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VicHealth Alcohol Strategy 2019–2023

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VicHealth’s Action Agenda 2019–2023 reaffirms the 10-year goal of 200,000 more Victorians drinking less alcohol by 2023.

Download the VicHealth Alcohol Strategy 2019–2023 (PDF, 142 KB)

Download a Plain English version of this document (DOCX, 124 KB)

 

Since 2013, VicHealth has worked with our partners in state and local government, universities and community and sporting groups to highlight the harms of alcohol, the benefits of drinking less and the evidence for why and how.

Over the next four years we will aim to prevent harm from alcohol products with a focus on:

  • changing risky drinking cultures
  • enabling environments to support low-risk drinking

 

Focus areas

Changing risky drinking cultures

Building on our innovative work in developing the Alcohol Cultures Framework, we will continue to support programs that reduce or prevent high-risk drinking cultures. We know that the shared practices of a social group, rather than individuals, have the greatest scope to bring about cultural change (VicHealth et al. 2019).

To change high-risk drinking cultures, we will:

  • shift the focus from the behaviour of individuals to the shared activities and practices of a group or social world
  • integrate learnings from the first Alcohol Culture Change pilot projects and apply them to support organisations and local communities to design interventions for high-risk
    drinking social worlds
  • build further evidence on applying our Alcohol Cultures Framework to scale, and embed this approach in preventing harm from alcohol.

What will success look like?
Positive changes in the settings, skills and shared meanings across the high-risk drinking social worlds in which we work.

 

Enabling environments to support low-risk drinking

The most effective policy measures for reducing alcohol harm across the population are those that reduce the affordability, promotion and availability of alcohol products (Babor et al. 2004).

Given there is strong concern in the community about the harm caused by alcohol products, it is crucial to harness this concern to help drive whole-of-population action on alcohol (FARE 2019). Better health and wellbeing requires influencing systems to improve physical and social environments. In Victoria, local government plays a key role in identifying the scope of the problem and developing solutions to reduce alcohol-fuelled harm.

To support communities to reduce harm from alcohol products and strengthen policy action directed at the alcohol industry, we will:

  • provide councils with tools and evidence to add value and support their efforts to reduce alcohol-fuelled harm at the local level
  • provide legal policy capacity to the alcohol harm-prevention sectorleverage existing partnerships and forums, including the Alcohol Policy Coalition,the Local Government Gambling, Alcohol and Other Drugs Issues Forum and the Liquor Control Advisory Council to influence the policy and practice of organisations and government
  • engage the public and stakeholders to harness community support for better regulation of alcohol marketing and sales, building on learnings from our Top Spin community engagement initiative and other programs
  • consult with our advisory body, the VicHealth Alcohol Taskforce, and other stakeholders to identify priority research required to inform our future strategies and deliver this with research partners.

What will success look like?
More public debate around alcohol reform, and governments at all levels implementing evidence-based reform.


Other resources

References: Download the VicHealth Alcohol Strategy 2019–2023 PDF for a full list of references


Artwork by Dexx (Gunditjmara/Boon Wurrung) ‘Mobs Coming Together’ 2022
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VicHealth acknowledges the support of the Victorian Government.

Artwork Credit: Dexx (Gunditjmara/Boon Wurrung) ‘Mobs Coming Together’ 2022, acrylic on canvas. Learn more about this artwork.