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Ropé, Stacey. "Cigarette consumption, "alcoholism" and psychiatric morbidity in the Australian army." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 1986. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/20310.
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Proudfoot, Heather Public Health & Community Medicine Faculty of Medicine UNSW. "DSM-IV alcohol use disorders in Australia: validity, prevalence and treatment seeking." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of Public Health and Community Medicine, 2006. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/26323.
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Alcohol use disorders are common and make a significant contribution to the burden of disease throughout the world. This is especially true among the younger age groups. Although these disorders are common, evidence suggests that those affected do not seek help for their disorders. In order to understand this, reviews of the treatment literature and the epidemiological data on prevalence and correlates of alcohol use disorders and treatment seeking are presented. These reviews confirm that effective treatments exist and that screening in primary care can be efficacious. The reviews also highlight deficits such as the need for more epidemiological evidence on the validity of DSM definitions of alcohol use disorders and for more Australian data on the prevalence and correlates of the disorders and related treatment seeking. This thesis sets out to address these deficits applying sophisticated statistical techniques to data from a large nationally representative Australian sample. A confirmatory factor analysis of the eleven criteria that specify alcohol dependence and abuse examined the validity of DSM-IV definitions of alcohol use disorders and the best solution was found to be a single factor, not two as currently defined. These findings question the bi-axial nature of alcohol use disorders that has underpinned their definition since the publication of DSM-III-R in 1987. Data from this national sample also confirm that, in line with research from other western countries, Australians have high levels of alcohol use disorders, especially amongst males and younger people. Also no association was found between alcohol dependence and treatment seeking, and young people were least likely to seek treatment. However, a relatively large proportion of young people who drink had been in contact with their GPs in the past year; demonstrating that there is ample opportunity for screening and referral for treatment for alcohol use disorders in this vulnerable group. This research has found that although alcohol disorders are not necessarily associated with disability, there are those who can benefit from treatment. It suggests that outcomes for such individuals may be improved by better specification of disorders as well as improved access to best treatments.
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Horarik, Stefan. "Social Environment and Subjective Experience: Recovery from Alcoholism in Alcoholics Anonymous in Sydney, Australia." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/1117.
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This thesis studies the relationship between subjective experience and social environment during recovery from alcoholism in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). As a result of participation in AA meetings, many alcoholics undergo healing transformations involving a sense of acceptance of themselves, others and the world. In early sobriety these experiences often remove an alcoholic’s desire to drink. Outside AA, however, alcoholics frequently experience subjective unravelling – a sense of conflict with themselves, others and the world. For many, this subjective state is associated with actual or potential craving for a drink. Regular participation in AA meetings alleviates these states. This thesis construes the relationship between subjective experience and immediate social environment in terms of ‘experiential stakes of relevance’. This conceptual category can be used to characterise both the structural properties of the social environment and the key attributes of the subjective experience of agents within this environment. Listening to stories at AA meetings results for many alcoholics in a radical change in ‘experiential stakes of relevance’. It is argued that the process of spontaneous re-connection with one’s past experiences during AA meetings is akin to the process of mobilisation of embodied dispositions as theorised by Bourdieu. Transformation in AA takes place in the space of a mere one and a half hours and involves processes of intensification of experience. These are analysed in terms of Bourdieu’s notion of ‘illusio’ and Chion’s notion of ‘rendu’. The healing experiences of acceptance presuppose a social environment free of interpersonal conflict. This thesis argues that the need to structurally eliminate conflict between alcoholics has turned AA into a social field which is sustained by the very healing subjective experiences that it facilitates. In the process, AA has developed structural elements which can best be understood as mechanisms inverting the social logic of competitive fields. The fieldwork entailed a detailed ethnographic study of one particular group of Alcoholics Anonymous in Sydney’s Lower North Shore as well as familiarisation with the more general culture of AA in Sydney. Methods of investigation included participant observations at AA meetings and interviews with a number of sober alcoholics in AA.
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Horarik, Stefan. "Social Environment and Subjective Experience: Recovery from Alcoholism in Alcoholics Anonymous in Sydney, Australia." University of Sydney, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/1117.
