Essay: Aboriginal Alcohol Strategy In Tasmania - Prevalence And Program Development.

1. Identify andrationalise the health issue requiring change (supported by current literature)
2. Identify the health promotion activity - describe each strategy including the long andshort-term objectives
3. Plan to implement the project (action plan or a teaching plan or both)
4. Identify the resources (not onlyfinancial resources) required to implement the plan 
5. Develop and discuss a proposed evaluation plan (supported by current literature)

Australia is a land of diverse cultures. Since the time of early colonization in Australia, alcohol is being consumed as a beverage all over the country. Over the last few decades the alcohol consumption in this continent has increased with time. The Aboriginal population and the Torres Strait Islanders staying in Tasmania has always been centre of research for the past few decades due to their linguistically and culturally different background. Statistical data says that the consumption of alcohol among the aboriginal population residing in Tasmania has increased with time. The rate of alcohol consumption had been greater in the young generation aboriginals than that of the elderly ones (Howard et al., 2014). Although alcohol consumption can be considered as a no0rm among the aboriginals but the customs often pose serious effect on the health status of these aboriginal young generations.

As per the reports, the New South Wales Police force had mentioned alcohol to be one of the important causes of the mortality in patients. Reports suggest that alcohol may bring about avoidable complications like self harm, lack of consciousness, depression and may hamper the professional life (Lumley et al., 1985).  It has been reported that although alcohol is viewed as an essential part of socialization, a lot more is consumed in ways that pose ill effects on health. The report places forward with a possible health strategy to mitigate the disastrous effect of consumption of alcohol among the aboriginal youths. Te report further sheds light in to different long term and the short term objective. The objectives should be incorporated in the implementation plan.

The report further focuses on an evaluation plan that should be helpful for assessing the success of the proposal. Finally, a teaching plan, an evaluation strategy, campaign posters to direct the children will be found in the appendix section of the paper.

As per the statistical data, in 2010-11, the national consumption of pure alcohol was about 9.99 litres per day per person. As per the reports atleast 62% of the total volume of alcohol consumed by the Australian population are at risks of acute harms and about 44% of the alcohol per volume consumed bears risks of chronic diseases (Australian Drug Foundation, 2016).

As per the data produced by the department of Police and Emergency Management, Tasmania has not been immune to harm related to alcohol. Nearly 1,194 families and 514 victims were affected by alcohol, 1219 public assaults. There had been 2607 notices of liquor infringement and 1232 cases of liquor confiscations (Australian Drug Foundation, 2016). As per the fact sheets of the Tasmanian Alcohol Trends 2016, produced by the Department of Health and human Services, Since 1995, the proportion of drinking at minimum risk levels among the Tasmanian aboriginal youths has increased from 4.2% to 7.9% on the other hand the high risk levels have risen from 2.7 to 4.7% (National Health Survey: First Results, 2014-15. 2017). Studies say that Tasmania has got the highest rate of alcohol consumption among the youths.

Prevalence of alcohol consumption among the Aboriginal youths in Tasmania

Figure1: Prevalence of alcohol consumption in Tasmania. Indigenous Vs Non-indigenous

(National Health Survey: First Results, 2014-15. (2017). Abs.gov.au)

There are numerous reasons that prompted the development of the health proposal. Problematic alcohol has become a serious public issue in Tasmania as it can put people at the risk of injury, crime, poisoning, family breakdown, long term health issues and self destruction (Calabria et al., 2013). It has been reported that Tasmania has received $5 million from the Government of Australia for implementing plans for the controlling of alcohols among the aboriginal resident of the state. Despite of all the measures taken, the alcohol use amongst the aboriginal teenagers is still visible in the state of Tasmania.  According to (National Health Survey: First Results, 2014-15", 2017). The aboriginal youths of the Tasmania are becoming susceptible to different health issues due to the excessive consumption of alcohol such as cardiovascular diseases, self harm, alcohol related accidents and many more. Another factor that acts as a driving factor for the health proposal is that, disparity in treatment is found amongst the aboriginals due to many factors such as racism and their non reliance on the western modes of treatment (Chikritzhs & Pascal, 2004). This is not only hampering the professional life of the aboriginals but also jeopardizing with their cognitive development. In order to mitigate this, it is necessary to take some extensive health strategies.
The primary target audience for this initiative will be aboriginal younger adults between the age 15-28, residing in the aboriginal areas of Tasmania (Chikritzhs & Pascal, 2004). We have also included the parents of these participants and the other elderly people of the population as the secondary audience, which will help to evaluate the success of the assessment.

