Reducing the Risks of Teenage Alcohol
Consumption on the Central Coast
Information for Secondary Schools
The Central Coast Local Health District (CCLHD) works closely with local secondary schools, police, the
liquor industry (liquor accords), Gosford and Wyong councils, sporting groups and others to reduce the
risk of alcohol related harm to our teenagers.
This brochure provides a brief summary of;
• Some of the key issues.
• What the CCLHD is doing to reduce teen drinking at a local level.
How many of our teenagers actually drink alcohol?
Not as many as some people (including teenagers) believe.
•
Most young people between the ages of 12 and 17 either don’t drink or only consume small
amounts.1
•
It’s likely that around 16% of Central Coast secondary school students have drunk some alcohol in
the last week. For the majority of these individuals it won’t have been very much.1
It is common for young people to assume that the behaviours that stick out in people’s minds are
representative of the majority and therefore normal. This false belief can be a driver for young people to
adhere to what they think is the norm.2
Because young people experience peer pressure
to fit in, it is important not to perpetuate the idea
that most youth are problem drinkers.
Why is teen drinking a problem?
There is no safe level of alcohol consumption for under 18s.
During adolescence and young adulthood, the human brain is more sensitive to
injury from alcohol and is less able to respond to physiological cues to stop drinking.
Alcohol affects brain development in young people; thus, drinking, particularly
heavy drinking, at any time before brain development is complete (which is not until
around 25 years of age) may adversely affect later brain function.
Drinkers under the age of 18 years:
• Have higher risks of accidents, injuries, violence, academic failure and
self-harm.
• Are more likely to engage in risky or anti-social behaviour than older drinkers.
• Are much more likely to experience alcohol poisoning and even death due to
alcohol overdose.
• Are more likely to go on to experience alcohol related harm as adults.
Aren’t illicit drugs more of a concern?
As devastating as the effects of illicit drugs can be, they still do not impact on as large a proportion of
the population as legal drugs. Of all drugs alcohol ranks second only to tobacco as a cause of premature
death and disease. The impact of alcohol particularly affects young people. Among people aged 15 to 34
years, alcohol is responsible for the majority of drug-related deaths and hospital episodes, causing more
deaths and hospitalisations in this age group than all illicit use of drugs combined, and many more than
tobacco.
What are we aiming for?
Australian Guideline 3 –
For children and young people under 18 years of age, not drinking alcohol is the safest option.
A. Parents and carers should be advised that children under 15 years of age are at the greatest
risk of harm from drinking and that for this age group, not drinking alcohol is especially
important.
B. For young people aged 15−17 years, the safest option is to delay the initiation of drinking
for as long as possible.
What are we doing?
There are two main types of strategy to achieve our aims;
1.
ecrease Demand –strategies that reduce the teenager’s desire to drink. This is a tough ask as
D
we’re working with a group who are pre-programmed to increase their risk taking!
2.
Decrease Supply – strategies that reduce the availability of alcohol to teenagers.
Both types of strategy are important in a comprehensive approach. A number of important interventions
require legislative change, such as restrictions on advertising in sport and mandating a minimum price
per standard unit of alcohol. In October 2014 the Australian Medical Association National Alcohol
Summit called for urgent Australian Government action on these and other evidence based strategies for
Australia. But what can be done at a local level? Read on…
Reducing demand at a local level is mostly about
education and alcohol free entertainment
Education
Some experts believe that the best form of health education may be in media awareness so that
teens are better able to understand how the media might be manipulating them.(4)
There are plenty of messages in the media for teens linking alcohol to positive experiences, particularly
in sport , movies and most recently in sophisticated social media campaigns. Those messages have a
powerful and profitable industry driving them. Parents, carers, teachers and other people working with
teenagers face a challenge to counter this with the facts about the risks, and in encouraging abstinence.
The Central Coast LHD has created a brief intervention on-line tool called EDDI to compliment
school alcohol education. EDDI is an alcohol reality check for 13 to 17 year olds. EDDI stands
for Everyone Doesn’t Do It. It asks kids how much they’ve had to drink and shows them how
their drinking compares to other kids their age.
EDDI is based on social norms theory, it clarifies a
key health fact for kids - most teens don’t drink,
and of those that do, most don’t drink much.
EDDI also includes links to other excellent alcohol
resources including a binge drinking video for teens
shot on the Central Coast with our own head of
emergency medicine, Kate Porges. Referral advice
is provided for the small percentage of kids who are
drinking.
EDDI is available on the healthpromotion.com.au
website
EDDI has just had a face lift to improve its performance and accessibility!
The new Australian curriculum for Health and Physical Education will continue to include alcohol and
other drugs as an important content area.
There are excellent on-line resources available including the Out Tonight, Party Right website to enhance
education in this area.
•
•
•
•
Party Right is a suite of resources for stage 6 students to support the Crossroads course.
This resource includes game-based learning, lessons, videos and parent and teacher support
materials.
It was created as a collaborative effort between the Department of Education and Communities
and the Office of Liquor Gaming and Racing.
The Health Promotion Service of the Central Coast Local Health District was consulted on some
sections of the resource.
Alcohol Free Entertainment
• Alcohol free entertainment is another demand strategy.
• If teens know that an event is totally alcohol free it both adds to the
credibility of alcohol harm education and reduces the pressure that
some teens might be feeling that they need to drink to be normal,
or of some parents who think they need to be introducing their
teens to alcohol.
• Respected drug education educator and author Paul Dillon wrote
in his blog in June 2014 “…I certainly support any school that
breathalyses students as they arrive at a school formal. Why should
a school be expected to supervise young people who have been
Call the Health Promotion
drinking any amount of alcohol? There are just too many risks
Service on 43209700 to book
involved…”
a breathalyser.
The CCLHD Health Promotion Service provides breathalysers (both free standing and hand
held models) free to schools and other organisations conducting alcohol free events for
teens. The presence of a breathalyser is a strong deterrent to teens taking the risk of not
being detected, and a solid message that the school does not tolerate teen drinking.
Decreasing supply at a local level is aimed
at both secondary and retail supply.
Reduced supply can have a powerful effect on consumption, particularly
for teenagers. The CCLHD is addressing supply of alcohol to teens on the
Central Coast through opposition to inappropriate increases in packaged
liquor outlet density, working with packaged liquor retailers to ensure ID is
requested for young people, and programs targeting supply by adults and
older teens such as ‘Most People Don’t’.
Together we can make a difference. Please go to
healthpromotion.com.au to find out more about health
promotion programs on the Central Coast, or contact Health
Promotion Officer Jeff Smith on 43209721.
Please note that the Health Promotion Service cannot provide presentations to student groups. We are happy
to consult with individual schools and work with staff to improve their understanding of local alcohol issues.
References
1.
2.
3.
4.
SW School Students Health Behaviours Survey (SAPHaRI). Centre for Epidemiology and Evidence, NSW Ministry of Health.
N
‘A Brief Summary of Social Norms Theory and the Approach to Promoting Health’, H. Wesley Perkins, Ph.D, Department of Anthropology and
Sociology, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, New York. Available on-line at http://www.alcoholeducationproject.org/Social%20
Norms%20Summary.pdf
Australian guidelines to reduce health risks from drinking alcohol – Australian Government National Health and Medical Research Council
(NHMRC), 2009
The importance of media literacy in health education is well explored in the published work of Brian A. Primack, MD, PhD of the University of
Pittsburgh School of Medicine.