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These resources are available from the Alcohol and Other Drugs Program 8999 2691 | |
As a health professional, you have a very important role to play in giving people factual information about alcohol and other drugs. You can also support individuals, groups and communities in their decisions to do something positive about their drug issues. This section is about key strategies that people working in the alcohol and other drug area have found to work.
Section 1 of this chapter has given you some facts and a basic understanding of alcohol and other drug issues in remote NT. You will find other useful references to help with alcohol and other drug work at the back of this section.
Three highly recommended resources about alcohol are:
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These resources are available from the Alcohol and Other Drugs Program 8999 2691 | |
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Although we are entitled to our private lives, health staff are in a position to set an example in the community. When working to influence lifestyle, 'actions speak louder than words'.
Our values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviours are shaped by our culture, and especially by the people around us. To work effectively with individuals or groups of people on their drug issues in a caring and non-blaming way, it is useful for health staff to be aware of their own attitudes about drug use.
The following exercises are from DrugWise: A Harm Reduction Resource for Rural Workers (Matthews 1997). Try them!
| Understanding Drug Use - Exercises The following exercises encourage you to examine your own drug choices as part of coming to an understanding of why people use drugs. Personal drug choices Using the definition provided: " ... a drug is any chemical substance used for its effects on bodily processes." Which drugs do you use? Which drugs do other people around you use - family, friends, colleagues, clients? What are the preferred drugs in your community? Can you see any connections between your own drug choices and those of others around you? (page 25) |
| Reasons for using drugs Make a single column list of all the reasons you can think of why people use drugs. For each drug you have listed, write down: the potential benefits of the drug and the potential harms. Drug: Benefits: Harms: Why do you use drugs? Does considering you own drug use give you any insight into other people's drug behaviour? (page 27) |
What are the skills and knowledge you need for drug issues as they present in your work? Do you have the skills and knowledge you need? If you do not have these Where can you get information and skills? Are these available locally? If not, where are they available? How can you acquire the skills and knowledge you need? (page 28) |
Section 1 showed that decisions about drug use are influenced by the nature of the particular drug, the environment in which use occurs and characteristics of the person. By shifting attention from the simple notion that the drug is the problem and looking at the contribution of personal and environmental factors, we have a much broader understanding of how we can help individuals. We are better able to identify causes of drug use and deal with those.
| Drug use Psychoactive drug use is a normal, unremarkable behaviour, and the use of psychoactive drugs is one way that human beings attempt to alter their level of consciousness and change their moods. There are other ways, sometimes known as 'natural highs', but whether you choose chemicals, exercise, meditation or mountaineering, mood alteration while sought for its pleasurable consequences is never without some potential risk. The skill is to maximise the joys whilst minimising the harm. From Saunders and O'Connor 1994:13 |
