iDoses: let the resource drain begin
After reading this story on the growth of ‘digital drugs’ in the US, the first thing that occurred to me was the time that AOD professionals are going to have to spend debunking stuff like this at the expense of real treatment and prevention work. That said, it’s also a phenomenon that needs a lot more investigation – not to determine whether it does mimic drugs (I’d nearly stake my life on the fact that it doesn’t) – but to explore its idiosyncrasies and any light it might shed on wider behaviours by young people in the digital age.
Thoughts?
Rehabilitation for prisoners
A good article in Newsweek on the issue – who would’ve thought providing rehab to those who need it would improve outcomes?
Injecting rooms improve health and rehab likelihood: study
As per ABC News, a Burnet Institute study being released next week shows improved health outcomes for those who attended one of the 76 injecting rooms surveyed worldwide. No real surprise there but it’s great to see a local, substantive study illustrating those outcomes.
Would anyone like to predict what the conservative lobby’s reaction will be to the report?
Anti-marijuana ads: impact on teens
A fascinating study published last year that I only just stumbled across thanks to Mike Ashton:
The effect of marijuana scenes in anti-marijuana public service announcements on adolescents’ evaluation of ad effectiveness is the study and it’s worth reading the whole thing.
The take home message:
The analysts concluded that their most consistent findings related to the presence of scenes showing cannabis or its use. Youngsters unlikely in any event to use the drug reacted well to anti-cannabis ads regardless, but those the ads most needed to deter – the ones most likely to use the drug – saw the ads overall as less effective, and especially those which featured the drug or its use. Neither were they swayed by what young people in general saw as stronger anti-cannabis arguments; on one important measure, they actually reacted more negatively to strong-argument ads. The lesser relevance of argument strength may have been due to the fact that in respect of cannabis deterrence, youngsters saw all the arguments as only moderately convincing. These findings caution against featuring images of cannabis or its use in anti-drug campaigns.
Are you surprised by any of that? I’m not particularly…
Australasian Science takes on Homeopathy
Hard to argue with a lot of the press release reproduced below, although there’s always the risk of generalisations killing off what may be some avenues worth exploring:
The Real Cost of Homeopathy
There is no evidence that homeopathy is more effective than a placebo yet medical insurance companies – subsidised by the government – are extending their cover due to client demand, while health authorities lack the power to act on misleading claims that can have lethal consequences.
Dr Ken Harvey of La Trobe University’s School of Public Health says health insurance premiums are being driven “higher than they need to be because the insurers involved fund alternative therapies that lack an evidence base, such as homeopathy, reflexology and iridology”.
Writing in the June edition of Australasian Science, published today, Dr Harvey says the practice is occurring at a time “when premiums are consistently rising faster than the consumer price index. As a result many people, especially those retired on fixed incomes, have great difficulty maintaining their private health insurance cover.
“As the government substantially subsidises private health insurance, this means that all taxpayers are contributing to therapies that lack evidence of their effectiveness.
Dr Harvey explains that homeopathic preparations contain little or no active ingredient. While this means “they are unlikely to directly cause harm,” he warns that “the results can be deadly… Earlier this year, a homeopath and his wife were found guilty of manslaughter after their baby daughter died when they treated her severe eczema with homeopathic remedies rather than conventional medicines.“
Dr Harvey says that “the World Health Organisation does not recommend homeopathy for the treatment of serious diseases”, while the UK’s House of Commons Science and Technology Committee “recently concluded that the UK health service should cease funding homeopathy because ‘homeopathic products perform no better than placebos’.”
In Australia, claims made for homeopathic medicines are subject to the Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code, but Dr Harvey says that “the Complaints Resolution Panel that administers the Code has no power to enforce its determinations. The end result is that around one-third of those found to breach the rules fail to publish retractions or withdraw misleading material.”
Dr Harvey describes a case where “an Australian homeopath claimed that homeopathic immunisation was effective against polio, meningococcal disease, cholera, whooping cough and other serious diseases… These claims breached numerous sections of the Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code, including promotion of a treatment for which there was no evidence of efficacy. The homeopath was asked to publish a retraction and withdraw misleading information but she refused.”
Dr Harvey concludes: “The Rudd government needs to stand up to the alt-med lobby and give the TGA real teeth”.
Kevin Rudd’s tobacco tax increase: good policy?
It’s now been a few weeks since the tax hike on cigarettes – I’m interested whether anyone in the field is seeing an increase in people deciding to quit? I know there’s evidence on the link between price and use, but I’m guessing it takes more than a few weeks for that to kick in for most people?
Harm reduction and law enforcement CAN be friends
This has to be a positive development yes?