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Doctor of PhilosophyThis thesis studies the relationship between subjective experience and social environment during recovery from alcoholism in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). As a result of participation in AA meetings, many alcoholics undergo healing transformations involving a sense of acceptance of themselves, others and the world. In early sobriety these experiences often remove an alcoholic’s desire to drink. Outside AA, however, alcoholics frequently experience subjective unravelling – a sense of conflict with themselves, others and the world. For many, this subjective state is associated with actual or potential craving for a drink. Regular participation in AA meetings alleviates these states. This thesis construes the relationship between subjective experience and immediate social environment in terms of ‘experiential stakes of relevance’. This conceptual category can be used to characterise both the structural properties of the social environment and the key attributes of the subjective experience of agents within this environment. Listening to stories at AA meetings results for many alcoholics in a radical change in ‘experiential stakes of relevance’. It is argued that the process of spontaneous re-connection with one’s past experiences during AA meetings is akin to the process of mobilisation of embodied dispositions as theorised by Bourdieu. Transformation in AA takes place in the space of a mere one and a half hours and involves processes of intensification of experience. These are analysed in terms of Bourdieu’s notion of ‘illusio’ and Chion’s notion of ‘rendu’. The healing experiences of acceptance presuppose a social environment free of interpersonal conflict. This thesis argues that the need to structurally eliminate conflict between alcoholics has turned AA into a social field which is sustained by the very healing subjective experiences that it facilitates. In the process, AA has developed structural elements which can best be understood as mechanisms inverting the social logic of competitive fields. The fieldwork entailed a detailed ethnographic study of one particular group of Alcoholics Anonymous in Sydney’s Lower North Shore as well as familiarisation with the more general culture of AA in Sydney. Methods of investigation included participant observations at AA meetings and interviews with a number of sober alcoholics in AA.
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Holubowycz, Oksana T. "An Australian study of alcohol dependence in women : the significance of sex role identity, life event stress, social support, and other factors." Title page, contents and summary only, 1988. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09phh7585.pdf.
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Farringdon, Fiona. "Developing a post compulsory evidence-based alcohol education curriculum that is relevant to students and acceptable to teachers." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2000. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1394.
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The aim of this study was to develop a post compulsory, alcohol education curriculum that would be perceived as relevant by students and acceptable to teachers. The study had its conceptual basis in harm minimisation that has considerable justification in terms of what school-based alcohol education can realistically achieve. A harm minimisation approach is supported by parental attitudes, teachers, young people and government policy. To ensure the curriculum was developed in the Western Australian education context it has been linked to the Western Australian Curriculum Framework and adheres to the principles that underpin the framework. Furthermore, this study draws on the features from evaluated health, alcohol and other drug education programs that have the potential to produce some behaviour change. Accordingly, a major focus of the study was to involve young people in the development of the curriculum. To ensure that the curriculum was sensitive to the concerns of the students it sought to influence, twelve focus groups were conducted with year twelve Western Australian students. These focus groups provided invaluable information about young people's alcohol use experiences, alcohol-related harms that are of particular concern to young people, harm reduction strategies used by young people and educational approaches likely to be effective with young people. These insights were incorporated into the development of the curriculum, ensuring it has a basis in situations experienced by young people. Particular attention was also paid to the needs of teachers, involving current health education teachers and health professionals in the development of the content and teaching strategies In addition, teachers who pilot tested the curriculum were trained prior to implementation of the curriculum, The training, based on interactive modelling of activities, was designed to equip teachers with the knowledge, skills and confidence to teach the curriculum as written, and to document any variation so that fidelity of implementation could be assessed. The curriculum was piloted in three Perth high schools in fourth term of 1999. A triangulation of measures was adopted to assess the curriculum including teacher and student assessment and an evaluation workshop. The process evaluation data from both students and teachers indicated that the curriculum was faithfully implemented and consequently evaluated as relevant by the students who participated in the pilot and acceptable by the teachers who taught it. The apparent success of the curriculum in terms of relevance to students and acceptability to teachers appears to be due to the collaborative process used to develop the curriculum. This process may be replicated, adapted, or added to, by other researchers and educators wishing to develop health education curriculum materials that will be viewed as relevant by students and acceptable by teachers while incorporating an evidence-based approach.
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McDonald, Rodney, of Western Sydney Hawkesbury University, and Faculty of Social Inquiry. "Never trust a cop who doesn't drink : a critical study of the challenges and opportunities for reducing high levels of alcohol consumption within an occupational culture." THESIS_FSI_SEL_McDonald_R.xml, 2000. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/276.
