Winter 2008

 

Alcohol and the Conference Season

The months of September, October, and November generally present themselves as the most opportune time to attend a conference in the public health, health promotion and protection fields in Ontario.

OPHA Conference

During these months various organizations hosted events that varied in length and application. The Ontario Public Health Association's conference focused on the upcoming implementation of the new Ontario Public Health Standards and the ability to plan for, assess, survey, and evaluate our healthy communities.

At this conference, Shawna Scale of the Ontario Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance presented on: "High-risk drinking, unhealthy eating, physical inactivity & tobacco use: Learning about generic policy opportunities & challenges across risk factors". Ms. Scale summarized her presentation with a message of "applying the common learning from single and multiple-risk factor approaches to chronic disease can inform public policy and prevention practice".

The Alcohol Policy Network's Ben Rempel presented on: Alcohol Policy Forums: provincial to local action, which highlighted the learnings and outcomes from the 5 annual Alcohol: No Ordinary Commodity Forums presented by the Alcohol Policy Network and partners.

Matt Evans of Ontario Students Against Impaired Driving (OSAID) presented on "How to get teens to listen and be engaged". Mr. Evans explored why similar groups have tried to engage teens in the past but have failed.

Reggie Caverson of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and Susan Shepherd of Toronto Public Health (TPH) came to the Niagara Health Summit to examine key elements to a successful alcohol/drug policy and identify challenges that may be faced from a public health perspective. Their topic was titled "Advocating, developing and implementing alcohol and other drug policies:  What have we learned in Ontario".

FOCUS Forum

During the month of November, the Windsor FOCUS site had a half-day forum on alcohol education titled "Straight Up — Alcohol and Health Culture Counts: Best Practices in Ethnoracial/ Ethnocultural Communities". One of the speakers, Marianne Kobus-Matthews from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), presented on a topic familiar to APN teleconference attendees: The Culture Counts Program. You can also visit our Culture Counts Teleconference web page for background materials.

Alcohol and Violence in the Entertainment District

On November 18th, various Toronto community and business stakeholders were invited to attend a forum on Alcohol, Violence and the Entertainment district. The day was sponsored by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, the City of Toronto, the Toronto Police Service, the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO), the Toronto Entertainment District, and Montana Restaurant and Bar.

Adam Vaughan, City Councilor for Trinity-Spadina, Ward 20, gave opening remarks to the more than 50 people in attendance, where he briefly reviewed the geography of the entertainment district [PDF] and the challenges that welcomed the various stakeholders.

Those stakeholders included public health professionals, enforcement personnel, researchers, bar owners and managers, concerned citizens, and politicians. The morning theme included three panels: the first panel reviewed the nightlife issues; the second and third panel discussed the causal factors, and nature of the problem, respectively.

In the afternoon the topic moved to prevention where various professionals discussed strategies and approaches that may prove successful to such a challenging situation. These approaches included a presentation by Jeff Gauthier on the Safer Bars program. Brian O’Halloran presented on behalf of the AGCO on Risk Based Licensing, a new move toward safer and more responsible sales of alcohol in Ontario. Susan Shepherd presented on the Toronto Drug Strategy [PPS] and the importance of having a municipal alcohol strategy.

The last panel of the day included a presentation by CAMH researcher Dr. Kathryn Graham. Dr. Graham's presentation outlined her newly published book, Raising the Bar: Preventing aggression in and around bars, pubs and clubs.

The CAMH forum on Alcohol and Violence in Toronto’s entertainment district proved to be a successful event. The inclusion of all relevant stakeholders in one venue showcased the different perspectives people bring to the discussion. The challenge now includes how to measure success going forward and what will become of the clubs that took part in the day’s discussions. To gain more insight into the day please refer to the Toronto Star’s coverage.

Injury Prevention Conference

On the same day as the Alcohol and Violence forum, the Ontario Injury Prevention Conference welcomed Dr. Robert Mann from CAMH and Anne Leonard from the Ontario Community Council on Impaired Driving (OCCID). The two guests discussed how "Building the Right Environment for Legislative Change and Public Awareness" can affect policy and social change.

OCCID Conference

Earlier in the month, Anne Leonard facilitated OCCID’s 17th conference entitled “New Approaches; New Era” — OCCID’s day long conference concentrated on the changing impaired driving laws, with concurrent sessions in the afternoon discussing:

• off-road impaired driving;
• golf course liability;
• Safe Grad programs
• the IMPACT program
• Operation Lookout
• iDRIVE: road stories
• Smart Serve
• Safer Bars program

For more information on Alcohol and Other Drugs / Injury Prevention events please feel free to visit the our Upcoming Events calendar. If you have a local or national conference, public awareness campaign, or special event related to substance misuse prevention, injury prevention, and public health, we encourage you to add your information to the events calendar and to post it to our listserv to share widely with your colleagues.

Alcohol and Injury

According to the Ontario Injury Prevention Resource Centre's (OIPRC) 2008 publication, Alcohol Related Injury, the approximate cost of injuries associated with alcohol per year is $440 million. The majority of these costs come from three areas where alcohol and injury are potentially fatal: motor vehicle crashes, falls, and interpersonal violence. Collectively the abovementioned variables cost the Province approximately $325 million of the $440 million total.

The OIPRC has included recommendations for Public Health and other stakeholders which they believe can reduce the costs of these injuries.

By putting alcohol priorities on the agenda they believe there would definitely be a more concerted effort made by the provinces and the federal government. In fact, the OIPRC believes that if Public Health advocated for alcohol policies that impact on population health in the early stages of policy development, Public Health would find a way to get to the table and have their voice heard.

As an example of this recommendation in action, various stakeholders in the Toronto area were invited to a forum, Raising the Bar: Toronto Summit on Nightlife, Drinking and Violence, where there were presentations from various players in what is a very hot topic in Toronto. For an overview of those days events please read the hyperlinked article above.

Such changes in thinking are not only occurring in Toronto. Queen's University recently put their Homecoming celebrations on hiatus for the next few years since violence has increased and as violence has increased so have policing costs and emergency room spending.

For more information on violence prevention resources, please visit the OPHA Violence Prevention Initiatives database.

The Alcohol Policy Network wishes you a Safe and Happy Holiday Season