug use. This includes depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia and personality disorders. The main drugs of concern identified by clients upon admission to Kedesh House include alcohol, amphetamines, heroin and cannabis.

Additional counseling and education is provided to families affected by drug, alcohol and gambling dependency through Kedesh Family Programmes.

The Family Assistance Programme at Kedesh is aimed at providing information to family members, reducing stress and tension in family relationships and helping members learn skills to improve communication and problem solving.

QU_ You run a number of groups, which of these do you believe to be the most beneficial?

The group-work consists of four psycho-educational modules. The primary objective of the modules is training clients in the skills required to become their own counsellor.

The group modules include Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) -  teaching the client to become aware of unhelpful patterns of thinking, and replace these with helpful ones. This is also an extremely useful treatment option for those suffering from depression, anxiety and anger management problems.

Other modules include Relapse Prevention Training where clients are taught how to prevent a relapse back into their addiction, self-awareness which examines a pattern of behaviour and helps a client to develop an understanding of who they are today and who they want to be, and social skills training - assisting clients with communication and assertiveness skills.

Case workers also address topics like sleep, relaxation, housing, vocational guidance and nutrition with clients.

Kedesh also offers where needed, individual case management.

QU_Can you outline where the programme is at its most innovative?

The 'Alcohol and Other Drugs Counsellor Internship Programme' (AODCIP) is a 12 month on-site training and supervision internship and is an initiative of Kedesh in the Wollongong region of NSW.

The programme was originally designed to meet the supervision and training needs of new and existing staff and gradually evolved to become available to students at the University of Wollongong and TAFE approaching, or completing, their final year of undergraduate studies.

The aim of formalising this programme was to:

* to provide students supported work placement and on-site training in the AOD sector,

*  to create a well-trained voluntary support workforce for Kedesh which often develops into paid positions within the service and for a range of other services (e.g. mental health services, Juvenile Justice, NDARC, Merit etc.) and

* to work towards Kedesh Rehabilitation Services goal to become a recognised clinical training institute in the AOD sector as well as maintaining evidence based treatment service.

QU_One of the commitments from the Drug Summit in 1999 was to provide more funding for organisations such as yours. How have you benefited from the extra money?

The addition of four beds through the Drug Summit, with a formalized bed day rate attached, represented additional income for the service.

At about the same time as the extra resources for residential rehabilitation were provided, a further two beds were allocated to Kedesh as a component of the MERIT program.

One of the really good things to come out of the Summit more broadly was that the relationship between services has changed from competitive to collaborative following the allocation of additional resources.  It should also be noted that for Kedesh, a closer working relationship has developed with the Network for Alcohol and Drug Agencies(NADA), in part emanating from the active role NADA played in seeking the additional resources.

The additional capacity provided by the Drug Summit eds also allowed a limited reduction in waiting time for admission.

An increase in accountability was also established through the Drug Summit as it has contributed to development of the following - implementation of the minimum data set; provision of computer hardware and internet access, support for and the requirement to participate in accreditation; and the establishment of limited infrastructure funding distributed through NADA.

These additional resources associated with beds have allowed Kedesh to pursue accreditation more quickly than otherwise would have been possible.  Kedesh has also established a close working relationship with the Illawarra Area Health Service.

At the end of the day it is our clients who ultimately benefit from the Drug Summit commitments.

CDAT's ideally placed to know the alcohol problems in their local community

The importance of local action and how communities can help reduce the damage caused by alcohol abuse, was the focus of the first ever Sydney Community Alcohol Action Forum.

Community Drug Action Teams from Sydney's West, South West and Coastal areas participated in the Forum with one aim in mind - to share their experiences and successes in tackling the very complex issues surrounding the abuse of alcohol.

CDAT's are ideally placed to know what alcohol problems are in their local community and what will work to address the issue.

A number of CDAT's are currently undertaking projects dealing with the harmful effects of alcohol. For example, Yura Yulang CDAT has produced the Dharawal Family Matters - a booklet containing translated health messages about drugs and alcohol in the words of the Dharawal people from around South Western Sydney.

Many teams have also played an important part by becoming involved in peer education projects, alcohol education campaigns, alcohol free youth entertainment events and partnerships with Liquor Accords.

The Forum heard from a number of guest speakers including Richard Colbran who spoke on the Good Sports Program and Helen Twomey and Cecilie Dell from 'Youth Safe' on safe celebrating.

The Carr Government's 2003 Summit on Alcohol Abuse identified the importance of Community Drug Action Teams in changing the drinking culture in NSW.

These teams are perfectly positioned to take action on alcohol issues - they know the nature of the problems in their local community and what will work to address some of the issues arising from alcohol abuse.