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The change we need: Prevent alcohol-related family violence

Last month FARE launched our election platform, Hidden harm: Targeting alcohol’s impact on children and families, which calls for action in five key areas to stop the harm from alcohol.

This week, we’re focusing on the urgent need to prevent alcohol-related family violence.

FARE is calling for commitments to develop shared models of care for alcohol and other drug (AOD) and family violence services to work collaboratively; additional training and funding for AOD services to implement family-centred practice; and to pilot a perpetrator program based on South Dakota’s 24/7 Sobriety Project to target repeat offenders of alcohol-related family violence.

Get involved with the campaign by liking FAREAustralia on Facebook, following @FAREAustralia on Twitter and sharing our election campaign content.

You can also Tweet to our political leaders (@TurnbullMalcolm, @billshortenmp, @RichardDiNatale, @Barnaby_Joyce), health (@sussanley, @SenatorNash, @CatherineKingMP, @RichardDiNatale), women (@SenatorCash) and social services (@cporterwa) representatives to let them know that you want change ahead of #ausvotes #healthelection16.

If you’d like to find out more about alcohol’s links to family and domestic violence, Drink Tank has you covered. We’ve highlighted some of FARE’s recent work on this issue and the great content which has been featured on the blog below.


Rosie Batty: Alcohol and family violence must be addressed

“If as a nation we are determined to seriously address family violence, then prevention must be our ultimate goal.”

Launching FARE’s National framework for action to prevent alcohol-related family violence in June 2015, Australian of the Year and Founder of the Luke Batty Foundation Rosie Batty told the Prime Minister that Australia cannot afford to wait decades for generational change and instead must act now.


The women who shouldn’t be in ED

“Almost every day, in every emergency department across the country, the doctors and nursing staff are seeing women who just should not be there.”

After two decades of working in emergency, physician Diana Egerton-Warburton is all too familiar with the links between alcohol and family and domestic violence.


The private face of alcohol-fuelled violence

“Police and emergency service workers respond to calls of distress and witness first-hand the devastation caused by family violence.”

President of the Police Association of New South Wales, Scott Weber, on the many women and children whose lives are marred by another person’s problem drinking behind closed doors.


Alcohol’s link to domestic violence is in focus – now what?

“Focusing prevention efforts on alcohol is not a way of excusing or diminishing men’s responsibility for their drinking or violence. Rather, it offers a possible lever for change in an intractable problem.”

Professor Angela Taft and PhD candidate Ingrid Wilson, both from the Judith Lumley Centre at La Trobe University, outline what we know about alcohol’s role in family and domestic violence.


Hidden but known

In February 2015, the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE) launched a landmark research report, The hidden harm, which included the most comprehensive findings to-date of alcohol-related family violence in Australia and presented a startling and confronting picture.

FARE Chief Executive Michael Thorn says that “as the evidence mounts, both of the extent of alcohol harm in Australia and the many sound and proven strategies for addressing those harms, it is now time for governments to act.”


ELECTION PLATFORM 2016 SOCIAL-01 ELECTION PLATFORM 2016 SOCIAL-07 ELECTION PLATFORM 2016 SOCIAL-08

View FARE’s Election Platform 2016


Editorial

Drink Tank aims to generate meaningful commentary and debate about alcohol policy, and to provide a platform for all members of the Australian community to share their views and concerns.

Our goal is for the Drink Tank community to engage in robust discussion about alcohol, highlighting a broad spectrum of views and voices, and ultimately to raise the profile of alcohol as an issue of national importance.

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