Substance Abuse & Community Health Interventions

This assignment delves into the complexities of substance abuse within the Australian context. It examines various community health interventions aimed at addressing this issue, drawing upon scholarly research and reports from organizations like the Sammy D. Foundation and the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education. The analysis considers program evaluations, harm reduction strategies, and the role of local government in implementing effective solutions.

Running head: COMMUNITY HEALTH EDUCATION PROGRAMME 1
Critical Analysis of Community Health Education Programme.
Name
Institutional Affiliation

COMMUNITY HEALTH EDUCATION PROGRAMME 2
The Adelaide-based Sammy D Foundations ‘Party Wise’ Community Education Interventions
Introduction
Community health education programme is one of the most effective ways of creating
awareness and dissemination of basic and important information to the community. This
programme aims at keeping the public informed on different issues associated with their personal
health for the purpose of having a happy, healthy and better living. Sammy D foundation was
started in 2008 in honor of Adelaide a sportsman teenage Sam Davis who was a victim of
violence and unprovoked one-punch assault that cost him his life. The Adelaide-based Sammy D
foundation ‘Party Wise’ community Education Interventions’ vision is providing guidance to
South Australian community in order empower the young people with adequate skills required
for them to make positive decisions in life. And also to develop a youth culture in South
Australia where the youths have positive attitudes and role models that nurture them to attain
their full life potential (Pates, & Riley 2012). The ‘Party Wise’ community education
intervention majorly deals with creating awareness on alcohol and drug abuse among the youths
in SA. This intervention is presented in schools, guardian and young people forum, society
organizations and sport clubs, and campaigns. The intervention targets the youths in SA but it
involves the whole community in educating and creating awareness to the whole society.
Planning
The Adelaide-based Sammy D foundation ‘Party Wise’ community Education
Intervention recognizes the need for safe parties and celebrations filled with happy memories and
not misfortunes. This is the reason as to why the intervention is using the most effective
minimization methodologies in drug and or alcohol education to provide better plans in having
safe parties. This program is incorporation with the SA police and SA ambulance and services in

COMMUNITY HEALTH EDUCATION PROGRAMME 3
case of risks and emergencies. The programme aims at reaching out to parents with vulnerable
teenagers and youths who are at risk of alcohol and drug abuse which may lead to violence and
even death. Nat Cook and Neil Davis are the parents of the late Adelaide sportsman teenage,
Sam Davis who died after being hit by one blow at the back of his neck with an uninvited guest
at his party. When their son passed on, they decided to start Sammy D foundations whose main
aim was to educate and provide skills to young people in order to prevent such tragedies. The
intervention is aimed at the youths because the youths are the highest in population and at the
highest risk of involvement in such incidences.
Resourcing
Sammy D foundation ‘Party Wise’ community Education Intervention is a Non-
Governmental Organization and majorly depends on donations from the well-wishers,
sponsorship, and other events like Gala Dinner, Comedy Dinner and Quiz night. Apart from the
above-mentioned ways of sourcing for funds, the foundation also makes merchandise like
hoodies, stickers, and wristbands, it also gets funds from the Impact100 SA which has at least
one hundred members who donate $1000 annually. The foundation also seeks funds from the
State Government, corporate and community for funding to keep the foundation moving.
Sammy D foundation appreciates human resource by accepting volunteers who are willing to
help educate the entire society by getting involved in different activities. ‘Party Wise’
Community Intervention has reached up to more than 70,000 young people for the past 8 years
who have gone through this programme.
Implementation
The intervention has various ways through which it delivers the education programme,
the first one is school-based. This programme targets children above the age of 9 and the youth.