It is with great pleasure that I can inform you that the Law Enforcement And Harm Reduction Network (LEAHRN) website is now live.
The website can be accessed through: www.leahrn.org/
LEAHRN is about bringing law enforcement and harm reduction closer together.
LEAHRN aims to connect people who want to know more about how police and harm reduction services can work together more effectively.
LEAHRN seeks to promote harmony and a better understanding between police and health service providers so that more programs involving clean needles and syringes, methadone, condoms and supervised injecting facilities can be successfully delivered.
The website is still in its formative stages and will undergo further development over the next few weeks, including additional resources and updated information being added regularly.
You can access the LEAHRN Blog – ‘COPS HR’ to write an opinion, make a comment, post news items, ask questions etc etc about issues related to policing and harm reduction. I encourage you to forward the LEAHRN link to others, particularly police, to facilitate connections/discussions between those representing law enforcement and harm reduction agencies.
Australian Government’s new illicit drug strategy: more of the same?
The Federal Health Minister has launched an Illicit Drug Campign to go along with its Tobacco and Alcohol campaigns. It’s a campaign that involves lots of information around the dangers of illicit drug use, that aims to “decrease motivation” of young people to commence use.
I’m all for education and knowledge, but I just get the feel this is just more of the same. There doesn’t seem to be any real differentiation from the decades of previous information and it just doesn’t seem that engaging. Again, campaigns like this probably do help but I’m interested in your thoughts: if you had the same budget, what would you do to ensure an effective and engaging campaign for young people and illicit drugs?
Here’s the text of the full press release:
Ad Campaign launched to confront Illicit Drug Use
The Rudd Government today launched the next stage of its hard-hitting $17 million advertising campaign to combat illicit drug use in Australia.
The campaign presents the ugly facts of illicit substance use including confronting and graphic images of young people addicted to drugs and the reality of underground production
labs.This campaign aims to tackle drug use by presenting the physical and psychological impacts of illicit drug use.
It urges young people to decide against drug use and directs users to support, counselling and treatment services.
This campaign is about young people understanding the consequences of illicit drug use, asking them to ‘face facts’ and emphasising the damaging effects drugs have.
Too many young Australians don’t understand the very real and dangerous impacts of taking or using illegal drugs.
Ecstasy is made in filthy, makeshift labs, using toxic ingredients like battery acid and bleach. The toxicity of each pill varies and the potential for overdose is in every single pill.
There is no ‘quality control’ over the manufacture of drugs such as ecstasy.In 2007 more than one third of the people aged over 14 had used an illicit drug at least once in their lifetime.
The proportion of recent regular ecstasy users who use weekly or more often has risen from 0.8 per cent in 1998 to 17.3 per cent in 2007. There is also a disturbing trend in the
increased ecstasy use by young females aged between 14-19 which is up from 4.7 per cent in 2004 to 6 per cent in 2007.The campaign features print, outdoor, radio and in-venue advertisements depict real-life situations.
The advertisements, which will appear from this Sunday, were developed with the advice of clinicians, law enforcement officers and young people.
Further information, fact sheets and advice is available at www.australia.gov.au/drugs or by calling the free national hotline: 1800 250 015.
Needle exchange, prevention and return on investment
It’s been a substantive week for the ATOD sector from a government policy viewpoint, with the release of the Return on investment 2: evaluating the cost-effectiveness of needle and syringe programs in Australia 2009 report by the Commonwealth Department of Health and Aging and the steady progress towards realisation of a nationwide Preventative Health Agency.
For those working at the NSEP coalface the Commonwealth report doesn’t contain any great surprises: the program has saved hundreds of millions of dollars overs its lifetime (Alex Wodak has a спалниnice piece over at Crikey on the report). The challenge now falls to both the Commonwealth and State governments to follow-through and further entrench the validity of NSEP. Hell, they could even expand its reach. There’s a chance for some governmental innovation.
The Health Minister Nicola Roxon is enthused by the passage of the legislation supporting the formation of a preventative health agency. Not surprisingly, the pressure is already being applied to Senators in regards to its passage through that chamber. The press release in full:
Australia’s first ever Preventive Health Agency will soon be established following the passage of important legislation in the House of Representatives today. The Agency is a key part of the Rudd Government’s decision to invest more in preventative health measures than any other government in Australia’s history.
The legislation is now with the Senate for consideration. It is essential that this Bill be passed without delay so that the agency can commence work on 1 January 2010.
The creation of this agency responds to calls from health professionals for Australia to establish – as many other countries have done – a dedicated agency to focus exclusively on driving the prevention agenda and combat the complex challenges of preventable chronic disease.