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Police culture often valorises 'hard' drinking, and in NSW police label their heavy drinkers 'heroes'. It is queried if there is some relationship between occupational culture and drinking style.It is found that much of the current theorising about the origins and nature of problem drinking, such as psychological theorising about stress, is inadequate to explain and address the extraordinary level of high-risk drinking among police.This thesis explores alternative views such as critical and feminist perspectives on police culture, constructions of masculinity, and mechanisms of 'enabling', to discover whether these might prove more applicable and more productive. The research also explores the matter of whether a case can be made for taking alternative ideas and theories into account in designing intervention programmes for specific occupation contexts, and whether they raise any policy and practical implications for addressing problem drinking within the NSW Police Service.Master of Science (Hons)
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Wyndham, Diana Hardwick. "Striving for National Fitness: Eugenics in Australia 1910s to 1930s." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/402.
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Eugenics movements developed early this century in more than 20 countries, including Australia. However, for many years the vast literature on eugenics focused almost exclusively on the history of eugenics in Britain and America. While some aspects of eugenics in Australia are now being documented, the history of this movement largely remained to be written. Australians experienced both fears and hopes at the time of Federation in 1901. Some feared that the white population was declining and degenerating but they also hoped to create a new utopian society which would outstrip the achievements, and avoid the poverty and industrial unrest, of Britain and America. Some responded to these mixed emotions by combining notions of efficiency and progress with eugenic ideas about maximising the growth of a white population and filling the "empty spaces". It was hoped that by taking these actions Australia would avoid "racial suicide" or Asian invasion and would improve national fitness, thus avoiding "racial decay" and starting to create a "paradise of physical perfection". This thesis considers the impact of eugenics in Australia by examining three related propositions: 1. that from the 1910s to the 1930s, eugenic ideas in Australia were readily accepted because of concerns about declining birth rate; 2. that, while mainly derivative, Australian eugenics had several distinctive Australian qualities; 3. that eugenics has a legacy in many disciplines, particularly family planning and public health. This examination of Australian eugenics is primarily from the perspective of the people, publications and organisations which contributed to this movement in the first half of this century. In addition to a consideration of their achievements, reference is also made to the influence which eugenic ideas had in such diverse fields as education, immigration, law, literature, politics, psychology and science.
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Wyndham, Diana Hardwick. "Striving for National Fitness: Eugenics in Australia 1910s to 1930s." University of Sydney, History, 1996. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/402.
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Eugenics movements developed early this century in more than 20 countries, including Australia. However, for many years the vast literature on eugenics focused almost exclusively on the history of eugenics in Britain and America. While some aspects of eugenics in Australia are now being documented, the history of this movement largely remained to be written. Australians experienced both fears and hopes at the time of Federation in 1901. Some feared that the white population was declining and degenerating but they also hoped to create a new utopian society which would outstrip the achievements, and avoid the poverty and industrial unrest, of Britain and America. Some responded to these mixed emotions by combining notions of efficiency and progress with eugenic ideas about maximising the growth of a white population and filling the "empty spaces". It was hoped that by taking these actions Australia would avoid "racial suicide" or Asian invasion and would improve national fitness, thus avoiding "racial decay" and starting to create a "paradise of physical perfection". This thesis considers the impact of eugenics in Australia by examining three related propositions: 1. that from the 1910s to the 1930s, eugenic ideas in Australia were readily accepted because of concerns about declining birth rate; 2. that, while mainly derivative, Australian eugenics had several distinctive Australian qualities; 3. that eugenics has a legacy in many disciplines, particularly family planning and public health. This examination of Australian eugenics is primarily from the perspective of the people, publications and organisations which contributed to this movement in the first half of this century. In addition to a consideration of their achievements, reference is also made to the influence which eugenic ideas had in such diverse fields as education, immigration, law, literature, politics, psychology and science.
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Porter, Mark Robert. "An analysis of treatment retention and attrition in an Australian therapeutic community for substance abuse treatment." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2013. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/568.