As per the author (Adegbija, Hoy & Wang, 2015). In order to implement a successful health strategy, a dedicated work force is required that would be able to invest ample time for this project, set achievable goals and implementation of those goals. Initially the South East Tasmanian Aboriginal health Corporation (SETAC) would provide with education, workforce, early intervention, case management, counseling and prevention of the relapse (Chikritzhs & Pascal, 2004). The whole regimen has to be done in collaboration with the families of the participants. Organizations such as The Drug Education Network (DEN) will work in collaboration with the Tasmanian Aboriginal Corporation for delivering safe and appropriate education and training regarding alcohol treatment – (National Health Survey: First Results, 2014-15", 2017).

A good action plan should have a proper time frame for achieving the goals and assessing the outcomes of the success. The goals and the objectives of the ‘Aboriginal alcohol strategy in Tasmania’ should be done in a time frame of one year (Chikritzhs & Pascal, 2004). The planning sessions should not take more than a month and the implementation sessions would commence from the next month and should get completed within a year, depending upon the availability of the resources.

Program development and planning

Objectives of the program

Long term objectives

• To decrease the rate of alcohol consumptions among the aboriginal youths in Tasmania.
• To decrease the risks like health risks, alcohol related injuries and self harm.
• To decrease the disparity among the aboriginals and the non aboriginals and the non aboriginals in terms of health, education and profession, that would help to decrease the stress and anxiety among the aboriginal youths.

Short term objectives

In order to achieve the long term objectives in the near future it is essential to work on a set of short term goals. The objectives can be listed below as:-

• Creating awareness among the youths of the Aboriginal population regarding the ill effects of alcohol on their health and social life (Gilligan et al ., 2012).
• Creating awareness regarding the risks of penalties for supplying alcohol to the aboriginal youths in Tasmania.  
• Imparting education to the secondary audiences that is the parents regarding the ill effects of alcohol consumption (Gilligan et al., 2012).
• Imparting educationto the other persons of the aboriginal community of different age groups for creating a mass awareness.
• Providing rehabilitation to the already addicted aboriginal youths.

Strategies

It should be noted that it is no possible to remove all the sources that triggers alcohol consumption among the aboriginal youths in Tasmania, but simple interventions can be adopted to improve their way of living (Treeby & Bruno, 2012). The different strategies that can be taken up are as follows:-

• Promotion of programs and events in Tasmania that are alcohol free.
• Underage license for business in liquors should be discouraged and license should not be permitted. In order to accomplish this it is necessary to reinforce the proof of age.
• There should be sports and recreation for the youths (Peacock et al., 2013).
• The young aboriginals should be impart with the knowledge regarding the detrimental effects of alcohol on their health on their, social, personal and professional life.
• It is necessary to impart education to the whole aboriginal community, as it is from them that most of the children imitate.
• Setting up rehabilitation clinic for providing shelter to the already victimized youths and provide them with appropriate holistic care (Peacock et al., 2013).
• To close the gaps between the health care facilities received by the indigenous and the non indigenous population of Tasmania. Mobile dispensaries can be there to provide health support to those who cannot get access to the healthcare due to the remote locations.
• Setting up alcohol awareness campaign throughout Tasmania.
• Involving the government organization and the federal government to strengthen the chalked out plan.

The next step to this project is the preparation of a proper action plan or teaching plan for exploring on the topics about the ill effects of alcohol, the key strategies to reduce the rate of alcohol consumption, the strategies, the use of appropriate resources and time frame (Gilligan et al ., 2012). Action plan is a plan which normally contains the list of tasks that are required to be done to achieve the goals within a stipulated time period. This portion of the paper will be discussing about the action plan that is required to fulfill the strategy and achieve the goals. The action plan will enlist the goals and the strategies that have to be taken up supported by a valid time frame. As per the guide lines provided by the World health organization (WHO), strategies can be considered as approaches that can be used to attain objectives or goals of a health proposal. The strategies taken up will be able to minimize the harm inflicted by the excessive use of alcohol. There should be extensive and sound strategies in order to achieve the goals taken in the action plan.

