{"id":17631,"date":"2010-09-17T04:05:41","date_gmt":"2010-09-16T20:05:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/media-release\/action-on-alcohol-and-youth-needed-launch-of-new-centre\/"},"modified":"2010-09-17T04:05:41","modified_gmt":"2010-09-16T20:05:41","slug":"action-on-alcohol-and-youth-needed-launch-of-new-centre","status":"publish","type":"media-release","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/media-release\/action-on-alcohol-and-youth-needed-launch-of-new-centre\/","title":{"rendered":"Action on Alcohol and Youth needed \u2013 launch of new Centre"},"content":{"rendered":"<table cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"149\" height=\"26\"><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><strong>C171\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The McCusker Centre for Action on Alcohol and Youth (MCAAY) was launched today to reduce alarming levels of alcohol problems and risky drinking among young people.<\/p>\n<p>The Centre, which is being launched with an initial $400,000 from the McCusker Foundation, will be based at Curtin University.\u00a0 The Centre aims to reduce alcohol related harms in young people through reduced overall consumption and lower risk patterns of consumption, particularly among Western Australians aged 14-25.<\/p>\n<p>In launching the Centre, Malcolm McCusker spoke on the dangers of alcohol.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlcohol kills!\u00a0 Excessive alcohol consumption can have devastating effects on individuals, families and communities,\u201d Mr McCusker said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYoung people in particular need to acknowledge that \u2018getting blind drunk\u2019 is not cool, in fact, it can have disastrous consequences.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhilst I am not against an adult enjoying a glass of wine with a meal, I am firmly against young people drinking excessive amounts of alcohol and putting themselves and their friends at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tonya McCusker, a trustee of the McCusker Foundation said, \u201dI remember sitting with Malcolm last November, watching the news and being horrified at the actions of young Australians during school leavers week, as a result of drinking excessive amounts of alcohol.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI saw girls passed out on the ground, boys vomiting in drains, intoxicated youngsters racing across busy streets, and so many other tragedies that impact on families, friends and entire communities.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhilst enormous headway has been made in educating our young people about the detrimental effects of tobacco and drugs, alcohol remains a glorified killer in disguise.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMalcolm and I hope that this new Centre will help save the lives of young Australians \u2013 help save the lives of the five young Australians who will die this week as a result of alcohol related injuries.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Research shows that:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li> 80 per cent of alcohol consumed by people aged 14-24 is consumed in ways that put the drinkers\u2019 (and others) health at risk of acute harm.<\/li>\n<li> 24.3 per cent of 12-17 year old students in WA reported drinking at levels considered to place adults at risk of short term harm.<\/li>\n<li> Over the last 10 years, about 15 per cent of all deaths among 15-24 year olds were due to risky or high risk drinking.<\/li>\n<li> Rates of alcohol related harm in young people have increased significantly over recent years, particularly those aged 16-24.<\/li>\n<li> Recent reports show that compared with young Australians as a whole, \u00a0a larger proportion of young Western Australians drink at levels that put them at risk of both immediate and chronic harms.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The McCusker Centre for Action on Alcohol and Youth will be directed by Professor Mike Daube of Curtin  University.<\/p>\n<p>Professor Daube said there was a need to change the culture where young people think drinking to get drunk is acceptable.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have a special problem in WA.\u00a0 Some of the answers may not initially be popular \u2013 price, controls on access, curbing the tidal wave of alcohol promotion to which our kids are exposed, spending more money on education about the harms \u2013 but we have to make a start now or the problems will only get worse.\u201d Professor Daube said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is something we can all do, as citizens, parents, community members and decision-makers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe McCusker Centre will work with other concerned groups, including health, education and law enforcement agencies, and will place a special focus on involving young people. Above all, it will be about generating public discussion and action.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Professor Steve Allsop, Director of the National Drug Research Institute, said it was time to address the intolerable harm that risky drinking causes our young people.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA large proportion of young people, at least occasionally, drink at risky levels and almost 200 young Australians are hospitalised every week, while on average, approximately five people aged 15-24 years die every week from alcohol caused injury or disease.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Police Acting Deputy Commissioner Nick Anticich, said alcohol intoxication within our community puts enormous demands on police.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlcohol intoxication is a factor in about 60 percent of calls for police attendance and about 90 percent of calls between 10pm and 2am.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYoung people feature as a significant part of the problem.\u00a0 Police continue to be concerned about their drinking patterns and the consequences of their behaviours while alcohol affected.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe WA Police is committed to supporting action to reduce underage drinking and binge drinking.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Centre will be based at the Curtin Health Research Campus at Shenton Park.<\/p>\n<p>Speakers at the launch included Malcolm McCusker AO QC CitWA, Tonya McCusker, Professor Mike Daube, Professor Steve Allsop, Professor Fiona Wood and Professor Jeanette Hacket.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Contacts:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Professor Mike Daube, Director, McCusker Centre for Action on Alcohol and Youth Tel: 08 9266 4933, Mobile: 0409 933 933, Email: <a href=\"mailto:m.daube@curtin.edu.au\">m.daube@curtin.edu.au<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The McCusker Centre for Action on Alcohol and Youth (MCAAY) was launched today to reduce alarming levels of alcohol problems and risky drinking among young people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4275,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-17631","media-release","type-media-release","status-publish","hentry","category-campus-and-global-community","category-research"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"","content":"","image":false},"related_courses":false,"credits":{"author":"","photographer":"","media":false},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}}},"featured_image":false,"author_meta":{"first_name":"Curtin","last_name":"University","display_name":"Curtin University"},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release\/17631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/media-release"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release\/17631\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17631"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=17631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}