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Research undertaken in the last three decades has consistently reported that the length of time spent in inpatient and outpatient alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment programs predicts treatment success (De Leon, Melnick, Kressel, & Jainchill, 1994; Hubbard, Craddock, & Anderson, 2003; Simpson, Joe, Fletcher, Hubbard, & Anglin, 1999). However, treatment attrition rates are high and present a major problem for improving treatment outcomes. Various factors that have been reportedly associated with increased AOD treatment attrition rates include being female, younger clients, clients using methamphetamines, and clients with elevated psychopathology scores. The aim of this thesis is to improve understanding of various factors reported in the research literature to influence AOD treatment retention, including client psychopathology, age, gender and primary drug of abuse. The research was conducted in two phases. Phase one involved an analysis of archival data of clients admitted to a single Australian therapeutic community (TC) program over a 6-year period (2000-2005).The second stage involved a focus group comprised of nine Australian and New Zealand therapeutic community managers and senior clinicians who discussed the findings from the first phase of the study and provided feedback on these findings. The focus group also discussed barriers and solutions to incorporating these findings in TC treatment services. The results from the first phase indicated that elevated anxiety and depression scores at entry to treatment were strong predictors of client retention at 8 weeks, and retention at 14 weeks was predicted by high self-esteem scores at entry. Clients receiving medication (primarily anti-depressant medication) were more likely retained at 14 weeks. Older clients (24 – 29 years, and 30 – 50 years) were significantly more likely to drop out of treatment by the 14 week stage compared with the younger client group (17 – 24 years). The second stage revealed general agreement with the findings, provided support for the efficacy of TC treatment for clients with comorbid mental health problems, highlighted challenges and benefits of working with mental health services, and suggested other factors influencing treatment retention. The first stage findings contribute to the understanding of TC treatment retention factors with an Australian population, but do not support previous findings that female clients, younger clients, clients with elevated anxiety or depression scores, or clients with methamphetamine abuse problems are more likely to drop out of TC treatment. This study involved the collection of a large client database from a single TC over six years, including the longitudinal collection of client psychometric data at various stages throughout treatment. This study makes an important contribution to the understanding of various client factors and their respective influence on client retention and attrition within an Australian therapeutic community. The study has relevance for residential substance abuse treatment services in many countries, but has special relevance within Australia where few studies focusing on TC retention have been undertaken. There have been even less studies focusing on TC retention that have included longitudinal psychometric data collected from a client population primarily comprised of young methamphetamine-users.
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San, Roque Craig Mumford Sally. "Intoxication : 'facts about the black snake, songs about the cure' : an exploration in inter cultural communication through the Sugarman Project /." View thesis, 1998. http://library.uws.edu.au/adt-NUWS/public/adt-NUWS20031125.132446/index.html.
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Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Western Sydney, Hawkesbury, 1998.At foot of title: Its origins, development, rationale and implications with performance script, performance video, reviews, evaluation and potential as a therapeutic paradigm considered. "Offered in submission for a Doctorate of Philosophy in the School of Social Ecology, University of Western Sydney" Bibliography : leaves 268-275.
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Ash, Romy Alice. "Dead drunk /." Connect to thesis, 2008. http://repository.unimelb.edu.au/10187/4008.
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Field, John B. F. "A statistical study of the distribution of alcohol consumption and consequent inferential problems /." Title page, contents and summary only, 1985. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09phf454.pdf.
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Patel, Minaxi. "The potential for a novel alcoholic drink prepared from the New Zealand native plant Cordyline australis (ti kōuka)." AUT University, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10292/894.
