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Issue #6
April 2013
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A new
booklet produced by the Northland District Health Board offers parents
simple ways to improve their communication and build stronger bonds
with their teens.
Northland
District Health Board health promotion advisor Dave Hookway, who led
the project, says the free ‘Whanau Pack’ booklet was developed in
consultation with a broad cross-section of community and health
agencies and topic experts.
“We were
guided by the latest evidence on parenting and data from the 2007 Youth
survey on adolescent health. Our resource focuses on key topics such as
time, boundaries, monitoring, communication and role-modeling, and
highlights the role these key areas play in supporting positive parenting
practices”.
 The free
Whanau Pack is intended for use by people working alongside families
and parents with teenagers and features local images and people from
throughout Northland. There is a focus on alcohol in particular
offering practical strategies that can be applied to most issues
challenging young people and their parents/caregivers.
The
Whanau Pack highlights some key reasons why parents should delay access
to alcohol by their teenagers. “When we looked into the research, we
found that for young people who started drinking by the age of 14,
almost half went on to develop alcohol dependency problems compared
with only one in 10 who didn’t drink alcohol until they were 21.”
explains Dave. “We also know
that that the brain continues to develop throughout the teenage years
and on into the early to mid-20s. For this reason, so it is important
to delay and limit alcohol use by teenagers”.
“Parents
need to be encouraged and supported in maintaining their role as a
parent rather than trying to be a friend to their kids”, says Dave,
noting that young people do better when they have limits and a safe,
secure home in which to grow.
“The
Whanau Pack promotes simple strategies to strengthen families and
relationships. For example eating meals together is one way for teens
and parents to maintain connection. Research shows that kids who share
meals with their family at least five time a
week are less likely to smoke, abuse alcohol, become overweight or have
suicidal thoughts and behaviours. They are more likely to feel better
about themselves, do better at school and feel more connected with
their parents and family”.
“The
challenge for families”, Dave says “is to remain connected while
accommodating busy lives. It’s the quality of time you spend together
that is most important and while many parents think their kids want
less involvement with them during their teenage years, this couldn’t be
further from the truth”.
The
resource has been embraced by lead agencies in Northland, such as the
Ministry of Social Development, the Ministry of Education and New
Zealand Police. Strategies from the Whanau Pack will be developed
further and promoted over the coming year to reinforce the messages in
the booklet. Copies will be made available through community and health
organisations, Northland District Health Board centres, Whanau Ora
providers and schools throughout Northland.
If you
wish to receive a free copy of the resource, click
here.
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The
Alcohol Drug Helpline has recorded
an increase in the numbers of callers seriously concerned about the use
and side effects from ‘legal highs’. Commonly sold through dairies and
over the internet, these products are thought to contain synthetic
cannabinoids although few actually state the active ingredients.
 The Helpline reported 59 calls in February and 102 in
March 2013 – compared with just 1 for February and 10 for March in
2012. The common themes included admissions to A&E, major anxiety,
paranoia, memory loss, suicidal thoughts, bad come-downs (aggression,
irritability), agitation, and vomiting. Many users report a preference
for these type of products because they are
legal and believe that this infers their safety. However, there remains
little evidence as to the safety of these products and users are at
risk of experiencing a wide range of side-effects.
Sold under names such as “Thai High”, “Spice” and “Kronic”,
the products are marketed with attractive packaging and claims such as
“ … a truly unique
product designed for those that wish to explore everything spiritual..” and “…. a Dreamy Exotic Blend to keep you
ready to blaaaaze” (sic).
The
NZ Drug Foundation believes that there should be restrictions on the
way in which these are marketed with executive director Ross Bell demanding
that plain packaging be introduced as part of the new synthetic drugs
legislation to prevent legal battles with the legal highs industry in
future. Mr Bell said the same rationale for plain cigarette packets
could be applied to synthetic cannabis and party pills. “We don’t want
to suddenly create this new market which is really attractive. We’re
trying to make these products as unsexy as possible.”
Temporary
bans on potentially harmful synthetic products are set to lapse in
August when the new law comes in to place.