After the implementation of any action plan it is important to evaluate whether all the objectives have been met or not. There should be a sound evaluation plan for the assessment of the implementation plans.  The evaluation plans should include appropriate data collection methods, resources, risk register tools, interviews (Yates, 2013). In order to accomplish a proper evaluation plan it is necessary to prepare a set of questionnaire for the interviews.

1. Engaging the stakeholder

The primary step for the development of an evaluation plan is selection of the population, which would involve all the participants of the survey and other stakeholders related to the project including the community and the head of the organization (Gilligan et al., 2012).

2. Objectives and questions

All the questions should be related to alcohol consumption, which would focus on the reasons behind the alcohol consumption. It would also obtain feedback from the aboriginal population regarding the effectiveness of the measures taken.

3. Methods adopted in data collection

There will be properly structured question answer round which will be used for the field survey. According to (Department of Planning and Community Development, 2014) interviews involving question answer techniques can be used to useful to receive feedback from the culturally diverse population like the aboriginals (White & Hingson, 2013).

4. Time frame

It is necessary to set up the evaluation programs urgently for incorporating further improvement in the strategies in time. Therefore it is necessary to maintain the time frame and the data should be collected properly after the completion of the action plan (Wutzke et al., 2012).

5. Analysis

Engagement of stakeholders

According to (Department of Planning and Community Development, 2014) it is necessary to evaluate and analyze the outcomes of the feedback report. The collected data should be analyzed thoroughly in order to understand the necessary findings for the draw conclusions. Analysis of the data should be done to estimate the funding and the budget plans. Data analysis can be done by using graphs, pictograms, charts and posters.

References:

Adegbija, O., Hoy, W., & Wang, Z. (2015). Prediction of cardiovascular disease risk using waist circumference among Aboriginals in a remote Australian community. BMC public health, 15(1), 57. 
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-015-1406-1

Australian Drug Foundation. (2016). Statistics - Drug Prevention & Alcohol Facts - DrugInfo. Druginfo.adf.org.au. Retrieved 8 October 2016, from https://www.druginfo.adf.org.au/topics/quick-statistics

Calabria, B., Clifford, A., Shakeshaft, A., Allan, J., Bliss, D., & Doran, C. (2013). The acceptability to Aboriginal Australians of a family?based intervention to reduce alcohol?related harms. Drug and alcohol review, 32(3), 328-332. DOI: 10.1111/j.1465-3362.2012.00525.x

Chikritzhs, T., & Pascal, R. (2004). Trends in youth alcohol consumption and related harms in Australian jurisdictions, 1990-2002. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.06.058

Department of Planning and Community Development. (2014). Evaluation step by stepguide. Retrieved 12 October 2016, from https://www.dhs.vic.gov

Gilligan, C., Kypri, K., Johnson, N., Lynagh, M., & Love, S. (2012). Parental supply of alcohol and adolescent risky drinking. Drug and alcohol review, 31(6), 754-762. DOI: 10.1111/j.1465-3362.2012.00418.x

Howard, S. J., Gordon, R., & Jones, S. C. (2014). Australian alcohol policy 2001–2013 and implications for public health. BMC public health, 14(1), 848. 
https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-14-848

Kwan, M., Bobko, S., Faulkner, G., Donnelly, P., &Cairney, J. (2014). Sport participation and alcohol and illicit drug use in adolescents and young adults: A systematic review of longitudinal studies. Addictive Behaviors, 39(3), 497-506. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2013.11.006

Lumley, J., Correy, J. F., Newman, N. M., & Curran, J. T. (1985). Cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption and fetal outcome in Tasmania 1981–82. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 25(1), 33-40. DOI: 10.1111/j.1479-828X.1985.tb00599.x

 National Health Survey: First Results, 2014-15. (2017). Abs.gov.au. Retrieved 23 October 2017, from https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/[email protected]/Lookup/by%20Subject/4364.0.55.001~2014-15~Main%20Features~Tasmania~10007

Peacock, A., Bruno, R., Martin, F. H., & Carr, A. (2013). The impact of alcohol and energy drink consumption on intoxication and risk?taking behavior. Alcoholism: Clinical and experimental research, 37(7), 1234-1242. DOI: 10.1111/acer.12086

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