COMMUNITY HEALTH EDUCATION PROGRAMME 4
The school-based programme is meant to educate the young people about the risk of violence
and the effects of drugs and alcohol on decision-making. This aims at creating awareness to the
school going young people to be very keen and wise when it comes to making decisions about
violence, drugs and alcohol use and abuse (Lewis, 2003). Apart from violence, drugs and alcohol
education, the school-based workshop is also tailored in such a way that it covers other issues
affecting young people like, bullying and at the same time encourages young people to be good
leaders and role models for other young people. The second way is through Parent and Teen
forums. These forums involves parents/guardians/caregivers and the young people getting
educated with skillful information on holding safe parties. This is inclusive of information that
examines hazards, obligations, validities, minimization of misfortune strategies and what to do in
case of an emergency. When the parents and teens are all included in such forums it makes it
easy for both the parents and the young people to understand the risks of holding parties that
could put their lives in danger and creates a mutual understanding among them on what kind of
parties to hold and how.
The third way of delivering the programme is through Community Organizations and
sporting clubs. Sam Davis was an outstanding young sportsman, and the community as a whole
has a responsibility of making sure that the young people who are into sports or any other kind of
activities are well educated on the effects of drug and alcohol abuse and the responsibilities that
come along with it. The youths are the leaders of the future and it is important that the
community act as role models to the youths who are the future leaders so that in the future they
can also be role models to other young people (Saggers & Gray, 1998). The last means of
delivering the programme is through public awareness programme, through campaigns, road

COMMUNITY HEALTH EDUCATION PROGRAMME 5
shows and open days. This helps in educating the general public on how to take care of
themselves and encourage young people to avoid abusing drugs and alcohol (Martin, 2013).
Findings and Impacts
According to the government of South Australia, the SA health statistics on alcohol and
drug abuse indicate that alcohol use has remained relatively stable over the past 10 years. But
since then, there is a decrease in alcohol and drug-related crime level. The percentage of SA
student aged 12to 17 who had consumed alcohol in the past weeks has also decreased
significantly from 15% in 2011 to 10.4% in 2014 (Government of South Australia, 2011). The
percentage of those aged 15 to 29who reported to use cannabis in the last 12 months decreased
from 22.5% in 2010 to 19.7% in 2013 and the percentage of the SA at the age of 14 to 29 who
reported use of illicit drugs including cannabis in the last 12 months decreased from 26% in 2010
to 24.7% in 2013 (Government of South Australia, 2011). The estimated number of alcohol-
related hospitalizations among the SA indigenous population decreased from 1,029 in 2009-2010
to 786 in 2014-2015 (Government of South Australia, 2011)
Sammy D foundation as stated above started in 2008 as a small organization aimed at
educating the young people about the harm and use of drugs and alcohol. Sammy D foundation
they decided to come up with the ‘Party Wise’ community intervention because of fear that
another family could lose a son or a daughter in the same way. According to the interventions
finding, the young people are the ones who are the most affected when it comes to drugs and
alcohol abuse and this intervention believes that, it is possible to educate the community by
creating awareness about drug and alcohol abuse and even how to hold safe parties and
celebrations (Mcbride, 2016). This intervention has reached many young people across SA and
their mission still continues, the Sammy D foundation has visited many schools, communities

COMMUNITY HEALTH EDUCATION PROGRAMME 6
and sports club, educating the young people on how to hold safe parties and drug and alcohol
use. In 2013 annual report, Sammy D foundation delivered 172 presentations and 132
workshops, reaching more than 9,000 young people (Sammy D. Foundation, 2013). The
evaluated data indicated that 99.4% of attendees were more aware of the impact of one punch,
82.8% are now less likely to get involved in fighting that 86% have an attitude that violence isn’t
the answer, 97.6% believe that they are now more aware of the need of security and safety while
hosting parties and 85.4% would share what they learned with friends and 64.6% would share
with parents (Sammy D. Foundation, 2013). But this has significantly improved to date with the
number of young people being educated growing at a high rate and this is a clear indication that
the intervention is reaching as many young people as possible to create awareness throughout
SA. Sammy D foundation has also partnered with various individuals, foundations, Non-
Governmental Organizations and governmental organizations like; West Adelaide football club
(WAFC), Community for Children (CFC), Darren Lehmann and Drug ARM Australia among
others for the benefit of the entire community. (Sammy D. Foundation, 2013)
Through the partnership, SD foundation has found avenues and platforms to present their
workshop programmes in many different settings to educate on drugs and alcohol and on how to
host great and secure parties, at the same time how to eradicate any form of violence related to
alcohol and drug abuse. The foundation has won a number of awards, and also awarded various
persons for various activities to encourage the community. The Sammy D foundations’ success
has been witnessed throughout the years and this is very encouraging. Although in every
organization there are challenges that affect the organizations potential to achieve its ultimate
expectations and Sammy D is not an exemption.

