3 December 2010

National Drug Strategy 2010-2015 Consultation
MDP 701
GPO Box 9848
CANBERRA ACT 2601

This submission is made on behalf of the Australian New Zealand Student Services Association (ANZSSA – see for further information on the association). ANZSSA substantially contributed to a review and consultation undertaken by the Department of Health and Aging and our comments to this Drug Strategy draw from the document, Situational Analysis paper on “Counsellors on University Campuses, Final Draft Discussion Paper, 2007.

It is ANZSSA’a view that significant gaps exist in seriously addressing alcohol and drug misuse amongst university students.

These are outlined as follows:

p.8 - Age and stage of life:

Whilst it is noted that the transition from school to tertiary education is a time of increased risk we recommend that this be made more explicit to include all post secondary education including the Vocational Education and Training (VET) and Universities. While ANZSSA would strongly support the Government’s strategy to target school aged children, sporting clubs, communities and primary care settings, we would argue that young post-secondary students are an vulnerable and at-risk cohort who may difficult to target through generalised health promotion strategies. We recognize the availability, social desirability and acceptability of alcohol make it particularly challenging for health promotion and persuasion strategies to have a significant impact.

Within this at risk cohort of 15-24 year old, VET and university student populations are at particular risk for alcohol-related harm when compared with their non-university peers due to unique situational, environmental, cultural and age-related factors; university students drink at higher rates than non-university peers. (Kypri, Cronin & Wright, 2005; Polizzotto, Saw, Tjhung, Chua & Stockwell, 2007).

p.10 - Settings: That post-secondary education is included as an important site for settings based interventions.

  • ANZSSA believes that long lasting and significant impact can only be achieved through the 3-in-one framework recommended in the Counsellors on University Campuses Discussion Paper (Drug Strategy Branch, June 2007). The Discussion Paper proposes investing in and establishing more coherent and sustainable settings based health promotions 3-in-one framework.

In the high profile report on college drinking produced by the United States National Advisory Council on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism,1 a 3-in-one framework is recommended:

“The research strongly supports the use of comprehensive, integrated programs with multiple complementary components that target: (1) individuals, including

at-risk or alcohol-dependent drinkers, (2) the student population as a whole, and (3) the college and the surrounding community.” (p 14)

  • Innovative settings-based approach to health promotion, moving away from focusing on individual behaviours and at-risk communities to developing whole populations within a given setting. Such guidelines need to be embedded within student engagement frameworks which have been already been strongly embraced in Australian tertiary education settings but also within the structure of Health Promoting Universities (Tsouros et al., 1998) which is not well known within most Australian universities and TAFE colleges but has been strongly promoted in the United Kingdom within a European network of Health Promoting Universities. Developing such a settings-based health promotions framework will ensure that efficacious brief interventions for alcohol harm minimization are integrated into organizational cultures, policies, structures and practices. In light of these data, it is necessary for Australian tertiary institutions to develop comprehensive health promotions frameworks to effectively deliver alcohol harm minimization strategies that are easily accessible, cost effective and evidence based.

p.10 - Partnerships:

ANZSSA would welcome stronger partnerships across sectors and again expand the definition of education to explicitly include post-secondary education.

Objective 1: Again to reiterate the points made above that post-secondary educational environments provide the ideal setting for prevention and early interventions. It is worth adding that stand alone health promotion interventions or media campaigns are less likely to make an impact of this population. Innovative approaches which embed and integrate health promotion interventions within the environment and curriculum are likely to have more success.

Please do not hesitate to make contact if you would like ANZSSA to further expand on the issues raised.

Dr Jim Elliott

President

Australia and New Zealand Student Services Association