Overview
The EMR Action on Alcohol Flagship group is a consortium of representatives from the seven local governments of the Eastern Metropolitan Region (EMR), community health agencies, Inner East and Outer East Primary Care Partnerships and the Dalgarno Institute. The partnership is committed to taking midstream and upstream action, to reduce the harmful impacts of alcohol in local communities.
The role of the Flagship is to establish a common and consistent agenda, with short, medium and long-term goals for the group and the region, to reduce harms related to alcohol.
The objectives are:
- Data: Develop a greater understanding of local and regional data, continuing conversations with academics and policy makers to understand how research and data has been used in practice; and support the EMR to access the evidence to use in advocacy, service planning, and designing responses to the harms from alcohol.
- Policy and legislation: Support members to understand the complexity of policy making involved in the regulation of alcohol outlets, and support the development of a framework for local government to prepare for VCAT.
- Partnerships: Develop strategic partnerships to broaden the expertise of the group and strengthen our collective advocacy voice when advocating within the region and at a State Government level.
- Education and Interventions: Keep up to date with, and continually disseminate, contemporary successful and best practice intervention, research and education.
- Advocacy: Create and maintain a profile for the Flagship group as the peak body for evidence and advocacy around reducing the harmful impacts of alcohol in the EMR.
- Evaluation: Embed evaluation in overall process.
Why is alcohol misuse a priority?
Key research across the EMR identified increasing alcohol related harm and use between 1999 and 2007. In particular;
- Upward trends in alcohol-related hospital admission rates
- Upward trends in alcohol-related assaults
- Upward trends in alcohol ambulance related attendances,
- Upward trends in alcohol related courses of treatment
- Upward trends in liquor licensing with outlet density for the region increasing by about 30%.
Increasing availability of alcohol in the community is linked to the increasing burden of harms, including chronic disease, and domestic and general violence. The burden of harm from alcohol is also unevenly distributed across the community, with disproportionate harms affecting disadvantaged population groups.
Resources:
| Title | Date | Type | Author | Files |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Liquor Premises by Type and Location 2018Statistical information about conditions in Victorian municipalities collated by Hayden Brown |
28/05/2018 | Resource | Hayden Brown, City of Greater Dandenong | |
The Well Alcohol Misuse PortalAlcohol Misuse has its own portal on The Well. Understand the theory and context behind alcohol misuse, learn about the intervention evidence base, add your own project to The Well and access regional data to support your planning. |
19/12/2016 | Website | Inner East Primary Care Partnership |