COMMUNITY HEALTH EDUCATION PROGRAMME 7
The major limitation experienced by the Sammy D foundation is funding. This being a
Non-Governmental Organization, it only depends on the community-based fundraising activities,
partners, donors, sponsors, state government and well-wishers for funding in order to carry out
their daily projects. Without adequate funds, the organization is not in a position to provide
quality services to the community because the funds facilitate the day to day activities within the
organization (Jolley, Lawless, Baum & Hurley, 2007). It is through this barriers that the
foundation sometimes cannot meet their targets. Ms. Cook vied for a parliamentary seat for
Fisher so that she could stand and fight for the rightful funding of charitable organizations
projects. And when she became the Member of Parliament for Fisher, she stood down from the
board so that it could not be used as a “political ammunition” against her and her family. And
even after she went to parliament the foundation has not received any funding (Retri, Jane, Wise
& Marilyn, 2010). The office building they use is donated by Scrap Hotline, the organization
hold fundraising but this is not enough and therefore they had to let some highly trained staffs go
because the foundation cannot provide and take care of all its stuff required services (Davis,
2006).
The organization is experiencing a few barriers that hinder it from delivering “Party
Wise” community education intervention. The first barrier is the cultural and language barrier,
different young people come from different backgrounds with different language and beliefs. It is
upon the trainers to understand people from different cultures with different beliefs by tailoring
their workshop programmes to suit the audience and to avoid misunderstanding. There are young
people, for example, who are from drug and alcohol abusive families and some have experienced
a lot of violence, torture, and even rape (Cuttler, Glaeser & Norberg 2000). This kind of people
needs someone who can understand their deep pain and struggles without being judgmental. The

COMMUNITY HEALTH EDUCATION PROGRAMME 8
second one is the time factor, SA is big in terms of geographical perception. It is not very easy to
attend all the workshops that they organize or functions that they have been requested to attend,
this is due to lack of enough trainers. Apart from that, the timeframe for the workshop may not
be enough for the trainees to deeply understand and connect and at the same time understand and
ask questions (Kropenske, 2004).
Another barrier affecting the “Party Wise community education intervention is capacity
building. Capacity building is a way of building up an organization for an increase in its impact
on the community to attain its goals and aid over time (Ryan, & Woods, 2015). Sammy D
foundation has been doing a great job to the society, the organization should also go an extra
mile to support the staff and appreciate their good job because human resource is very important
and the organization should look for more role models who have had an experienced incidences
based on violence, drug, and alcohol abuse as trainers. From this, the affected trainees will build
a connection with the trainer who they believe will understand them and understand what they
are going through and eventually the trainees will develop a positive attitude (Edelfield, &
Moosa, 2012). Sammy D foundation “Party Wise” community education intervention has an
advantage of reaching as many people as possible, they have an opportunity to change the entire
SA community and state government need to use any available time and resources to reach to as
many more young people as possible who are in need of this intervention to enable them to
achieve their ultimate life potential.
Conclusion
It is everyone’s responsibility to take care of each other and to educate and inform each
other about drug and alcohol abuse, so that we can have a drug and alcohol free society because
change starts with an individual (Manton, Room, Giorgi, Thorn, 2014). “Party Wise” community

COMMUNITY HEALTH EDUCATION PROGRAMME 9
education intervention has made a huge difference in the lives of young people, parents and the
entire society in SA. Sammy D foundation is planning to talk to more than 11,000 footy players
next year in the effort to curb alcohol and drug fuelled crime. They have definitely made an
impact on many lives throughout SA. The intervention has helped and reached out to many
young people who were on the verge of breaking down and even losing their lives because of
violence influenced by drugs and alcohol abuse. I acknowledge the effort done by this
intervention. I also believe that it can do much better, I understand that charity begins at home,
but I also think that the same charity can be shared somewhere else. The intervention should not
only limit their focus to South Australia, they should have a global worldview and a global
network, which educate people from all over the world. There are many countries and many
young people who need such kind of workshops to help them grow and reach their maximum life
potential (Power, 2015). . The foundation should go an extra mile to solicit for funds to facilitate
the daily activities and the foundations projects. If all these are incorporated it will be a great
achievement for the Sammy D foundation, SA and the entire world.

COMMUNITY HEALTH EDUCATION PROGRAMME 10
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