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Some New Zealand indigenous plants may offer unique qualities that can be used to secure an exclusive niche in the alcoholic drinks market in the same way that Scotch whisky and tequila are strongly identified with the country of origin, Scotland and Mexico. Tequila is a spirit distilled from a fermented agave, dry adapted lily. Agave is in the family Agavaceae, a notable New Zealand member of which is the common cabbage tree or ti kōuka (Cordyline australis). Similarly, to the agave having a fermentable core, ti kōuka has carbohydrate (inulin) content in its young stems and roots that can be hydrolysed in acidic suspensions or by enzyme hydrolysis to yield fructose. The main objective of this thesis was to systematically research the feasibility of the production of a tequila-like spirit from ti kōuka stem, profiling the chemical properties of the spirit with a view of future commercial production of an iconic New Zealand spirit. The initial stage of the thesis focused on extracting inulin from the ti kōuka stem and hydrolysing (by both acid and enzyme) it to yield reducing sugar. The sugar concentration yielded was too low (~ 10 to 15%) to be fermented and distilled economically. Rather, the ti kōuka extract was evaporated to produce flavoured products by the Maillard reaction, a reaction between amino acids and sugars. The flavoured compounds were then infused with potable ethanol. In outline, the dried stem was hydrolysed with an inulinase at 60°C for 1 hour. The pH was adjusted to 10 with sodium hydroxide and evaporated at 60°C for 65 hours. The dried extract was reconstituted with water, centrifuged and the supernatant infused with portable ethanol to yield final different concentrations of 80, 67, 57 and 50%. The ethanol treatments simultaneously extracted flavour and colour to varying degrees. Next, sugars and amino acids were analysed in the ti kōuka stems by liquid chromatography. The most abundant sugar present in the ti kōuka after inulinase hydrolysis was fructose and the dominant amino acids were arginine, leucine, lysine, and aspartic acid/aspargine and glutamic acid/glutamine. Amino acids and reducing sugar were also analysed at different stages of the spirit production. The reducing sugar content decreased during each step of the process. The relative concentrations of arginine, leucine and lysine decreased while that of aspartic and glutamic acids increased during the whole process of making the spirit. Model systems were then used to simulate the reactions taking place between the amino acids and reducing sugar present in the ti kōuka extract. The colour of the models became darker as a function of time, accumulating more brown pigment containing the flavoured compounds. Increasing the pH and concentration of the amino acids in the reaction mixture also increased the browning pigment formation. Dichloromethane and n-pentane and diethyl ether solvent extraction of the spirits and analysis of volatiles by gas chromatography- mass spectrometry revealed that the chemical profiles of the spirits were different from those of the commercial spirits, gin, tequila and whisky. Sensory evaluation was performed on four variations of the spirit, and demonstrated that the creations were consumer-acceptable. The costs and other issues involved in producing and marketing such a spirit were identified, the major selling point being geographical exclusivity.
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Fogarty, James. "Wine investment, pricing and substitutes." University of Western Australia. School of Economics and Commerce, 2006. http://theses.library.uwa.edu.au/adt-WU2006.0048.
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[Truncated abstract] This thesis consists of six chapters, and the main research contributions are contained in chapters two through five inclusive. The topics addressed in each chapter are distinct, but related, and the specific contributions to knowledge made by the different chapters are related to: (i) understanding more fully the nature of the demand for alcohol; (ii) explaining the relationship between reputation characteristics and consumers’ willingness to pay for wine; (iii) estimating the rate of return to Australian wine; and (iv) using financial analysis to reveal the risk diversification benefits available by including wine in an investment portfolio. The details of each contribution are briefly outlined below. Chapter 2 discusses the nature of the demand for alcohol. The demand for alcoholic beverages is an area much studied, and there are numerous studies estimating the own-price elasticity of alcoholic beverages. A review of relevant published studies indicates reported: beer own-price elasticity estimates range from -.02 to -3.00, with a mean estimate value of -.46, and standard deviation of -.41 (n = 139); wine own-price elasticity estimates range from -.05 to -3.00, with a mean estimate value of -.72, and standard deviation of .53 (n = 140); and spirits own-price elasticity estimates range from -.01 to -2.18, with a mean estimate value of -.74, and standard deviation of .47 (n = 136). Chapter 2 contributes to understanding the demand for alcohol, not by adding yet another set of elasticity estimates to an already substantial literature, but by providing a framework through which all known own-price elasticity estimates can be understood. Specifically, a meta-regression framework is employed to study previously published own-price elasticity estimates. This framework allows the effect of model design attributes to be isolated, and the underlying trend in consumer responses to price changes to be identified.
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Alexander, Nevil. "The more we sell the happier we are: Comparison of responsible alcohol service in trained and untrained establishments in Perth." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2005. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1572.
