Overview

The Inner East councils and community health services have identified reducing alcohol related harm as a priority in their Municipal Public Health and Wellbeing Plans and Integrated Health Promotion Plans. The Victorian Public Health and Wellbeing Plan 2019-2023 has also identified reducing harmful alcohol use as a priority.

The Action on Alcohol Flagship Group is a consortium of representatives from the seven local governments of the Eastern Metropolitan Region (EMR), community health services, the Inner East and Outer East Primary Care Partnerships and the Dalgarno Institute. The partnership is committed to taking midstream and upstream action to reduce harmful impacts of alcohol in local communities.

Why is preventing alcohol related harm a priority?

Key points:

• Australia’s relationship with alcohol has changed since COVID-19
• 20% of the national self-harm burden, 14% of the interpersonal violence burden and 7.5% of the unintentional injury burden is due to alcohol use
• Over 1 in 4 Australian adults consumed alcohol at levels which put them at risk of short-term harm in 2013
• 15% of Victorian 18-24 year olds drink at risky or high-risk levels for short term harm at least weekly
• Our community wants to see action; over the last decade, between two thirds and three quarters of people surveyed in FARE polls thought Australia has a problem with alcohol, and more than three quarters thought more needed to be done to reduce alcohol harm

Key challenges in reducing alcohol related harm:

• The availability of liquor licenses
• Planning provisions by which liquor licenses are granted
• Normative culture of alcohol consumption which has become entrenched in Australian society
• The burden of harm from alcohol is unevenly distributed across the community, with disproportionate harms affecting disadvantaged population groups

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