One-fifth of Australian high-school families will be provided with a new resource this month to help them tackle the growing problem of under-age alcohol abuse.
The move, which comes in the lead up to schoolies week and end-of-year celebrations, will put the eight-page booklet, entitled A Parents’ Guide to Teen Alcohol & Parties, into more than 200,000 Australian homes.
The not-for-profit project is the initiative of Australian wine writer Tyson Stelzer, who has rallied thirty-three wine companies to sponsor the printing and circulation of the resource.
“Experts are calling for a change in Australia’s drinking culture, and yet alcohol abuse among teenagers is rising at an alarming rate. Young people are establishing dangerous drinking patterns that research indicates will follow into their later life,” Stelzer said.
He first encountered the need for resources to help parents to address the problem when he experienced real stories of teen alcohol abuse while working as a Gold Coast high school teacher five years ago.
Stelzer recalls children as young as eleven deceiving their parents and taking bottles of spirits to large binge drinking parties in public places.
Fifteen-year-olds drank themselves to the point of passing out and were rushed to hospital to have their stomachs pumped. A seventeen-year-old’s heart stopped in an ambulance. Resuscitated, she went right back to alcohol and drugs the very next night. A seventeen-year-old boy lost his life to alcohol and drugs.
“Many parents are at a loss for what they can do, and don’t realise that there are some simple steps that they can follow,” he said.
Approached by students and parents seeking strategies, Stelzer developed a booklet which was circulated to local high schools, leading parents through a series of practical guidelines to reduce the risk for their children, including:
- Modelling good drinking behaviour
- Communicating with their teenagers
- Starting the discussion young
- Negotiating the boundaries
- How to host a safe party
- Hosting over-18 parties
- Attending a party
Five years later, working as a critic and commentator in the wine industry, Stelzer is making his resource available to high schools across Australia, thanks to the support of the wine industry.
“Australian wine companies have embraced the opportunity to support something proactive that might make a positive difference for young Australians. This is a project with a long-term view to address attitudes and encourage a positive culture of responsible alcohol consumption,” he said.
Booklets will be delivered to schools for circulation to families during the week of October 18, 2010.
In its first year, the project will meet its goal of putting the resource into 200 000 homes, estimated to represent about one-fifth of Australia’s high school families.
The hope is to build support next year to take it to more than one million high school and primary school families.
The brochure can be viewed here.
Statistics and sponsors follow.
Statistics
It has been estimated that every week in Australia one teenager dies and more than 60 are hospitalised from alcohol-related causes. Alcohol accounts for 13 percent of all deaths among 14-17-year-old Australians.1
Rates of drinking at harmful levels among 12-17-year-olds have doubled in the past two decades.2
One in twenty 12-15-year-olds engages in regular binge drinking, one in four 16-17-year-olds and almost one in two 18-19-year-olds.3
One in two Australian teenagers who get drunk do something they regret.4
Australia’s under-age drinkers consume more than 175 million drinks a year.5
Over 80% of all alcohol consumed by 14-17-year-olds is drunk at risky levels.6
More Australian 12-17-year-olds obtain alcohol from a relative than any other source.3
Spirits, liqueurs and pre-mixers account for 70 percent of under-age drinking, beer for 20 percent and wine for 10 percent.3
Young men are two-and-a-half times as likely to have current alcohol use problems as the rest of the population.7
Australia has one of the highest rates of alcohol abuse in the world.7
The annual cost of alcohol abuse in Australia is estimated to be more than $29 billion.8
Putting a stop to unhealthy habits in teens may prevent destructive and long-term issues in adult life.9
1. National Health and Medical Research Council, http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/your_health/healthy/alcohol/burden.htm.
2. White V & Hayman J (2007) Results from the 2005 Australian Secondary Students’ Alcohol and Drug Survey. Centre for Behavioural Research in Cancer and Victorian Department of Human Services, Melbourne.
3. National Drug Strategy Household Survey 2007, http://www.aihw.gov.au/publications/phe/ndshs07-fr/ndshs07-fr-no-questionnaire.pdf.
4. National Binge Drinking Campaign Evaluation Survey 2009, http://www.health.gov.au/internet/drinkingnightmare/publishing.nsf/Content/3F34473572CF15F2CA257679007C3A7A/$File/eval.pdf.
5. The National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, Doran, C., Shakeshaft, A., Hall W. & Petrie, D. (2009). “Alcohol industry and government revenue derived from underage drinking by Australian adolescents 2005.” Addictive Behaviours 34(1), 75-81, abstract at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18947935.
6. Under-aged drinking among 14-17 year olds and related harms in Australia, Curtin University of Technology, http://ndri.curtin.edu.au/local/docs/pdf/naip/naip007.pdf.
7. Teeson M., Hall W., Slade T., Mills K., Grave R., Mewton L., Baillie A., Haber P. “Prevalence and correlates of DSM-1V alcohol abuse and dependence in Australia: findings of the 2007 National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing”. Addiction, 2010; 105, http://www.addictionjournal.org/viewpressrelease.asp?pr=136.
8. “The range and magnitude of alcohol’s harm to others,” The Alcohol Education and Rehabilitation Foundation, August 2010, http://www.aerf.com.au/Harm_to_Others_Full_Report_with-errata.pdf.
9. Queensland Fair Trade Minister, Peter Lawlor, commenting on the findings of The Queensland Young Adults Longitudinal Survey 2005-2010, in The Sunday Mail, August 29, 2010, page 5.
Wine company sponsors
This resource is funded through the financial support of thirty-three Australian wineries committed to making a positive difference for young Australians. These companies are not named in the resource, so as not to be seen to be promoting their products.
Orlando Wines
Teusner Wines
De Bortoli Wines
Grosset Wines
Kay Brothers Amery
Fermoy Estate
Galvanized Wine Group
Kangarilla Road Wines
Logan Wines
Poole’s Rock Wines
Primo Estate
Scarborough Wines
The Lane Vineyard
Tyrrell’s Wines
Whistler Wines
Mike Press Wines
Shingleback Wines
James Estate Wines
Balnaves of Coonawarra
Steve Lubiana Wines
The Little Wine Company
Uncorked & Cultivated
Bindi Wines
Brothers in Arms
La Linea Wines
Omond & Co
Paradigm Hill Wines
Rusden Wines
Jim Barry Wines
Karra Yerta Wines
Wingara Group
Kalleske Wines
McKellar Ridge
