Alcohol Change Vic is a collaboration of health and allied agencies that share a vision of a community that supports all Victorians to be healthy and well. The alcohol industry and its products cause significant harm and health impacts to people in our community.
Alcohol Change Vic campaigns for policy change to free the Victorian community from the harm caused by the industry’s aggressive marketing and normalisation of alcoholic products.
The members of Alcohol Change Vic are:
All have a strong track record in tackling major health issues in the community.
Australasian College for Emergency Medicine
The Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) is a not-for-profit organisation responsible for the training of emergency physicians, and for the advancement of professional standards in emergency medicine, in Australia and New Zealand. As the peak professional organisation for emergency medicine in Australasia, ACEM has a vital interest in ensuring the highest standards of emergency medical care are maintained for all patients across Australasia.
Alcohol is a common and serious cause of preventable morbidity and mortality presenting to Emergency Departments (EDs) throughout Australia and New Zealand. As such, ACEM considers the burden and adverse effects of alcohol-related harm in EDs to be a significant public health issue.
Emergency physicians and other frontline ED clinicians are at the forefront of responding to, and treating, the consequences of alcohol-related harm. This ranges from treating alcohol intoxication and severe injuries sustained as a direct result of intoxication, to managing acute complications of chronic alcohol-related conditions.
Therefore, ACEM is committed to reducing alcohol-related harm through the collection of strategic surveillance data, the implementation of brief interventions for alcohol-affected patients, and evidence-based advocacy for policy and societal change on this important public health issue.
Alcohol and Drug Foundation
Celebrating more than 50 years of service to the community, the Alcohol and Drug Foundation is a leader in preventing alcohol and other drug problems in communities around the nation. Our aim is to create an Australian culture that supports people to live healthy, safe and satisfying lives, unaffected by drug problems.
The Foundation’s work reaches millions of people in local communities through sporting clubs, workplaces, health care settings and schools, offering educational information, alcohol and other drug prevention programs and advocating for strong and healthy communities.
The Alcohol and Drug Foundation runs the national Good Sports program, which is helping thousands of community sports clubs to protect their members from alcohol related harm.
We are proudly independent and not-for-profit.
Cancer Council Victoria
Since our establishment in 1937, Cancer Council Victoria has developed an international reputation for innovative work in cancer research, prevention and support. As an independent, not-for-profit organisation, we play a leading role in reducing the impact of all cancers on all people. There is convincing evidence that drinking alcohol increases the risk of cancers of the bowel, breast, mouth, throat, voice box, oesophagus (food pipe) and liver. Our prevention programs, which include advocating for evidence based policy reform, strive to reduce the incidence of cancers attributable to a range of factors including alcohol.
Centre for Alcohol Policy Research
The Centre for Alcohol Policy Research (CAPR) is a world-class academic unit of La Trobe University, Melbourne, which is at the forefront of social and epidemiological alcohol research. We aim to build the evidence needed for effective public health-oriented alcohol policies, and to work with the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education and other partners in disseminating the evidence, in Australia and internationally.
Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education
The Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE) is an independent, not-for-profit organisation working to stop the harm caused by alcohol.
Alcohol harm in Australia is significant. More than 5,500 lives are lost every year and more than 157,000 people are hospitalised making alcohol one of our nation’s greatest preventative health challenges.
For over a decade, FARE has been working with communities, governments, health professionals and police across the country to stop alcohol harms by supporting world-leading research, raising public awareness and advocating for changes to alcohol policy. In that time FARE has helped more than 750 communities and organisations, and backed over 1,400 projects around Australia.
FARE is guided by the World Health Organization’s Global Strategy to Reduce the Harmful Use of Alcohol for stopping alcohol harms through population-based strategies, problem directed policies, and direct interventions.
Justice and International Mission Unit, Uniting Church in Australia, Synod of Victoria and Tasmania
The Justice and International Mission Unit provides resources to engage and educate people about social justice issues. We work with congregations and social justice networks to shift and shape public policy. Our aims reflect the Uniting Church's concern for social justice and the care of God's creation. One of the areas of our work is to campaign for reforms that will minimise the harms caused by alcohol in our community.
Public Health Association of Australia
The Public Health Association of Australia Incorporated (PHAA) is recognised as the principal non-government organisation for public health in Australia and works to promote the health and well-being of all Australians. The Association seeks better population health outcomes based on prevention, the social determinants of health and equity principles.
The PHAA is a national organisation comprising around 1900 individual members and representing over 40 professional groups concerned with the promotion of health at a population level.
Key roles of the organisation include capacity building, advocacy and the development of policy. Core to our work is an evidence base drawn from a wide range of members working in public health practice, research, administration and related fields who volunteer their time to inform policy, support advocacy and assist in capacity building within the sector. PHAA has been a key proponent of a preventive approach for better population health outcomes championing such policies and providing strong support for the Australian Government and for the Preventative Health Taskforce and National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) in their efforts to develop and strengthen research and actions in this area across Australia.
