December 6, 2015
Communities across Australia that are suffering the impact of ice and other drugs will be provided with a range of tools and resources to tackle the problem locally.
Federal Member for Gippsland Darren Chester said the Nationals-Liberals Coalition Government would invest almost $300 million over four years to improve treatment, after care, education, prevention, support and community engagement.
The package includes $24.9 million to help families and communities by providing the resources, information and support they need to respond to ice.
There will also be an additional $241.5 million to be invested through the 31 Primary Health Networks (PHNs), which will use their local knowledge to boost the alcohol and other drug treatment sector and reduce demand for ice.
A total of $13 million has been committed to introduce new MBS items for Addiction Medicine Specialists to increase the availability of treatment.
Mr Chester said grassroots measures were an integral part of the strategy.
“As part of the community and family response, the Coalition Government will invest $19.2 million into up to 220 local community drug action teams, to help with vital coordination of resources and community forums to support both users and their families,” Mr Chester said.
“It is important that local communities are given the opportunity to develop their own response, because local leaders have the knowledge and experience to target action to where it will be most effective.
“In addition, the Good Sports programme, which already promotes responsible consumption of alcohol in 7000 sporting clubs, will receive an extra $4.6 million over four years to take the message about ice to those clubs.”
Locally, Gippsland has several Good Sports-accredited sports clubs, and those clubs will be places where the message about ice will now be delivered.
“Extending the Good Sports Programme to educate about ice will help convince young people not to try the drug through learning about it from peers in an environment they trust,” Mr Chester said.
“The successful Life Education Van, which already visits 600,000 upper primary school aged students every year, will also commence educating children about the dangers of ice. Given the van is already operational, a relatively small investment can make a big difference here.
“This package is very focused on local level responses – it is very much about community action as people living in Gippsland know what will work best locally to promote prevention messages and tackle problems.”
In addition, yesterday the Government also launched the Positive Choices website, an investment of $1.1 million.
This new educational resource is a one-stop shop for parents, teachers and students to access information about the impacts of alcohol and drugs.
For more information visit https://positivechoices.org.au/
Next steps and information regarding the community campaigns will be communicated in early 2016.
CAPTION: Federal Member for Gippsland Darren Chester with the Life Education Van’s Harold the Giraffe and students from Kosciuszko Street PS students Jessica, Jordan, Harrison and Hannah in 2014. The Life Education Van will start educating primary school-aged children about the dangers of the drug ice.
