(Photo: Maranoa Electorate Office)
June 8, 2017
Member for Maranoa David Littleproud has urged South Burnett organisations to become involved in the Local Drug Action Team (LDAT) program being set up around Australia by the Alcohol and Drug Foundation.
The Foundation is a not-for-profit organisation that has been targeting drug and alcohol issues in Australia since 1959.
It launched the LDAT program in 2016 and 40 community teams have been set up so far. The Foundation is hoping to eventually establish 220 LDATs around Australia by 2020.
Mr Littleproud spoke about the LDAT program at a special forum discussing ice (methamphetamine) usage in rural Queensland that was held in Kingaroy this week.
He said the Federal Government had invested $298 million over four years to combat illicit drug and alcohol use in Australia and the LDAT initiative was an important grassroots component of the government’s investment.
The LDATs aim to build partnerships that focus on prevention in a community.
The members commit to working together as a team to “promote social inclusion and to community-driven, evidence-informed approaches that strengthen protective factors against alcohol or drug misuse”.
They can include local representatives from council, community groups, businesspeople, police, schools and not-for-profit organisations.
Applications are now open for funding under Round 2 of the LDAT program.
Each successful team will receive a minimum of $10,000.
This will be followed by an invitation-only round in August where some LDATs will be invited to apply for up to another $30,000.
The Foundation is looking to help communities with:
- High rates of unemployment
- Regional centres / remote communities
- Cultural and linguistic diversity
- High population of Indigenous people
- Areas of high population growth
- Social disadvantage
- Specific priority population group
- High levels of alcohol and other drug harms
Mr Littleproud held four forums this week to discuss drug issues: at Chinchilla, Dalby, Kingaroy and Warwick.
The forums attracted a mix of audience members, from health care workers and police to parents and recovering addicts, to discuss local action plans.
“We need to work together to fight the ice scourge which causes so much damage to families and our communities,” Mr Littleproud said.
“At the meetings, our region’s Primary Health Network (PHN) … highlighted the need to address the lack of specific programs, most importantly outpatient and detox services.
“These rural regions include a number of passionate community groups and these forums provided an opportunity to connect them and start important conversations with the PHN.
“At the end of the day, that’s what I hoped to achieve by hosting these forums.
“This open and honest discussion, with these regions firmly in the spotlight, needed to happen because not only will the PHN now look at better targeted approaches, but also the community has taken away valuable information about their ability to form a LDAT.”
- External link: Becoming An LDAT