Royal Australasian College of Surgeons
The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) is the leading advocate for surgical standards, professionalism and surgical education in Australia and New Zealand. The College is a not-for-profit organisation that represents more than 7000 surgeons and 1300 surgical trainees and International Medical Graduates. RACS also supports healthcare and surgical education in the Asia-Pacific region and is a substantial funder of surgical research. There are nine surgical specialties in Australasia being: Cardiothoracic surgery, General surgery, Neurosurgery, Orthopaedic surgery, Otolaryngology Head-and-Neck surgery, Paediatric surgery, Plastic and Reconstructive surgery, Urology and Vascular surgery.
The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army has an extensive history and an international reputation for working with the most marginalised and disadvantaged people in our communities, and is one of the largest national providers of welfare services in Australia. Operating for more than 130 years in Australia, The Salvation Army continues to work with and advocate for the rights and needs of disadvantaged people in our community. The Salvation Army in Australia provides more than 1,000 social programs and activities through a network of social support services, community centres and churches across the country.
The Salvation Army remains deeply concerned by the burden of death and disease attributed to alcohol, tobacco and other drugs in the Australian community. The costs to society are also extremely high, both in economic and social terms, with excessive and long term alcohol consumption linked to other issues such as family violence, crime and social dysfunction. The increasing evidence about health impacts of drug and alcohol use during pregnancy and in brain development among teenagers is also extremely alarming.
The Salvation Army provides more than 100 services nationally, which respond to those with drug and alcohol addictions, including detox and residential rehabilitation programs, counselling and outreach programs. Each year, The Salvation Army provides more than 25,000 episodes of care to clients through our treatment programs, with many thousands more supported through The Salvation Army’s network of services. It is committed to education and awareness as a vital strategy to prevent and minimise the harm of alcohol and drug abuse.
St Vincent's Health Australia
St Vincent’s Health Australia (SVHA) is the nation’s largest not-for-profit health and aged care organisation. Our services comprise 31 facilities along the east coast of Australia including six public hospitals, nine private hospitals, 16 aged care facilities and three co-located research institutes: Victor Chang Cardiac Institute, Garvan Institute of Medical Research, and the St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research.
From the health services established by the Sisters of Charity in 1857 at Woolloomooloo in Sydney, St Vincent’s Health Australia has grown to encompass a diverse range of tertiary services, including: acute medical and surgical services; emergency and critical care; aged and sub-acute care; diagnostics; mental health; correctional health; palliative care; residential care; research and education.
SVHA provides compassionate healthcare to Australians from all walks of life, but most notably vulnerable members of the community, including homeless people, people living with mental illness, prisoners, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, and people experiencing alcohol and drug dependency.
Our two major tertiary public hospitals – St Vincent’s in Melbourne’s Fitzroy and St Vincent’s in Sydney’s Darlinghurst – have long catered to the entire spectrum of alcohol-related harms and violence, and by virtue of their locations, the often horrific alcohol-fuelled injuries that occur in the entertainment precincts of both cities.
Australia’s first medically-based clinical and academic program for the treatment and study of alcohol dependence was established at St Vincent’s Melbourne in 1964; St Vincent's Sydney followed with its own similar program in 1971.
More recently, SVHA has played a lead role supporting measures to reduce the availability of alcohol in Sydney’s inner city – advocacy that was an important factor in the NSW Government’s introduction of a suite of reforms, known colloquially as the ‘lockout laws’, in February 2014.
Our goal is to prevent and reduce alcohol-related harm in the same way efforts such as seat belts, plain cigarette packaging, random breath-testing, immunisation, sun protection, and HIV awareness have prevented and reduced harms. Public health policy has played a significant role in each of these areas and has become a growing asset in recalibrating our culture, attitudes and beliefs.
Turning Point
Turning Point was established in 1994 to provide leadership to the drug and alcohol field in Victoria, Australia. Turning Point amalgamated with public health provider, Eastern Health in October 2009 and is formally affiliated with Monash University.
Turning Point is part of the International Network of Drug Treatment & Rehabilitation Resource Centres for the United Nations Office of Drugs & Crime (UNODC), and a member of the International Harm Reduction Association. It is also a Registered Training Organisation (RTO) and an accredited Higher Education Provider.
Turning Point strives to promote and maximise the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities living with, and affected by alcohol and other drug-related harms. It aims to be a world leading treatment and research centre in the drug and alcohol field by:
- creating thriving service delivery, research and development cultures that produce the best possible knowledge
- applying research to promote change and contribute to policy making
- building our community capacity through strategic relationships, partnerships and collaborations.
Victorian Alcohol & Drug Association
The Victorian Alcohol and Drug Association (VAADA) is the peak body for alcohol and other drug (AOD) services in Victoria. We provide advocacy, leadership, information and representation on AOD issues both within and beyond the AOD sector.
As a state-wide peak organisation, VAADA has a broad constituency. Our membership and stakeholders include ‘drug specific’ organisations, consumer advocacy organisations, hospitals, community health centres, primary health organisations, disability services, religious services, general youth services, local government and others, as well as interested individuals.
VAADA’s Board is elected from the membership and comprises a range of expertise in the provision and management of alcohol and other drug services and related services.
As a peak organisation, VAADA’s purpose is to ensure that the issues for both people experiencing the harms associated with alcohol and other drug use, and the organisations that support them, are well represented in policy, program development, and public discussion.