Page 3289 - Week 11 - Thursday, 12 September 1991
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More resources should be put into education campaigns, as I note Mrs Grassby stated. It is a pity the Government does not put more funding into that area. I believe that the Alcohol and Drug Service has applied for funding for the last two or three years and has been knocked back. The Alcohol and Drug Service, in my view, is underresourced and cannot utilise important programs which it has built up, due to a lack of resources. The TTT Program for teenagers is one. Because of a lack of resources they can do only a certain number each year. The other one is a parents program, Drugs and Kids. These drug education sessions for parents are limited in the number that can be delivered.
Mr Speaker, there are few services for women who are alcohol or drug affected. There is a need for more halfway houses for women and also for child-care. Women are unable to go into detox units and ask for help because they cannot find or afford appropriate child-care. With regard to the detox unit, there is controversy as to whether we should have a separate detox unit for adolescents. Some say that there should be a separate one for women as well, but I acknowledge the fact that funding constraints make this very difficult.
Mr Connolly: But not difficult enough to hold a royal commission.
MS MAHER: It is something that this review would look into, Mr Connolly. With regard to young people, there is a need for more services, especially in counselling, halfway houses and supported accommodation for adolescents affected by alcohol. There is a need to review SAAP funding with regard to accommodation for young people who are often affected by alcohol.
The services cannot give counselling. An example is Lowanna Young Women's Refuge, where 50 per cent of the people between 12 and 18 years that they see are affected by alcohol. The service, because of funding guidelines, cannot or is not supposed to provide counselling. This happens in quite a number of the refuges. There is a need for a residential setting for people who have alcohol related brain damage. The detox unit and also the hospital have said that they find it very difficult to find somewhere to send these affected people.
There is a need for dosshouses or places where intoxicated people can sober up without having them go to gaol for the night. In speaking with one of the youth refuges, it was conveyed to me that there was a need for a safe place for young people who are under the influence of alcohol or other drugs so that they do not have to be taken to either the hospital or gaol. There is a need for the people whom the community generally forgets, as I mentioned earlier - the spouses, partners, children and peers of alcohol affected people.
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