In the past month, results from two national studies led by Dr Adam Winstock and Associate Professor Peter Miller have featured in the media.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Police officials and other experts have also commented. The common message is that Australia has a problem with risky alcohol and drug use.
The study’s authors and other commentators have recommended a number of strategies to address alcohol and drug use. These are important strategies. Most tend to focus on risky drinking and drug use after the behaviour has become a problem.
An equally important strategy is to focus on preventing risky drinking and drug use before it becomes a problem.
The last national survey of mental health and well-being by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed 80 per cent of people with a diagnosable alcohol problem were not accessing professional help. For many people, waiting until there is a diagnosable alcohol or other drug problem is simply too late.
Teaching young people how to make healthy decisions about using alcohol and other drugs, before they start using, is an important prevention strategy.
For the past five years, I have been part of a team led by Professor Dan Lubman and Dr Bonnie Berridge at Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre in Melbourne.
We have systematically developed MAKINGtheLINK – a school-based program that aims to prevent Australia’s increasing alcohol and drug problem by teaching young people how to make healthy lifestyle decisions about substances, before they start using.
We are now up to the third version and trial of MAKINGtheLINK which, for the first time in Australia’s history, brings together content from paediatrics, neuroscience, psychiatry, psychology, and processes of behaviour change in a rigorous evidence-based, strength-based and educationally sound format to promote help-seeking for depression and risky drinking among high school students.
If the current trial again shows MAKINGtheLINK to be effective, the program will be rapidly incorporated within a national school curriculum.
MAKINGtheLINK complements existing health promotion activities in schools, and promises to bolster early intervention approaches for reducing adolescents’ risky alcohol and other drug use – and directly address the Illawarra’s risky drinking and drug use problem.
Dr Coralie Wilson is a Behavioural Health Scientist, the Academic Leader for Personal and Professional Development in the Graduate School of Medicine at the University of Wollongong. http://www.uow.edu.au/gsm/staff/UOW028294.html
The first and second iterations of MAKINGtheLINK were funded by the National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre and the Victorian State Government. In October 2012, project chief investigators Professor Dan Lubman (Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre and Monash University), Professor Anthony Jorm (The University of Melbourne), Professor Nick Allen (The University of Melbourne), Dr Coralie Wilson (Graduate School of Medicine, UOW) and Dr Jenny Proimos (Principal Medical Advisor for Child and Adolescent Health and Wellbeing in Victoria’s Department of Education and Early Childhood Development), with Dr Bonnie Berridge (MAKINGtheLINK lead author), were awarded $623,000 from National Health and Medical Research Council to conduct a large-scale cluster randomised controlled trial of the third iteration of MAKINGtheLINK from 2012-2015.
For information on MAKINGtheLINK go to http://www.turningpoint.org.au/Media-Centre/Latest_News/MAKINGtheLINK.aspx.