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This research investigated whether training licensees and approved managers of Perth pubs and taverns resulted in more Responsible Alcohol Service (RAS). Specifically it investigated whether apparently intoxicated customers were refused service. Trained and untrained premises were compared using two methods. Quantitative data was gathered by observers posing as intoxicated customers (pseudo-drunks) while qualitative data was collected during interviews with management, staff, and patrons of trained and untrained premises. No significant difference in the service of alcohol to intoxicated patrons in trained or untrained premises was found. The interviews revealed no distinction between the attitudes and beliefs of management, staff, or patrons of trained or untrained outlets. A majority of management and staff was aware of laws prohibiting service of alcohol to intoxicated people but acknowledged that in many instances intoxicated customers continue to be served. A number of reasons or excuses were proffered. One frequently cited excuse was "if we don't serve drunks someone else will, so why shouldn't we profit from them?" Communities incur considerable costs in both financial and social contexts from the harms associated with excessive alcohol consumption. One means of reducing the severity and frequency of these harms is to limit the consumption of individuals during drinking sessions. Licensed premises have been identified as having a significant role to play in achieving this outcome. The director of liquor licensing in Western Australia has mandated Responsible Alcohol Service training for licensees and approved managers. This research studied the efficacy of the training. While the importance of enlisting the help of management in attempts to introduce RAS programmes has been identified in previous research, this is the first time the efficacy of training management alone has been studied. This paper contributes to the body of knowledge of what works in a practical sense by identifying perceived shortcomings of the current training programs and suggesting remedies to those shortcomings. It makes recommendations for future research which will contribute to a deeper understanding of the problem.
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Allen, Matthew Richard. "The temperance shift : drunkenness, responsibility and the regulation of alcohol in NSW, 1788-1856." Phd thesis, Department of History, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/9521.
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Holubowycz, Oksana T. "An Australian study of alcohol dependence in women : the significance of sex role identity, life event stress, social support, and other factors / Oksana Tamara Holubowycz." Thesis, 1988. http://hdl.handle.net/2440/18622.
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Lovett, Raymond William. "Mob and country : a role for identity in alcohol screening for Indigenous Australians living in the ACT and region." Phd thesis, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/150701.
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Risky alcohol consumption is responsible for seven per cent of all Indigenous deaths in Australia and is a precursor to many diseases. Despite high rates of risky consumption, screening is not routine practice in primary health care and the validity of screening instruments (other than the Indigenous Risk Impact Screen) have not been performed for Indigenous peoples. Enquiring about risky alcohol use can cause discomfort for health practitioners and clients. One way of overcoming this is to create an environment free from a number of social contexts. My first aim was to assess the reliability and validity of commonly used alcohol screening instruments. This then provided an opportunity to assess the level of risky alcohol use in the study population, my second aim. My third aim was to assess whether a culturally mediated alcohol screen could improve reporting of risky alcohol consumption. It involved starting the interview with questions about the participant's 'mob and country'. My fourth aim was to determine whether the socio-cultural factors or acculturation stress reflected determinants of drinking for the study population. My final aim was to examine facilitators and moderators of risky drinking. I conducted a computer-assisted cross-sectional survey of Indigenous people (n=121) in the primary survey and 45 participants completed a re-test survey (for test re-test reliability). The surveys were conducted among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) region from July 2010 to August 2011. Participants were randomised into a 'mob-ask' screening group (n=53) and a 'screening as usual' group (n=69). Five alcohol screening instruments were administered. A modified Vancouver Index of Acculturation (VIA) were used to examine how Indigenous people viewed their participation in heritage and dominant society cultures, the Drinking Motives Questionnaire (DMQ) to examine motives for drinking and the Kessler 10 (K10) to examine psychological distress. All alcohol screening instruments were reliable, but shorter screening instruments were as reliable and valid as existing instruments. Half the participants were drinking above recommended guideline limits and the mean age of initiation to alcohol was 14 years, 13 years for males and 15 years for females. Being male, living in a dependent household situation and being excluded from education were associated with risk-taking behaviour and risky alcohol consumption. Alcohol screening instrument mean scores were higher in the 'mob-ask' screen group compared to the control group. Participants were highly integrated (had a positive association with both heritage and dominant society culture) and, as anticipated, socio-cultural factors, rather than acculturation stress, predicted risky alcohol use. Health gains achieved through reducing consumption and drinking in specific situations (particularly around children and family members) moderated drinking. Family members were also identified by participants as facilitators to drinking and risk-taking behaviour. Screening approaches for risky drinking do not require major modification but do need to be focused on younger people (from 13 years) and screening needs to be routine.