Read more about synthetic
cannabinoids here
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The
role of local government has recently become even more significant in
changing the landscape of alcohol in our communities with the introduction
of the new Sale
and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012.
The
ability for local government to develop a local alcohol policy means
that communities will now have a say on local liquor licensing matters.
Local government will also be in charge of appointing the District
Licensing Committees, administering regulatory functions under a
broader set of criteria than the previous Act allowed and administering
a system for risk-based licensing fees.
 You and your
community will only get the chance to have a say if your local District Council chooses to adopt a
local alcohol plan. Should they decide not to, then the national
default trading hours will apply.
The
default maximum national trading hours—
- (a) are the hours
between 8 am on any day and 4 am on the next day for the sale and
supply of alcohol for consumption on premises for which an
on-licence or a club licence is held:
- (b) are the hours between 7 am and 11 pm on any day
for the sale of alcohol on premises for which an off-licence is
held.
If you support a Local Alcohol Plan
for your community – it is important to communicate this to your local
elected officials – such as councillors or mayor – as they will be the
ones to vote on adopting such a policy.
Alcohol Healthwatch provides a summary
of the key parts the new Sale
and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012 here.
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 Children are
being groomed by alcohol companies years
before they reach the legal drinking age, through advertising on
Facebook, researchers say.
The
social media website has also become so entrenched in young people's
drinking culture that they can no longer distinguish advertising, Massey University health psychology
Associate Professor Antonia Lyons said.
A
2011 survey on drinking culture, involving more than 150 people aged
between 18 and 25, found most were "drinking to get
drunk". Dr Lyons said
checking Facebook was part of their everyday routine and it was used as
a platform to organise social events, many of which revolved around
drinking. It was also used to share alcohol-related updates and photos
with friends.
“This
information, combined with bar and alcohol brand pages, had normalised
the culture of intoxication among young people”, she said. “When
participants were asked about bar and alcohol brand pages, they did not
realise that these were a form of marketing.”
“These
pages also had games and giveaways that appealed to children and
teenagers,” Dr Lyons said. "What they're doing is grooming the next
generation of drinkers. Once someone ‘likes’ a page, they get regular
updates, which can be seen by friends on their newsfeed. Their profile
information is also shared with the page creator.”
"They've
already got this interaction with these consumers and they're also
getting their profile information so, as soon as they're 18, they can
be directly targeted."
Dr
Lyons presented at the Alcohol Action 2013 conference in Wellington
recently. A video of her
presentation can be viewed here.
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The
4th annual Alcohol Action NZ Conference, The Perils of Alcohol
Marketing, was held on 7 March 2013 at Te Papa, Wellington.
A
number of strong themes emerged from the conference including:-
·
that alcohol advertising remains a
significant concern given that the Law Commission’s recommendations to
ban all but objective product advertising was not adopted by the
Government;
·
that the self regulatory system for
alcohol advertising is a failure; that social networking has become a
significant component of alcohol advertising, and is a very cost
effective tool for the alcohol industry;
·
that public health
and community effort needs to focus on achieving the implementation of
the Law Commission’s recommendations and not on further tweaking of the
current self-regulatory regime.
The keynote
addresses were filmed and are available to view here
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 Alcohol affects the teenage brain differently to the adult brain
because it is still developing. The younger you are when you start drinking
alcohol, the greater the risk of experiencing alcohol-related harms and
later mental health problems. Excessive use of alcohol during this
period of brain development can also cause learning and memory
problems.
A new 4-minute animated film “Under Construction:
alcohol and the teenage brain” shows the effects of alcohol use and
risky drinking on the different areas of the developing brain, as well
as the impact on behaviour. It presents complex and up-to-date
neurobiological evidence in a way that is engaging to young people.
Watch the clip on YouTube here
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Adult
Alcohol and Drug Services
Northland
District Health Board Mental Health and Addictions - Alcohol and
Drug services - are a community based outpatient service with clinics
at hospital sites in Whangarei, Kawakawa, Dargaville and Kaitaia.
