Health Poliy
Australia is one of the leading countries responding to the global health cost relating to illicit drug use. Australian Governments work collaboratively with organisations and communities to address the social, economic, and health issues faced by illicit drug users and the community. The global issue for health policy makers in Australia is that over 80-85% of people in Australia who have contracted blood borne diseases such as hepatitis C or AIDS has occurred through sharing equipment linked to illegal drug use. Hepatitis C has not received the global media attention that AIDS received yet it is the ‘most commonly reported infectious disease in Australia today’ (Hep C Resource Manual pg. 1).
The issue for Health Care Policy makers and workers in the industry has been that illegal drug use, of course, is illegal, so what do you do with diseases which are spread through illegal drug use whilst reducing risk and trying to stop the spread of infection, disease and deaths in the community?. Australian’s overall philosophy to this question is through harm minimisation.
Harm minimisation is the policy that underpins the National and State Public Health strategies such as National Drug Strategy 2010-2015. Harm minimisation is Australian’s approach to reducing drug-related harm relating to both legal and illegal drugs and involves supply reduction, demand reduction and harm reduction strategies. Supply reduction; demand reduction and harm reduction is a simple concept for a difficult issue facing society. Supply reduction aims to disrupt production and distribution of illicit drugs, which health care professionals and policy is not part of, this is a role for law enforcement and not for health care workers. Demand reduction is reducing demand for taking or starting to take harmful drugs which is done through education programs, like people attending at schools to give talks or through advertisements on TV, magazines, radio and other media and also through
The issue for Health Care Policy makers and workers in the industry has been that illegal drug use, of course, is illegal, so what do you do with diseases which are spread through illegal drug use whilst reducing risk and trying to stop the spread of infection, disease and deaths in the community?. Australian’s overall philosophy to this question is through harm minimisation.
Harm minimisation is the policy that underpins the National and State Public Health strategies such as National Drug Strategy 2010-2015. Harm minimisation is Australian’s approach to reducing drug-related harm relating to both legal and illegal drugs and involves supply reduction, demand reduction and harm reduction strategies. Supply reduction; demand reduction and harm reduction is a simple concept for a difficult issue facing society. Supply reduction aims to disrupt production and distribution of illicit drugs, which health care professionals and policy is not part of, this is a role for law enforcement and not for health care workers. Demand reduction is reducing demand for taking or starting to take harmful drugs which is done through education programs, like people attending at schools to give talks or through advertisements on TV, magazines, radio and other media and also through
References: Burton, K, 2004. Illicit drugs in Australia: Use, Harm and Policy Responses. Parliamentary library, [Online]. 1, 1-13. Available at: http://www.aph.gov.au/library/intguide/sp/illicitdrugs.htm [Accessed 01 October 2011]. D, Collins, 2008. National Drug Strategy 2010-2015. 1st ed. Ministerial Council on Drug Strategy : Commonwealth of Australia . Department of Health and Aged Care 200, Hepatitis C: Informing Australia’s National Response. DHAC, Canberra Department of health and ageing, 2008. National hepatitis c resource manual. 2nd ed. Australian government: PHD publications G, Dore & J, Sasadeusz Editors 2006, Coinfection: HIV & Viral Hepatitis a guide for clinical management. Australasian Society for HIV Medicine Inc. Available at: http://www.ashm.org.au/uploads/File/cionfection-mono.pdf Richters Juliet Ed.,2006, HIV/AIDS, hepatitis and sexually transmissible infections in Australia. Annual report of trends in behavior 2006. National Centre in HIV Social Research (NCHSR). UNSW