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Vogl, Laura Public Health & Community Medicine Faculty of Medicine UNSW. "Climate schools: alcohol module - the feasibility and efficacy of a universal school-based computerised prevention program for alcohol misuse and related harms." 2007. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/40510.
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Effective school-based alcohol prevention programs do exist. However, the overall efficacy of these programs has been compromised by implementation failure and a focus on abstinence based outcomes. The current thesis attempted to overcome such concerns by developing a computer-delivered school-based alcohol prevention program founded on a harm-minimisation approach. The aims of this thesis were to assess whether (1) this program would be both a feasible and acceptable means of overcoming the obstacles encountered in the implementation of school-based drug prevention programs, and (2) it was effective in decreasing alcohol misuse and related harm. CLIMATE Schools: Alcohol Module was developed in collaboration with teachers, students and relevant health and legal professionals. The final curriculum based program consists of six lessons, each with two components. The first component involves students completing an interactive computer-based program, with the second consisting of a variety of individual, small group and class-based activities. The feasibility and efficacy of CLIMATE Schools: Alcohol Module was assessed utilising a cluster randomised controlled trial involving 1434, Year 8 students (13 years old) from sixteen schools. CLIMATE Schools: Alcohol Module was found to be both feasible and acceptable in the school setting. The provision of alcohol prevention information in the background of a computerised teenage drama provided young people with an education program they enjoyed in a context to which they could relate. Teachers reported a willingness to implement CLIMATE Schools: Alcohol Module in routine practice. They believed it to be a high quality program which was superior to other drug education programs. CLIMATE Schools: Alcohol Module led to significant increases in knowledge of harm minimisation skills and subdued alcohol related expectancies. It was effective in reducing alcohol use, misuse and related harms for females, but not for males. The differential effects of gender are extensively discussed and implications for future research considered. CLIMATE Schools: Alcohol Module was clearly both feasible and acceptable and has the potential to offer an innovative new platform for the delivery of prevention programs in schools.
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Field, John Benjamin Francis. "A statistical study of the distribution of alcohol consumption and consequent inferential problems / by John B.F. Field." Thesis, 1985. http://hdl.handle.net/2440/20398.
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Ash, R. A. "Dead drunk." 2009. http://repository.unimelb.edu.au/10187/4008.
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My concern in Dead Drunk is not simply the subject matter of death, it is rather with the representation of drunks in the form of fictional phantoms in The Glass Canoe and Bliss as rendering the death drive visible. Close scrutiny of the representation of the drunk in Australian fiction, as discussed in relation to The Glass Canoe, and Bliss reveals a ‘constant recurrence of the same thing’ rendered uncannily visible. On inspection, what becomes visible is recurring deaths and subsequent resurrections. For the ghostly Australian drunk there is always the possibility of resurrection, but that resurrection is usually in the form of another drink. A drink promises resurrection, but instead delivers a return or recurrence of the drunken, ghostly state.The presence of drinking and drunks in Australian fiction can be described as a haunting, the ghostly drunks as repetition of an anachronistic past. It is the repetition of the representations of drunks as ghostly presences in Australian fiction that is telling. Utilising Sigmund Freud’s theories developed in ‘The Uncanny’ (1919) and Beyond the Pleasure Principle (1920), I propose that if the uncanny is an encounter with one’s origins and the death drive is a backward looking return to origins; the drunks are a past that is repeatedly encountered in an uncanny moment. Utilising the modalities of the uncanny in regards to The Glass Canoe reveals the guises of the drunken ghosts. Making reference to an Australian colonial past, founded on intoxicant use and abuse the dissertation suggests alcoholism as a white man’s dreaming. A discussion of Bliss links the uncanny ghosts to a registration or surfacing of the death drive. In conclusion I suggest the psychoanalytic concept of sublimation as both an explanation for and a release from the symptomatic repetition.
Floundering, the creative work, is an extract from a novel in progress. The section presented is the opening to the novel. The narrative unfolds during one day, New Year’s Eve, and involves the interactions between the two brothers Jordy and Tom, and Old Fat. Loretta, the boys’ absent mother, haunts the novel and drives the narrative. Although the creative work does not explicitly depict dead drunks as discussed in the dissertation, the theory has by necessity permeated the creative, and the creative permeated the theory, forming a chiasma – a crossing over between strands of thought.