Outpatient services are also provided in clinics at Kaikohe and
Kerikeri, and visiting clinics in Kaeo and Hokianga. The service
is for people 18 and over. There is no upper age limit.
Services
are offered to people with alcohol and drug problems and disorders, to
those with co existing mental health and alcohol and drug problems and
disorders, and to whanau and family members.
Click
for more info
Child and
youth Alcohol and Drug services –
Te Roopu Kimiora
(TRK or Child & Youth)
Te Roopu
Kimiora provide a multi-disciplinary mental health and addiction
service for children aged 0 to 14, young people aged from 15 to 19 and
their family/whanau who are experiencing severe mental illness and drug
and alcohol problems. Family inclusive treatment is provided for
young people with mental health and substance use problems. There is a
specialist Youth alcohol and drug service based in Kaitaia.
Click
for more info
Contact
your local area hospital and ask for the Mental Health and Addiction
Team, Alcohol and Drug services
Whangarei & BOI/mid
North - 09 430 4100
Kaitaia - 09 408 9180
Dargaville - 09 439 3330
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Latest
NZ alcohol statistics released
A new report from
the Ministry of Health has shown that during 2011/12 there
has been a decrease in alcohol consumption compared to the last survey
in 2006/07. The key findings point toward a small decrease in
adult consumption and youth consumption of alcohol. There has also been
a small decrease in people who report ‘hazardous drinking’.
The report can be accessed on the
Ministry of Health website here.
Alcohol
Healthwatch calls on Govt to reduce BAC level
Alcohol Healthwatch calls on the
Government to deliver on community expectations for safer roads and
reduce the Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) for all drivers over the
age of 20 years to at least 0.05.
Alcohol Healthwatch director Rebecca
Williams says we have plenty of evidence to support lowering the BAC in
order to reduce the number of people who die or are injured on our
roads, and surveys show that 85% of the public support a lower limit.."….Read
more
Binge drinking among
Maori secondary school students
New
research published in the NZ Medical Journal has concluded that binge drinking is associated with a
range of poor health and social outcomes for Māori youth. They also
found that the associated poorer access to drug and alcohol services
revealed an inequity requiring priority attention” ….Read
more
Drinkers in dark about
real strength
Two out of three Kiwis do not know
what a standard drink is and more than half don't know how much alcohol
an average person can process in an hour, a study shows.
Results from a survey commissioned by
consumer education programme Cheers! showed 67
per cent of those surveyed could not identify a standard drink - one
that contains 10g of alcohol.
More than 60 per cent of people did
not understand that it was the amount of alcohol an average person
could process in an hour and 10 per cent admitted that they had never
even heard of the term "standard drink".…Read
more
Urgent call for protection of
children from alcohol advertising
An editorial in the March edition of
the British Medical Journal has concluded …” Our children urgently need
protection from alcohol marketing. Voluntary codes and partial measures
have all too obviously failed, and marketing through digital media is
set to multiply the resulting harm.”
The article follows a new analysis
conducted by the RAND Corporation for the European Commission shows
that British regulatory structures are so flawed that teenagers, far
from being shielded from alcohol promotion, are more exposed to it than
are adults. ….Read more
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Compiled and produced by:
Dave
Hookway - Health Promotion
Advisor - Alcohol and other Drugs
Northland
District Health Board - 55 Hobson Ave,
Kerikeri
Postal
address: - PO Box
906, Kerikeri 0230, Bay of Islands
( Ph (09) 430-4101
x 7895 | Mob 021-221-4027
or freephone 0800-537-4342 option #3 Fax 09-4076215
Click here to email
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Need help now?
To
talk to someone about your or someone else’s alcohol or other drug use,
or for contacts of
your local counsellor or treatment provider,
phone the free and
confidential
Alcohol Drug Helpline
on 0800-787-797 from 10am to 10pm
or visit
www.addictionshelp.org.nz
In an Emergency dial 111
Acknowledgements: -
Thanks to
Alcohol Healthwatch and the Australian Drug Foundation for use of some
material.
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