The agency will guide health ministers in their task of curbing the growth of lifestyle risks driving chronic disease. It is a role requiring national leadership, capacity to work across sectors and portfolios, and an oversight role for surveillance and monitoring.
The agency will bring together the best expertise in the country and play a key role in gathering, analysing and disseminating the best available evidence and evidence-based programs.
Its prevention activities will engage all Australian governments as well as employers, businesses and other sectors, to benefit every community in the nation.
The new preventive health agency will concentrate on reducing the burden that preventable health problems are already placing on the workforce, and ensure Australia’s productive capacity is maintained.
The agency will receive $133 million over four years, from the Government’s record $872 million COAG Prevention Partnership funding.
Strong support for the agency has been expressed by key players in the preventive health field such as the Public Health Association of Australia, and this is important in ensuring the agency’s success in forging cohesiveness in national preventive health efforts.
The preventative health agency legislation holds some promise and it’ll be interesting to see how much ideology enters the debate. You can expect the AMA to go in hard on the issue of medical funding not beign sacrificed on the altar of prevention. There may also be some argy bargy over the taskforce being another incremental step toward Commonwealth takeover of health. Beyond that, it’s really hard to see any Senator taking a strong stand unless it’s to claim the model is wrong or that there’s not enough funding for it to work effectively.
Over to you: are you encouraged by the NSEP report and the taskforce legislation? Do you see it as a positive step toward better health services delivery?
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders
I couldn’t think of a more worthy piece to pass on, from Australia’s FASD advocacy body:
Today 9/9/09 is the 10th Anniversary of International FASD Awareness Day – The 9/9 was first choosen because 9 is the number of months of pregnancy when alcohol consumption can cause permanent brian damage. .
Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders is an umbrella term used to describe a range of adverse effects caused by prenatal exposure to alcohol, including Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), Partial FAS (PFAS), Alcohol-Related Neurodevelopmental Disorders (ARND) or Alcohol Related Birth Defects (ARBD)
FASD is not a label – it is a medical condition and a serious lifelong disability. Prevention, diagnosis and intervention are critical public health issues that require a high degree of planned action at a policy and service delivery level in order to reduce harm.
While International Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders Awareness Day is recognised throughout the world NOFASARD would like to reflect on the current situation in Australia:
- Children, adolescents and adults with FASD have multiple and complex needs that are currently not being met and this is resulting in poor life outcomes including social exclusion
- FASD rarely appears in Australian research or policy documents where it should be receiving attention.
- FASD does not appear on the government list of registered disabilities?
- There are no Australian Clinical Guidelines for diagnosing FASD and there are no Government funded specially trained interdisciplinary diagnostic teams.
- There is no Medicare number for rebate for the diagnosis of FASD
- Despite having very similar needs, individuals with FASD do not receive the same level of care and funding as those with Autism Spectrum Disorders.
- Individuals with FASD will be over-represented amongst those with drug and alcohol dependency issues yet most treatment programmes offered by service providers are not appropriate for this population.
- There is no national standard of care for individuals of any age with FASD – they are seldom treated effectively or fairly and they are seldom connected to service dollars.
- FASD is NOT just an Indigenous issue – FASD will be find wherever alcohol is part of the culture and exists across all social groups – the majority of individuals with FASD who are on NOFASARD’S data base are non-Indigenous.Families with affected children have waited long enough – they are desperate and their children are suffering. Families are tired of their pleas falling on deaf ears and they are tired – they need action and they need it now.
- At a minimum there needs to be at least one specially trained interdisciplinary diagnostic team in each state of Australia
- Families want to see collaboration and a greater understanding of FASD in the education, disability, drug and alcohol, health, mental health and justice systems and they want these systems to work with them, instead of against them or separate from them.
- Families who have FASD want to be consulted – they have the benefit of the wisdom that comes from practice and they are the experts when it comes to knowing what are the current gaps and inadequacies in the systems and so if we are to have any chance of addressing the best interests of those who are directly impacted, there needs to be a government sponsored forum that enables wide consultation at the grass roots level.
- Families need policy makers to understand that their children with FASD don’t grow out of their disability as they get older – they grow up to be adults with FASD who will need targeted integrated support services throughout their whole life if they are to achieve any level of sustained function.
- Families need an immediate commitment from government to provide the same level of funding as has already been provided to support children with Autism Spectrum Disorder to enable children, adolescents and adults with FASD to have access to specifically targeted service delivery.
- FASD must be included under the Commonwealth list of registered disabilities so that families don’t have to continually fight for services from the education, health, disability, social service and justice sectors.