Managing Alcohol In Our Communities (MAIOC) Guide

The MAIOC Guide supports Local Governments to address alcohol-related issues within their communities and create a safe and healthy place for people to work, live and play. The Guide has been developed in partnership with the Mental Health Commission (MHC), the Public Health Advocacy Institute of Western Australia (PHAIWA) and WALGA. Click here to download.
 

Local Drug Action Teams

WALGA is supportive of the Local Drug Action Team Program implemented by the Alcohol and Drug Foundation. The Local Drug Action Team Program is funded by the Australian Government and is being implemented across Australia. The Local Drug Action Team Program supports communities to work together to prevent and minimise the harm caused by alcohol and other drugs. There are now 244 Local Drug Action Teams across Australia, of which many are being led by Local Governments. More information about Local Drug Action Teams is available here.
 

Iceland Drug Prevention: Planet Youth

WALGA hosted a webinar on Planet Youth: Iceland Drug Prevention presented Dr Pall Melsted Rikhardsson from Iceland and Greg Williams, State Manager WA, Alcohol and Drug Foundation. The presentation covered how Iceland has successfully addressed drug use by adolescents.

In the 1990s a group of Icelandic social scientists at the Iceland Center for Social Research and Analysis (ICSRA), along with policy makers and practitioners, began collaborating in an effort to better understand the societal factors influencing substance use among adolescents and potential approach to prevention. ICSRA developed an evidence-based approach to adolescent substance use prevention that involved a broad range of relevant stakeholders who worked together on this community-based, socially embedded and highly participatory effort. More information regarding the drug prevention model in Iceland can be found here.  

The webinar was recorded and is available here (File size 283MB).
 

Illicit Drug Contamination and Remediation

The Department of Health, in conjunction with Local Governments, has responsibilities for ensuring the habitability of people's homes under the Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1911. In Western Australia, homes may be contaminated due to illicit drugs being made or smoked in them, especially methylamphetamine (meth, ice).  The Department of Health provides regulatory guidance on the identification and management of drug contaminated properties which is practical and scaled to the level of risk, which in many cases is quite low. More information is available on the Department of Health website here